Interpretation and the Constraints on International Courts

This paper argues that methodologies of interpretation do not do what they promise – they do not constrain interpretation by providing neutral steps that one can follow in finding out a meaning of a text – but nevertheless do their constraining work by being part of what can be described as the legal practice

Rights Litigation Piggybacking: Legal Mobilization Strategies in LGBTIQ International Human Rights Jurisprudence

This Article examines the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex,and Queer (LGBTIQ) movement’s engagement with international humanrights adjudication from the perspective of its borrowing from orpiggybacking on the strategies and tactics of other international socialmovements for historically disadvantaged groups, particularly race,gender, and indigenous people. Piggybacking has shaped the rights goalsof the LGBTIQ movement, which are then translated into the languageof international human rights law. In this translation process, certainobjectives get foregrounded at the expense of others, and the movementessentializes itself in the pursuit of strategic gains, often to lastingunintended consequences that harm the movement itself. In mappingthese trends, this Article argues that social movement advocates woulddo well to be more mindful of the piggybacking’s strategic costs,particularly as new international rights-oriented social movementsemerge in areas like disability rights and the rights of older persons

Confederate Monuments and International Law

This article engages with the controversy around the removal of Confederate Monuments in theUS, from the perspective of international law. While the issue is prima facie domestic, international lawoffers a laboratory to consider the multiple tensions a step removed from their current charged andemotional environment. The article argues that, for the most part, international law supports maintainingthe status quo with respect to the monuments, particularly through its preference for all-or-nothingresponses. However, read from the perspective of transitional justice, greater nuance and pragmatism isadded to the debate, leading to more constructive responses that can actually live up to internationallaw's promises with respect to the fields affected by the Confederate Monuments controversy

A third way of thinking about cultural property

The article argues that the dichotomy between nationalism and internationalism with respect to cultural property, while formative, has outlived its utility, and in many respects compromised the viability of the public good it aims to safeguard. Focused on the example of cultural property in international law, this article argues for more community-centric forms of governance, beyond the interests of states and an undefined “international.” It extrapolates the lessons from cultural property to other forms of resource governance in international law