Justice in Times of Transition: A Reflection on Transitional Justice

Transitional Justice as a motif, a discourse and a practice continues to entice analysis from scholars, practitioners and policy makers. It is a field that has rapidly expanded, and that has both the fortune and disadvantage of being termed an industry. The growth of transitional justice is both an opportunity and a warning, as the challenges raised by massive human rights violations and transitions from violence to peace or from repressive regimes to more liberal ones continue to preoccupy scholars and practitioners. Each new country specific context facilitates revisiting old trade-offs and concepts revealing new elements to transitional dilemmas

Trusting the courts in times of internal strife

Situations of emergency and crisis pose significant challenges to all branches of government, none more so than the courts. Courts in democratic states face unique tribulations, though there is increasing recognition that even in authoritarian contexts courts can continue to play an important part in challenging and channelling a state’s recourse to crisis powers. This analysis will focus primarily on the courts’ role in democratic states, with emphasis on the role of courts during violent internal crises

Anything Can Happen: Interpreting the \u27End\u27 of War

Reviewing Thomas U. Berger, War Guilt, and World Politics After World War II (2012), Larry May, After War Ends: A Philosophical Perspective (2012), and Kimberly Theidon, Intimate Enemies: Violence and Reconciliation in Peru (2012)

State Responsibility for Human Rights Violations Perpetrated in the Name of International Counter-Terrorism Financing Obligations

This Essay responds to the increasing adoption by States across continents of repressive, over-reaching laws, regulations, and policies aimed at countering the financing of terrorism. It documents the immense international pressure to adopt counter-terrorism financing measures, coupled with the seeming marginalization of concurrent international human rights law obligations. The Essay first sets out the applicable legal framework and rapid normative developments in international counter-terrorism financing law. Second, the Essay provides a snapshot of existing allegations of human rights violations committed in the name of international counter-terrorism financing obligations, including judicial harassment and undue surveillance of human rights defenders and civil society organization dissolutions. The Essay concludes by proposing several viable avenues for holding States responsible for such abuses, including before international human rights mechanisms, the, International Court of justice, arbitral tribunals, and national courts

Hamdan and Common Article 3: Did the Supreme Court Get It Right?

Following the atrocities of September 11, 2001, the United States has activated a highly focused and high profile set of legal, political, and military responses to perceived threats to its security at home and abroad. Legal responses to the \u27war on terror\u27 have been extensive and central to this undertaking. It is a well-known truism that courts (both national and international) tend to give considerable deference to states when political or military crises are at hand. Courts usually seek to avoid direct legal confrontation with states, and if required to adjudicate on the validity of legal responses to a perceived threat, demonstrate timidity and caution. The Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision departs significantly from that general pattern

Political Violence and Gender in Times of Transition

At the heart of transitional justice discourse is an ongoing conversation about accountability for human rights violations that occur in a context of regime repression or violent conflict. That accountability dialogue has generally been preoccupied with attempts to define the forms of political violence that should be addressed by various formal and informal mechanisms, such as trials and other truth-seeking processes. This Article will examine the multiple ways in which transitional justice processes have conceptualized political violence, and how that maps onto a gendered understanding of violence experiences and accountability mechanisms in a transitional context

Women, Security, and the Patriarchy of Internationalized Transitional Justice

In the contemporary global context, transition from conflict to peace and from authoritarian to democratic governance is a critical preoccupation of many states, particularly the United States. In these contexts, accountability for the abuses committed by prior regimes has been a priority for international institutions, states and new governments. Equally, transitional justice goals have expanded to include fashioning new domestic political and legal institutions and a broad range of structural reform in multiple spheres. Whether an expanded or contracted transitional justice paradigm is used to define the perimeters of change, gender concerns have been markedly absent across political contexts and jurisdictions experiencing change. This article examines the legal provision and conceptualisation for gender security and accountability in times of transition. The article takes a close look at a range of contemporary issues that arise for women in these contexts including, an examination of post-conflict security from a gender perspective, gender and disarmament, gender and restorative justice processes in transitional societies, and the centrality and effect of security sector reform for women. The article pays particular attention to the under-theorized and under-researched role of international masculinities, and the patriarchy that is imported with international oversight of transitional societies