- Department of Law,
National University of Ireland, Maynooth,
Co. Kildare,
Ireland.
John Reynolds
National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Law, Faculty Member
- University of Galway, Irish Centre for Human Rights, Department Memberadd
- TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, International Law, International Humanitarian Law, Socio-Legal Studies (Law), European and International Law, Middle East Studies, and 63 morePolitical Violence and Terrorism, Global governance (Law), Marxism, Post-Colonialism, Comparative Human Rights Law, International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, Critical Race Theory, History of International Legal Thought, Revolutions, Law and Society, Legal Theory, Critical Theory, Political Economy, New Approaches to International Law, History of Human Rights, Public International Law, Human Rights Law, Human Rights, European Convention of Human Rights, Critical Legal Studies, Critical Legal Studies and Empire, Critical Thinking, European Court of Human Rights, African Regional Human Rights, Inter-American Human Rights System, State of exception, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Humanitarian Intervention, Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law, Israel/Palestine, Palestine, International Criminal Court, Security Council, War Crimes, International Criminal Justice, Social Justice, Constitutional Law, Philosophy Of Law, History of International Law, Apartheid, Israel and Zionism, Hannah Arendt, Socio Economic Rights, Adjudication Of Socio Economic Rights, Economic , Social and Cultural Rights, Antonio Gramsci, Colonialism, Imperialism, Empire, Social Movements, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Law and Development, The law of belligerent occupation, States of Emergency, State of Emergency, Middle East Politics, Arab Spring (Arab Revolts), 'Third Cinema' Theory and Third World Radical Films, Orientalism, Postcolonial Studies, and Bandung Conferenceedit
- Dr. John Reynolds is Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. John joined the Scho... moreDr. John Reynolds is Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. John joined the School of Law in Maynooth in 2014. Prior to this he taught at the European Inter-University Centre in Venice, and the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, where he held the NUI EJ Phelan Fellowship in International Law. John holds PhD and LLM degrees in international law from NUI Galway.
John's research focuses on questions of international law in relation to colonialism, emergency, race and political economy. His work is informed by and engages with the insights of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL). John's book on 'Empire, Emergency and International Law' (Cambridge University Press, 2017) was awarded the Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship. His scholarship appears in journals such as the European Journal of International Law, Third World Quarterly, the Journal of International Criminal Justice, the Journal of Conflict & Security Law, the UCLA Law Review, the American Journal of International Law, the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law, and the Palestine Yearbook of International Law. He is a founding editor of the Third World Approaches to International Law Review journal and website. John's writing also appears in a range of other popular publications including Tribune, Jacobin, Monthly Review, Counterpunch, Africa is a Country, Jadaliyya, Critical Legal Thinking, Dublin Review of Books, the Phoenix, and the Irish Times.
John is Programme Director of Maynooth's LL.M in Global Legal Studies. He teaches modules on public international law, world trade law, racism & law, and economic, social & cultural rights on the Department of Law’s LL.M and LL.B programmes. John's completed and current Ph.D research students span projects in fields of international law and legal theory including civil war and peace agreements, the politics and prevention of genocide, European migration and border policies, and engagement with law and human rights by radical left social movements. He is happy to receive Ph.D proposals in areas of international law, imperialism, race, rights, and related fields.
Beyond the university, John works with various social movements and civil society organisations. He was appointed to Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs Civil Society Standing Committee on Human Rights in 2015.edit
A compilation of writings on Palestine from anti-colonial legal and intellectual perspectives. The collection includes essays, academic articles, interviews, personal reflections and solidarity statements, written mostly by Palestinian... more
A compilation of writings on Palestine from anti-colonial legal and intellectual perspectives. The collection includes essays, academic articles, interviews, personal reflections and solidarity statements, written mostly by Palestinian authors and published by the Third World Approaches to International Law Review journal and website.
Research Interests:
*Winner of the 2017 IALT Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship* What does it mean to say we live in a permanent state of emergency? What are the juridical, political and social underpinnings of that framing? Has... more
*Winner of the 2017 IALT Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship*
What does it mean to say we live in a permanent state of emergency? What are the juridical, political and social underpinnings of that framing? Has international law played a role in producing or challenging the paradigm of normalised emergency? How should we understand the relationship between imperialism, race and emergency legal regimes? In addressing such questions, this book situates emergency doctrine in historical context. The book has three main aims, broadly mirrored by the three parts into which it is structured. First, it seeks to illustrate some of the particular colonial lineages that have helped shape the concept of the state of emergency, and to emphasise that contemporary formations of emergency governance are often better understood not as new or exceptional, but as part of an ongoing historical constellation of emergency politics. Second, it demonstrates the direct influence of colonial legal traditions on the normative content of contemporary international law in relation to emergency doctrine and human rights derogation provisions. Third, it appraises the continuing legacy of these colonial legal traditions through contemporary settler colonial contexts where emergency powers are deployed in a racialised fashion. With such emergency interventionism facilitated by international law’s doctrine, and unsanctioned by its institutions, we are forced to reckon with fundamental questions about the nature of law and its relation to physical and structural violence.
What does it mean to say we live in a permanent state of emergency? What are the juridical, political and social underpinnings of that framing? Has international law played a role in producing or challenging the paradigm of normalised emergency? How should we understand the relationship between imperialism, race and emergency legal regimes? In addressing such questions, this book situates emergency doctrine in historical context. The book has three main aims, broadly mirrored by the three parts into which it is structured. First, it seeks to illustrate some of the particular colonial lineages that have helped shape the concept of the state of emergency, and to emphasise that contemporary formations of emergency governance are often better understood not as new or exceptional, but as part of an ongoing historical constellation of emergency politics. Second, it demonstrates the direct influence of colonial legal traditions on the normative content of contemporary international law in relation to emergency doctrine and human rights derogation provisions. Third, it appraises the continuing legacy of these colonial legal traditions through contemporary settler colonial contexts where emergency powers are deployed in a racialised fashion. With such emergency interventionism facilitated by international law’s doctrine, and unsanctioned by its institutions, we are forced to reckon with fundamental questions about the nature of law and its relation to physical and structural violence.
Research Interests:
*Winner of the 2017 IALT Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship* Paperback available for £20 with discount code JREYNOLDS2018 at... more
*Winner of the 2017 IALT Kevin Boyle Book Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship*
Paperback available for £20 with discount code JREYNOLDS2018 at https://www.cambridge.org/ie/academic/subjects/law/public-international-law/empire-emergency-and-international-law
Paperback available for £20 with discount code JREYNOLDS2018 at https://www.cambridge.org/ie/academic/subjects/law/public-international-law/empire-emergency-and-international-law
Research Interests:
This book addresses the themes of praxis and the role of international lawyers as intellectuals and political actors engaging with questions of justice for Third World peoples. The book brings together 12 contributions from a total of 15... more
This book addresses the themes of praxis and the role of international lawyers as intellectuals and political actors engaging with questions of justice for Third World peoples. The book brings together 12 contributions from a total of 15 scholars working in the TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) network or tradition. It includes chapters from some of the pioneering Third World jurists who have led this field since the time of decolonization, as well as prominent emerging scholars in the field. Broadly, the TWAIL orientation understands praxis as the relationship between what we say as scholars and what we do – as the inextricability of theory from lived experience. Understood in this way, praxis is central to TWAIL, as TWAIL scholars strive to reconcile international law's promise of justice with the proliferation of injustice in the world it purports to govern. Reconciliation occurs in the realm of praxis and TWAIL scholars engage in a variety of struggles, including those for greater self-awareness, disciplinary upheaval, and institutional resistance and transformation. The rich diversity of contributions in the book engage these themes and questions through the various prisms of international institutional engagement, world trade and investment law, critical comparative law, Palestine solidarity and decolonization, judicial education, revolutionary struggle against imperial sovereignty, Muslim Marxism, Third World intellectual traditions, Global South constitutionalism, and migration. The book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.
Contents
1. Foreword: Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)
Richard Falk
2. Introduction: TWAIL - on praxis and the intellectual
Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds, Amar Bhatia and Sujith Xavier
3. The Third World intellectual in praxis: confrontation, participation, or operation behind enemy lines?
Georges Abi-Saab
4. On fighting for global justice: the role of a Third World international lawyer
M. Sornarajah
5. Regulation of armed conflict: critical comparativism
Nesrine Badawi
6. Decolonisation, dignity and development aid: a judicial education experience in Palestine
Reem Bahdi and Mudar Kassis
7. The conjunctural in international law: the revolutionary struggle against semi-peripheral sovereignty in Iraq
Ali Hammoudi
8. Mir-Said Sultan-Galiev and the idea of Muslim Marxism: empire, Third World(s) and praxis
Vanja Hamzic
9. International lawyers in the aftermath of disasters: inheriting from Radhabinod Pal and Upendra Baxi
Adil Hasan Khan
10. The South of Western constitutionalism: a map ahead of a journey
Zoran Oklopcic
11. Disrupting civility: amateur intellectuals, international lawyers and TWAIL as praxis
John Reynolds
12. Migration, development and security within racialised global capitalism: refusing the balance game
Adrian A. Smith
Contents
1. Foreword: Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)
Richard Falk
2. Introduction: TWAIL - on praxis and the intellectual
Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds, Amar Bhatia and Sujith Xavier
3. The Third World intellectual in praxis: confrontation, participation, or operation behind enemy lines?
Georges Abi-Saab
4. On fighting for global justice: the role of a Third World international lawyer
M. Sornarajah
5. Regulation of armed conflict: critical comparativism
Nesrine Badawi
6. Decolonisation, dignity and development aid: a judicial education experience in Palestine
Reem Bahdi and Mudar Kassis
7. The conjunctural in international law: the revolutionary struggle against semi-peripheral sovereignty in Iraq
Ali Hammoudi
8. Mir-Said Sultan-Galiev and the idea of Muslim Marxism: empire, Third World(s) and praxis
Vanja Hamzic
9. International lawyers in the aftermath of disasters: inheriting from Radhabinod Pal and Upendra Baxi
Adil Hasan Khan
10. The South of Western constitutionalism: a map ahead of a journey
Zoran Oklopcic
11. Disrupting civility: amateur intellectuals, international lawyers and TWAIL as praxis
John Reynolds
12. Migration, development and security within racialised global capitalism: refusing the balance game
Adrian A. Smith
Research Interests:
"Beyond Occupation looks at three contentious terms that regularly arise in contemporary arguments about Israel's practices towards Palestinians in the occupied territories – occupation, colonialism and apartheid – and considers whether... more
"Beyond Occupation looks at three contentious terms that regularly arise in contemporary arguments about Israel's practices towards Palestinians in the occupied territories – occupation, colonialism and apartheid – and considers whether their meanings in international law truly apply to Israel's policies. This analysis is timely and urgent – colonialism and apartheid are serious breaches of human rights law and apartheid is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The contributors present conclusive evidence that Israel’s administration of the Palestinian territories is consistent with colonialism and apartheid, as these regimes are defined in human rights law. Their analysis further shows that these practices are deliberate Israeli state policies, imposed on the Palestinian civilian population under military occupation.
These findings raise serious implications for the legality and legitimacy of Israel's continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the responsibility of the entire international community to challenge practices considered contrary to fundamental values of the international legal order."
The contributors present conclusive evidence that Israel’s administration of the Palestinian territories is consistent with colonialism and apartheid, as these regimes are defined in human rights law. Their analysis further shows that these practices are deliberate Israeli state policies, imposed on the Palestinian civilian population under military occupation.
These findings raise serious implications for the legality and legitimacy of Israel's continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the responsibility of the entire international community to challenge practices considered contrary to fundamental values of the international legal order."
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Contribution to the London Review of International Law special collection, 'On international law and Gaza: critical reflections'
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As Israel’s assault on Gaza continues into its tenth month, the language of legality has become the dominant frame of popular and political discourse. Public interest in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its proceedings is at a... more
As Israel’s assault on Gaza continues into its tenth month, the language of legality has become the dominant frame of popular and political discourse. Public interest in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and its proceedings is at a level perhaps never seen before; so too in the International Criminal Court (ICC), its Prosecutor at once urged to act and condemned for inaction, his recent request to judges for the issuing of arrest warrants both celebrated and damned. International law has emerged as the global vernacular of both condemnation and legitimation; few commentators today speak of Gaza or Palestine without invoking the language of il/legality. What are we to make of this groundswell of interest in and resort to international law? What is the significance of the current series of ICJ proceedings and popular engagements with them? How should we think about the clamorous championing of The Hague and its institutions as the harbingers of justice? The editors of the London Review of International Law invited our advisory editors and others in the academic community of critical scholars to reflect on these questions.
Research Interests:
Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, Darryl Li, John Reynolds, Katherine Franke and Nahed Samour discuss the legacies of Edward Said in thinking about about the question of Palestine, and about academic life and work today. Part 1: The... more
Shahd Hammouri, Ardi Imseis, Darryl Li, John Reynolds, Katherine Franke and Nahed Samour discuss the legacies of Edward Said in thinking about about the question of Palestine, and about academic life and work today.
Part 1: The influence of Edward Said on our work
Part 2: The role of law in the Palestinian struggle
Part 3: Academic freedom, BDS and tactics
Convened by Usha Natarajan and published by the TWAIL Review.
Part 1: The influence of Edward Said on our work
Part 2: The role of law in the Palestinian struggle
Part 3: Academic freedom, BDS and tactics
Convened by Usha Natarajan and published by the TWAIL Review.
Research Interests:
The Zionist settler colonization of Palestine was, alongside apartheid in South Africa, one of the paradigmatic global issues that animated discussions among Global South anti-colonial scholars and leaders in the Bandung–Tricontinental... more
The Zionist settler colonization of Palestine was, alongside apartheid in South Africa, one of the paradigmatic global issues that animated discussions among Global South anti-colonial scholars and leaders in the Bandung–Tricontinental era of the 1950s–1970s. While processes of formal decolonization have since played out across most of the Global South—notwithstanding the inequalities and violence of the postcolonial state and the neocolonial order—Palestine remains a quintessential site of ongoing settler colonialism and apartheid. This roundtable brings together scholars of Palestine and international law in discussion about the place of Palestine in Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) scholarship. Among other queries, it asks: Where and how is Palestine present and absent in TWAIL scholarship? How has international law been complicit in histories and legacies of settler colonization? What role has the UN played in perpetuating the settler colonization of Palestine?
Research Interests:
In 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people-in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population-in public international law. The... more
In 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people-in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population-in public international law. The Palestine Mandate juridically erased the national status of the Palestinian people by: (1) framing the Arabs as incapable of self-rule; (2) heightening the significance of establishing a Jewish national home; and (3) distinguishing Palestine from the other Class A mandates for possessing religious significance that exceeded the interests of any single national group. A century later, the still-unresolved "question" of Palestine remains central to struggles for anti-racism and anti-colonialism in international law. This essay revisits two flashpoints in the tangled history of Palestine and international law, where questions of race and racism have been central: first, ongoing debates over the regime and crime of apartheid; and second, the now-repudiated UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, recognizing Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. Both stories demonstrate the importance of understanding race and colonialism as conjoined concepts, neither of which can be properly understood in isolation from the other.
Research Interests:
In 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people-in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population-in public international law. 1 The... more
In 1922, the League of Nations inscribed the goal of establishing a settler colony in Palestine for the Jewish people-in denial of the national self-determination of the Indigenous Arab population-in public international law. 1 The Palestine Mandate juridically erased the national status of the Palestinian people by: (1) framing the Arabs as incapable of self-rule; (2) heightening the significance of establishing a Jewish national home; and (3) distinguishing Palestine from the other Class A mandates for possessing religious significance that exceeded the interests of any single national group. A century later, the still-unresolved "question" of Palestine remains central to struggles for anti-racism and anti-colonialism in international law. This essay revisits two flashpoints in the tangled history of Palestine and international law, where questions of race and racism have been central: first, ongoing debates over the regime and crime of apartheid; and second, the now-repudiated UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, recognizing Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. Both stories demonstrate the importance of understanding race and colonialism as conjoined concepts, neither of which can be properly understood in isolation from the other.
Research Interests:
In this chapter I conceptualise and contextualise Israel's apartheid system as a core feature of settler-colonial rule in Palestine since the Naqba and – more recently – as an increasingly central focus of international legal analysis of... more
In this chapter I conceptualise and contextualise Israel's apartheid system as a core feature of settler-colonial rule in Palestine since the Naqba and – more recently – as an increasingly central focus of international legal analysis of the Palestinian reality. The chapter begins by situating Israeli apartheid within Zionism’s colonial project in Palestine, and by highlighting the longstanding Palestinian intellectual and activist traditions which have provided the foundations for now-widespread understandings of the apartheid nature of Israel’s regimes of oppression and exclusion of the Palestinians. I trace the vital role that Palestinian lawyers and rights organisations played from the 1980s in developing extensive legal analyses of Israeli apartheid, which western liberal human rights organisations have lately endorsed and elaborated. The chapter then fleshes out some of the key legal and material characteristics of Israel’s apartheid regime as not just a racially discriminatory regime but a colonial-apartheid regime. With that in mind I consider the tactical possibilities and pitfalls for movements seeking to mobilise international law to end apartheid, with reference to the definitions and prohibitions of apartheid that exist across a number of branches of international law.
Research Interests: International Law, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law, Israel/Palestine, Palestine, and 6 morePublic International Law, Apartheid, Palestinian Studies, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
Europe’s borders are racial borders. The European Union’s external border regime underpins continuing forms of European imperialism and neocolonialism. It reinforces a particular imaginary of Europeanness as whiteness, euphemistically... more
Europe’s borders are racial borders. The European Union’s external border regime underpins continuing forms of European imperialism and neocolonialism. It reinforces a particular imaginary of Europeanness as whiteness, euphemistically dressed up as a European Way of Life to be protected. It nonetheless sits comfortably within the permissible parameters of international law. This Article conceptualizes international law as a manifestation of liberal nationalist thought: “liberalism with borders,” and the sovereign right to exclude. Sovereignty in this sense is a racial sovereignty. The Article traces the mutual construction of race and sovereignty in colonial history, and the specific role played by emergency legal doctrine and states of emergency in constituting and executing racial sovereignty. It argues that international law’s framing of a state of emergency as a threat to the life of the nation strategically motivates exclusion based on race, laundered through the prism of nationality. In our early twenty-first century migration conjuncture, a perceived dilution of Europe’s whiteness has been presented as posing just such a threat to the life of individual and collective European nations. The conception of a migration “emergency” provides tactical scope for European states to further harden their border regimes at opportune moments. International law produces and permits this emergency paradigm, and is currently ill-equipped to confront or challenge the phenomena of border regimes and their racial contours. The Article concludes by sketching out some of the ways we can think against this violent reality by thinking with alternative perspectives within and beyond international law.
Research Interests: International Law, Race and Racism, Migration Law, Critical Legal Theory, Migration, and 15 moreCritical Race Theory, Race and Ethnicity, Public International Law, European Union, International Migration, Migration Studies, Empire, States of Emergency, Imperialism, Borders and Frontiers, State of exception, Neocolonialism, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, International Migration Law, and Global Migration
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Noura Erakat & John Reynolds reflect on Palestinian efforts to engage the International Criminal Court, in the context of Israeli settler-colonialism and both its spectacular and structural violence. Conscious of the limits of... more
Noura Erakat & John Reynolds reflect on Palestinian efforts to engage the International Criminal Court, in the context of Israeli settler-colonialism and both its spectacular and structural violence. Conscious of the limits of international criminal law, they think about Palestinian activist legal tactics – and the charge of the crime of apartheid in particular – in relation to political strategy.
Research Interests: International Law, Human Rights, Postcolonial Studies, International Criminal Law, Critical Legal Theory, and 12 moreInternational Human Rights Law, Israel/Palestine, International Criminal Court, Palestine, Public International Law, Apartheid, International Humanitarian Law, International Legal Theory, Critical Legal Studies, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law, and Marxism and International Law
Research Interests:
The European Union's external border regime is a manifestation of continuing imperialism. It reinforces particular imaginaries of Europe's wealth as somehow innate (rather than plundered and extorted) and of Europeanness itself as... more
The European Union's external border regime is a manifestation of continuing imperialism. It reinforces particular imaginaries of Europe's wealth as somehow innate (rather than plundered and extorted) and of Europeanness itself as whiteness—euphemistically packaged as a “European Way of Life” to be protected. This exposes international law's structural limitations—if not designs—as bound up with racial borders in the global context. In the wake of COVID-19 and with a climate apocalypse already underway, these realities need to be urgently ruptured and reimagined.
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Our purpose in creating the TWAIL Review is to provide a space for critical scholars, mainly from the global South and their allies oriented to the South, to participate in the project of international law, to produce knowledge creatively... more
Our purpose in creating the TWAIL Review is to provide a space for critical scholars, mainly from the global South and their allies oriented to the South, to participate in the project of international law, to produce knowledge creatively through interdisciplinarity, and to push our discipline towards becoming more just, more radical, and more responsive to the collective challenges we face.
Research Interests: Political Economy, Indigenous Studies, International Law, Global Governance, Critical Race Theory, and 15 moreColonialism, United Nations, Public International Law, Indigenous Knowledge, Post-Colonialism, International Environmental Law, Settler Colonial Studies, Decolonial Thought, Imperialism, Decolonization, Anti-Colonialism, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, Third World Feminisms, Postcolonial and Anticolonial Studies, and Third world Marxisms/Tricontinental Marxisms (Mao
The 2020 Irish general election result was widely characterised as both a ‘shock’ and as a victory for the left. These claims are true, but only partially so. The recent turn to the left was not a sudden development, but rather an... more
The 2020 Irish general election result was widely characterised as both a ‘shock’ and as a victory for the left. These claims are true, but only partially so. The recent turn to the left was not a sudden development, but rather an expression of how the Irish political landscape has slowly but fundamentally changed since the global financial crash. And while the electorate certainly appear more open to left-wing politics, the principal beneficiaries in terms of the popular vote (Sinn Féin) and access to power (Greens) were parties with only questionable left-wing credentials. Before the new government could even be formed, the advent of the global health pandemic transformed the political terrain once more, with the two traditionally dominant centre-right parties agreeing to share power for the first time. While the restoration of the political status quo has exposed the limitations of Sinn Féin's left-nationalism, we suggest that the socialist left has an opportunity to revive and expand, and should have an important role to play in the economic and social contestations that lie ahead under the latest iteration of neoliberal governmentality.
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Contestations over race and colonialism persist in academic discourse and institutions in the western Anglosphere. The stories of racialised scholars like Steven Salaita, Johnny Eric Williams and Tommy Curry show that when it comes to the... more
Contestations over race and colonialism persist in academic discourse and institutions in the western Anglosphere. The stories of racialised scholars like Steven Salaita, Johnny Eric Williams and Tommy Curry show that when it comes to the expression of anti-colonial and anti-racist positions, academic freedom remains vulnerable and conditional. At the same time, we have seen in recent years a resurgence of academic freedom arguments being deployed in the service of colonialism. Such arguments are of course not new, but have metastasised in a wider context involving the proliferation of a certain type of free speech advocacy that exudes quite particular right-wing forms and agendas. In this chapter I reflect on how academic freedom has operated in specific instances to defend work that distorts the legacy of historical colonialism and to insulate the status quo in spaces of ongoing colonisation.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The story of the Chagos archipelago is a familiar one in the history of international law. It is indicative of international law’s complicity in European oppression and dispossession of colonised peoples and places. Yet while much of the... more
The story of the Chagos archipelago is a familiar one in the history of international law. It is indicative of international law’s complicity in European oppression and dispossession of colonised peoples and places. Yet while much of the machinations of colonial rule were spannered – at least nominally in the form of sovereignty-as-independence – by the national liberation movements of the 20th century, the Chagos travesty persists into our 21st century colonial present. Britain’s refusal to let go of the small group of faraway islands serves as a contradictory symbol of both its self-deluding pretensions of empire on one hand, and its self-abasing servitude to United States imperialism on the other. It reminds us that colonialism is still very much with us, and that self-determination remains contingent. International law’s ode to sovereign equality and territorial integrity is as much about concealing its own colonial foundations as it is about delivering on a promise of liberation. This essay reflects on these themes in light of the 2019 International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the Chagos Archipelago, engaging with critical questions of international law as well as with the insights of Third World thinkers including Kwame Nkrumah, Amílcar Cabral and Eduardo Galeano.
Research Interests: International Law, Postcolonial Studies, Colonialism, United Nations, Public International Law, and 12 morePost-Colonialism, British Empire, International Courts And Tribunals, International Court of Justice, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Global South, Third World, Decolonization, Self Determination, Chagos, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, and U.S. military bases
Review essay reflecting on the collusion of law as the companion of force in the colonisation of land. The life of the law is embedded in the processes through which the settler state is created, and through which settler sovereignty is... more
Review essay reflecting on the collusion of law as the companion of force in the colonisation of land. The life of the law is embedded in the processes through which the settler state is created, and through which settler sovereignty is reified, maintained and stretched at the frontier.
Research Interests:
Bandung connotes a distinctly Afro-Asian moment in time and space; the advancement of a decidedly Third World movement. However, Archbishop Makarios’ participation at the conference, representing a Cyprus still under colonial rule,... more
Bandung connotes a distinctly Afro-Asian moment in time and space; the advancement of a decidedly Third World movement. However, Archbishop Makarios’ participation at the conference, representing a Cyprus still under colonial rule, conjured the possibilities of a fledgling Afro-Asian front forging anti-imperial alliances around Europe’s rough edges. Sixty years on, such possibilities now appear as little more than faded vignettes of a solidarity and internationalism that might have been. Animated by a sense of past opportunities lost, but alternative horizons perhaps again up for grabs in the context of expanded peripheralisation around an increasingly concentrated centre, this chapter reflects on the contemporary global order against the backdrop of the relationship between the world of Bandung and the European periphery.
Research Interests:
This article examines the relation between emergency legal doctrine and racial sovereignty in the context of Palestine. It theorises Israel's multifarious emergency modalities in a colonial present paradigm where traditional territorial... more
This article examines the relation between emergency legal doctrine and racial sovereignty in the context of Palestine. It theorises Israel's multifarious emergency modalities in a colonial present paradigm where traditional territorial colonisation is fused with modern security biopolitics. The Israeli juridical-security apparatus mimics European liberal legalism in presenting itself as generally accepting of human rights obligations, save in circumstances where particular illiberal measures are necessitated on security grounds. These measures, however, comprise a pervasive patchwork of emergency modalities that have penetrated all spheres of Palestinian political, economic and cultural life. The retention and application of the British Mandate-era Defence Emergency Regulations as well as the constitutional state of emergency have produced an emergency marked by longevity and racialisation. Furthermore, Israel has invoked the emergency derogation option under international treaties to claim the legality of measures such as mass internment without trial. I articulate these dynamics of legality, emergency and sovereignty in terms of "repressive inclusion": a racially contingent inclusion within – and repression by – the juridical order. This evokes the suffocating hold of racialised emergency legal structures. The consequences for lives and bodies have been severe; the alienation of land and fragmentation of territory have been acute.
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Editors' introduction to Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) special issue of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice (Vol. 33:3, 2016) - Conspiring in Cairo & Canada: Placing TWAIL Scholarship and Praxis
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Despite international criminal law’s historically contingent doctrines and embedded biases,Third World self-determination movements continue to be enticed by international criminal justice as a potentially emancipatory project. This... more
Despite international criminal law’s historically contingent doctrines and embedded biases,Third World self-determination movements continue to be enticed by international criminal justice as a potentially emancipatory project. This article seeks to peer inside the structural anatomy of the international criminal law enterprise from a vantage point oriented to the global South. It reflects broadly on discourses of international criminal law and its exponents as they relate to the global South, and explores one particularly contentious issue in the politics of international criminal law - that of operational selectivity. Redressing such selectivities as they arise from geopolitical biases is an important first step for any reconstruction of the field of international criminal justice. The article emphasizes, however, the need to also look beyond the problems of unequal enforcement, to reconceptualize the forms of violence criminalized at the design level.We ask whether, given certain colonial features, the premise and promise of international criminal justice can - for self-determination struggles or anti-imperial movements in the global South - be anything more than illusory. Drawing on the perspectives of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), the article concludes with some thoughts on what ‘TWAILing’ the field of international criminal justice might entail.
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Scholars working under the moniker of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) are well-placed to capturethe ambiguities and ambivalences of ‘tribunalized’ responses to various forms of atrocity. In this symposium, we consider... more
Scholars working under the moniker of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) are well-placed to capturethe ambiguities and ambivalences of ‘tribunalized’ responses to various forms of atrocity. In this symposium, we consider the field of international criminal justice as a particular site of contestation in TWAIL’s interaction with international law, and explore it as a surface over which broader debates of concern to TWAIL sensibilities (such as radicalism v. reform, hegemony v. universality, and international law’s double movements of emancipation and exclusion) play out. What does it mean to think about international criminal law’s norms, rules, institutions and procedures through the frames of the colonial past or imperial present? What biases, blind spots, political moves and rhetorical tropes emerge from the ways in which international criminal justice mechanisms navigate the racial and socio-economic cleavages that persist between North and South? Of particular concern for the authors in this symposium is the issue of whether and how TWAIL can enrich the practice of, and scholarship on, international criminal law. The question here is whether TWAIL can be more than simply reflexively critical, and whether it can identify possibilities and alternatives to that which it problematizes, and new avenues of exploration for scholars working outside of the TWAIL tradition.
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This paper is a reflection on the role of intellectuals in engaging with Palestinian solidarity movements and liberation discourses, and on the place of international lawyers specifically within that context. The paper considers 'the... more
This paper is a reflection on the role of intellectuals in engaging with Palestinian solidarity movements and liberation discourses, and on the place of international lawyers specifically within that context. The paper considers 'the question of Palestine' as a rigorous test for intellectuals in the Global North today, and examines particular debates over free speech, civility and balance that unfolded in the wake of Israel's 2014 war on Gaza. It considers the interventions of international lawyers in these debates with reference to Edward Said's 'amateur' and 'professional' intellectuals, and explores ways in which anti-colonial international lawyers (as amateur intellectuals) can transcend prevailing professional orthodoxies to deploy language, arguments or tactics that rupture liberal legal processes and narratives on Palestine.
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Third World Quarterly - Special Issue (2016) Vol. 37:11 Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds, Amar Bhatia & Sujith Xavier This Special Issue emerges from the Third... more
Third World Quarterly - Special Issue (2016) Vol. 37:11
Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual
Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds, Amar Bhatia & Sujith Xavier
This Special Issue emerges from the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Cairo Conference in 2015 and addresses the conference theme, ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’, by focusing on different aspects of the intellectual as a political actor. In introducing this Issue, we provide some background to the TWAIL network, movement, event, and publications; and delineate our own understandings of scholarly praxis as editors and conference organisers. Broadly, we understand praxis as the relationship between what we say as scholars and what we do – as the inextricability of theory from lived experience. Understood in this way, praxis is central to TWAIL, as TWAIL scholars strive to reconcile international law’s promise of justice with the proliferation of injustice in the world it purports to govern. Reconciliation occurs in the realm of praxis and TWAIL scholars engage in a variety of struggles, including those for greater self-awareness, disciplinary upheaval, and institutional resistance and transformation.
Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual
Usha Natarajan, John Reynolds, Amar Bhatia & Sujith Xavier
This Special Issue emerges from the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Cairo Conference in 2015 and addresses the conference theme, ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’, by focusing on different aspects of the intellectual as a political actor. In introducing this Issue, we provide some background to the TWAIL network, movement, event, and publications; and delineate our own understandings of scholarly praxis as editors and conference organisers. Broadly, we understand praxis as the relationship between what we say as scholars and what we do – as the inextricability of theory from lived experience. Understood in this way, praxis is central to TWAIL, as TWAIL scholars strive to reconcile international law’s promise of justice with the proliferation of injustice in the world it purports to govern. Reconciliation occurs in the realm of praxis and TWAIL scholars engage in a variety of struggles, including those for greater self-awareness, disciplinary upheaval, and institutional resistance and transformation.
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The tasks of this paper are (i) to explore the “alternative” public international law paradigms put forward by some as preferable to the “traditional” laws of occupation and armed conflict in understanding and challenging the situation in... more
The tasks of this paper are (i) to explore the “alternative” public international law paradigms put forward by some as preferable to the “traditional” laws of occupation and armed conflict in understanding and challenging the situation in Palestine from an international law perspective, and (ii) to offer some thoughts on questions of tactics and strategy if law is to be deployed in pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Settler colonialism is the core ideological project from which the derivatives of forced population transfer and apartheid flow. These three overlapping frameworks are knitted together by common underpinning logics of settlement and racialisation. This was the case historically in European colonial empires, as it was under apartheid in southern Africa, and as it remains in Palestine today. The paper therefore begins by situating these conceptual frameworks in historical and legal context. It then considers law as a skeletal structure which can be fleshed out with hegemonic or counter-hegemonic muscle, before turning to discuss the perils and possibilities of employing legal tactics in pursuit of transformative anti-colonial strategy.
Settler colonialism is the core ideological project from which the derivatives of forced population transfer and apartheid flow. These three overlapping frameworks are knitted together by common underpinning logics of settlement and racialisation. This was the case historically in European colonial empires, as it was under apartheid in southern Africa, and as it remains in Palestine today. The paper therefore begins by situating these conceptual frameworks in historical and legal context. It then considers law as a skeletal structure which can be fleshed out with hegemonic or counter-hegemonic muscle, before turning to discuss the perils and possibilities of employing legal tactics in pursuit of transformative anti-colonial strategy.
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Samera Esmeir’s Juridical Humanity is a compelling account of the relationship between law and the human in colonial Egypt. The book tells a story of how modern law engendered a concept of ‘juridical humanity’ that was rooted in... more
Samera Esmeir’s Juridical Humanity is a compelling account of the relationship between law and the human in colonial Egypt. The book tells a story of how modern law engendered a concept of ‘juridical humanity’ that was rooted in sensibilities of humaneness and operated to inscribe the native Egyptian within the colonial rule of law. In contrast to accounts of colonisation as a venture that dehumanises through exclusion from the law, the project of juridical humanity described by Esmeir connotes a type of inscription within the law that purports to enable a form of humanisation — as seen through a colonial lens — based on a liberal idealising of the ‘rule of law.’ The effect of colonial law’s humane reforms is a process of rendering the natives— hitherto dehumanised by their own despotism — human through the law. Through this particular narrative, Esmeir probes the more general relationship between law and the human with regard to history, nature, sovereignty and violence.
This review considers Esmeir’s pioneering study in relation to postcolonial and postmodernist accounts of law and humanity, as well as third world approaches to international law scholarship and the role of law in the contemporary Egyptian uprisings. It reflects on the crucial contribution of Esmeir’s work in pointing to significant ambivalences in coloniser-colonised dynamics and the relationship between humanity and juridicality.
This review considers Esmeir’s pioneering study in relation to postcolonial and postmodernist accounts of law and humanity, as well as third world approaches to international law scholarship and the role of law in the contemporary Egyptian uprisings. It reflects on the crucial contribution of Esmeir’s work in pointing to significant ambivalences in coloniser-colonised dynamics and the relationship between humanity and juridicality.
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Apartheid is a loaded term; saturated with history and emotion. It conjures up images and memories of discrimination, oppression, and brutality; indulgence, privilege, and pretension; racism, resistance, and, ultimately, emancipation. All... more
Apartheid is a loaded term; saturated with history and emotion. It conjures up images and memories of discrimination, oppression, and brutality; indulgence, privilege, and pretension; racism, resistance, and, ultimately, emancipation. All of which come to us through the history of apartheid in South Africa. Although prohibited and criminalised by international law in response to the situation in southern Africa, the concept of apartheid was never given enormous attention by international lawyers. Following an awakening of interest in the international legal prohibition of apartheid as a potentially appropriate lens through which to view the situation of the Palestinians, this article examines the merits of such a claim in the context of Israeli law and practice in the occupied Palestinian territory.
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The indeterminacy of international law rarely works in favour of the peoples of the global South. Ambiguities and uncertainties are invariably resolved by resort to broader legal principles, policy goals or social contexts that have most... more
The indeterminacy of international law rarely works in favour of the peoples of the global South. Ambiguities and uncertainties are invariably resolved by resort to broader legal principles, policy goals or social contexts that have most often been shaped by colonial views of the world and their supporting conceptual apparatuses. The glimmer of hope presented in the wake of Third World decolonisation by an international law that seemed to offer the prospect of a realignment of the global balance of power and the possibility of a new international economic order has long been extinguished. Despite this, nations that were on the wrong side of imperial history remain unwilling to depart the arena of international law, retaining a belief in its transformative potential and in the ideal of law as a means of constraining, if not subverting, the hegemony of empire. The promise of the International Criminal Court in this regard lies in its global potential. By virtue of its mere existence, the Court alters the dynamics of international relations and sounds a warning signal that no Colonel, Comrade or Commander-in-Chief remains impervious. At the same time, however, the reality is that all international legal institutions are intensely political actors. The International Criminal Court is no different. It can be understood as a site of meta-conflict, where conflict over the nature of a given conflict plays out, and inevitably some particular narrative is endorsed and consolidated at the expense of others. What that narrative will be often depends less on the law than on the socio-political context. The premise that international criminal justice can fully transcend international politics is a false one – it is inherently political. The International Criminal Court in both its constitution (its relationship with the Security Council, for example) and its functioning (the Prosecutor’s exercise of discretion, for example) essentially serves to implement a form of foreign policy. The Office of the Prosecutor’s decision of April 2012 – to eschew a functional approach to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute and decline jurisdiction over alleged international crimes committed in Palestine – is read in this light. The effect, despite widespread recognition of Palestine and its admission as a member state of UNESCO, is a continuing exclusion of the Palestinians from the mechanisms of international justice.
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Emergency doctrine typically occupied a central space in the legal system of the colony, operating as a bridge between what James Fitzjames Stephen in India presented as the twin imperial pillars of conquest and justice. Its... more
Emergency doctrine typically occupied a central space in the legal system of the colony, operating as a bridge between what James Fitzjames Stephen in India presented as the twin imperial pillars of conquest and justice. Its exceptionality and malleability facilitated the forcible imposition of sovereign control, while its legality provided the necessary seal of legitimacy. A formal state of emergency (upon which some but not all layers of Israel’s emergency jurisprudence are contingent) was proclaimed within days of the birth of the state of Israel and has persisted without interruption since 19 May 1948. This short essay provides an overview of the structure of Israel’s emergency legalities and discusses a 2012 Supreme Court decision upholding the long-standing state of emergency.
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The central concern of this article is the manner in which emergency doctrine infiltrates the realm of global political economy. This is considered in terms of centre-periphery relations and Third World development, as well as with regard... more
The central concern of this article is the manner in which emergency doctrine infiltrates the realm of global political economy. This is considered in terms of centre-periphery relations and Third World development, as well as with regard to the endurance of finance capitalism. Are ‘emergency’ economic measures necessary in the public interest to stabilise and sustain an indispensable financial system? Or does undue deference to capitalist institutions obfuscate the notion of the common good by reifying elitist misappropriations of the ‘commons’? My approach entails a theoretical and historical deconstruction of the economic state of emergency, expounding the use of emergency powers and rhetoric as instruments of economic regulation and class subjugation against a number of significant and related backdrops: the intimate relationship that exists between capitalism and imperialism, the function of economic governance as an apparatus of security, and the susceptibility of capitalist economies to periodic ‘crisis.’ The article charts the use of emergency powers in the economic sphere as long entwined in colonial law and policy, and analyses the evolution of the economic state of emergency through the inter-war period in Europe and North America. This provides the necessary context for an appraisal of the versatile role played by emergency doctrines in sustaining structural economic relations and facilitating the ideological thrust of the international financial institutions. A Machiavellian mindset of ‘opportunity in crisis’ comes to the fore, with emergency authority serving as a vehicle for the implementation of neoliberal doctrine.
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The concept and practice of apartheid was central to the post-war evolution of international law as a site of contestation between imperial interests and anti-imperial discourse, and as a rallying call for the international human rights... more
The concept and practice of apartheid was central to the post-war evolution of international law as a site of contestation between imperial interests and anti-imperial discourse, and as a rallying call for the international human rights movement and global solidarity action. This essay glances back at the recent history of international law through the looking glass of apartheid, and argues for the continuing relevance of its prohibition. The utopian rhetoric of universal rights and freedoms that we narrate into the story of the formation of the United Nations was not of central concern to many of the organisation’s imperious, war-victorious founders, whose ranks included one of the chief architects of white settler nationalism and segregation in South Africa, Jan Smuts. The eventual proscription of apartheid in the 1960s serves as a reminder of the role played by the decolonising nations in the development of legal doctrine, with the prohibition remaining a potentially valuable normative and analytical framework in situations where segregation and institutionalised racial discrimination persist or re-emerge.
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Although the post-War movement for the protection of universal human rights heralded progress in transcending international law’s traditional power structures, colonial interests and legal philosophies nonetheless retained an influence on... more
Although the post-War movement for the protection of universal human rights heralded progress in transcending international law’s traditional power structures, colonial interests and legal philosophies nonetheless retained an influence on the framing of certain aspects of human rights discourse. This essay explores the extent to which the particular conception of the ‘state of emergency’ that was distilled into the normative framework of international human rights law at its inception stemmed specifically from Britain’s traditions of colonial governance and legislation in the empire. The evolution of the state of emergency is traced from martial law in England and the ‘first empire’, through British emergency legislative codes in Ireland in the nineteenth century and beyond in the early twentieth century, to the wholesale use of emergency powers in British colonies as the empire receded. The genesis of the derogations/state of emergency provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and European Convention on Human Rights is appraised in the light of the colonial emergency context that formed the backdrop to the drafting of the conventions. The essay argues that the accommodation of colonial interests at that point codified a hegemonic legal tool that remains ripe for exploitation by regimes of all stripes inclined to repress opposition and dissent in the ‘post-colonial’ era. Examining the state of emergency in the colonial shadow from which it emerged suggests that it is ultimately grounded in dynamics of power and hegemonic control, rather than a universal rule of law.
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The ‘Goldstone Report’ is significant for its cogent documentation of potential international crimes and human rights violations committed in the context of Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in the Gaza Strip, as well as the light it shines... more
The ‘Goldstone Report’ is significant for its cogent documentation of potential international crimes and human rights violations committed in the context of Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ in the Gaza Strip, as well as the light it shines on the habitual failure of authorities on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to acknowledge and adequately investigate such crimes and violations. The authors of the Report, however, neglect to address important questions relating to the recourse to the use of force under international law. Coming in the wake of a spate of wars in the first decade of the twenty-first century where the use of force has gravitated towards aggression rather than self-defense (Iraq the most prominent amongst them), the Goldstone Report represents an opportunity missed for a major international judicial mission to reify the prohibition of the use of force in international law. The implications of the report choosing to apply itself solely to the regulation of force and not the resort to force itself - in a time when militarism abounds under the guise of humanitarianism - are disquieting.
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The status of the Gaza Strip as occupied territory has been the subject of renewed policy, judicial and academic debate following a series of noteworthy developments in the territory since 2005. This article considers the present status... more
The status of the Gaza Strip as occupied territory has been the subject of renewed policy, judicial and academic debate following a series of noteworthy developments in the territory since 2005. This article considers the present status of Gaza from the perspective of international humanitarian law in light of these events, which include Israel’s ‘disengagement’ from the Gaza Strip in 2005, its declaration of Gaza as a ‘hostile territory’ in 2007, and the military action labeled ‘Operation Cast Lead’ which commenced in late 2008. It addresses the concept of occupation and the application of the laws of belligerent occupation, making recourse to the travaux préparatoires of relevant treaties, and international and national jurisprudence. In focusing on the situation in the Gaza Strip, the article assesses the various criteria identified in customary international law for determining the existence of a situation of occupation.
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Several years ago, the American Society of International Law published the proceedings of a panel that considered the relationship between social movements and international law. The influence of the “groundbreaking work” of Balakrishnan... more
Several years ago, the American Society of International Law published the proceedings of a panel that considered the relationship between social movements and international law. The influence of the “groundbreaking work” of Balakrishnan Rajagopal in this realm was explicitly acknowledged at the outset and permeated the themes addressed by the panellists. Informed by the fruitful coalescence of Rajagopal’s practical experience and progressive academic thinking, that groundbreaking work was to culminate in the publication of "International Law from Below", a significant piece of scholarship that is at once a pioneering contribution to, and trenchant critique of, international legal discourse. This review considers the core themes presented by Rajagopal, as well as relating some of the questions he raises about international law, generally, to the specific question of Palestine.
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In the wake of the respective contentions put forward by Israel and the Palestinians in the context of 'Operation Cast Lead', this paper seeks to revisit the debates regarding Palestinian statehood that simmered in international legal... more
In the wake of the respective contentions put forward by Israel and the Palestinians in the context of 'Operation Cast Lead', this paper seeks to revisit the debates regarding Palestinian statehood that simmered in international legal circles following the 1988 Declaration of Independence, and the signing of the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s. In considering the matter, a number of questions beg; not least regarding over which territory or territories the purported Palestinian state is constituted, who the representative authorities of that state are, how a ‘state’ is construed in international law, and for what purpose. The paper accordingly looks at the concepts of statehood and sovereignty in international law and considers their application in the Palestinian context.
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The indeterminacy of international law rarely works in favour of the peoples of the global South. Ambiguities and uncertainties are invariably resolved by resort to broader legal principles, policy goals or social contexts that have most... more
The indeterminacy of international law rarely works in favour of the peoples of the global South. Ambiguities and uncertainties are invariably resolved by resort to broader legal principles, policy goals or social contexts that have most often been shaped by colonial views of the world and their supporting conceptual apparatuses. The glimmer of hope presented in the wake of Third World decolonisation by an international law that seemed to offer the prospect of a realignment of the global balance of power and the possibility of a new international economic order has long been extinguished. Despite this, nations that were on the wrong side of imperial history remain unwilling to depart the arena of international law, retaining a belief in its transformative potential and in the ideal of law as a means of constraining, if not subverting, the hegemony of empire. The promise of the International Criminal Court in this regard lies in its global potential. By virtue of its mere existence, the Court alters the dynamics of international relations and sounds a warning signal that no Colonel, Comrade or Commander-in-Chief remains impervious. At the same time, however, the reality is that all international legal institutions are intensely political actors. The International Criminal Court is no different. It can be understood as a site of meta-conflict, where conflict over the nature of a given conflict plays out, and inevitably some particular narrative is endorsed and consolidated at the expense of others. What that narrative will be often depends less on the law than on the socio-political context. The premise that international criminal justice can fully transcend international politics is a false one – it is inherently political. The International Criminal Court in both its constitution (its relationship with the Security Council, for example) and its functioning (the Prosecutor’s exercise of discretion, for example) essentially serves to implement a form of foreign policy. The Office of the Prosecutor’s decision of April 2012 – to eschew a functional approach to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute and decline jurisdiction over alleged international crimes committed in Palestine – is read in this light. The effect, despite widespread recognition of Palestine and its admission as a member state of UNESCO, is a continuing exclusion of the Palestinians from the mechanisms of international justice.
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While governments in both the west and global south have become increasingly critical of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, these states have nearly all maintained normal trade relations with Israel. How should we understand this mismatch... more
While governments in both the west and global south have become increasingly critical of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, these states have nearly all maintained normal trade relations with Israel. How should we understand this mismatch between political rhetoric and economic policy? And where might we look for signs of more material anti-imperial responses on the horizon?
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Per concordare cosa sarebbe necessario per porre fine all’apartheid, dobbiamo prima capire cos’è l’apartheid. Proclamare la fine dell’apartheid senza istituire un programma concreto di decolonizzazione sotto forma di restituzione delle... more
Per concordare cosa sarebbe necessario per porre fine all’apartheid, dobbiamo prima capire cos’è l’apartheid. Proclamare la fine dell’apartheid senza istituire un programma concreto di decolonizzazione sotto forma di restituzione delle terre e ridistribuzione della ricchezza può semplicemente produrre una forma più accettabile di discriminazione sociale, politica ed economica.
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Jacobin, 2 February 2024
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Jacobin, 11 January 2024
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Opinion piece in The Irish Times on the civil society campaign for the UN to re-establish the Special Committee against Apartheid and to investigate Israeli apartheid - print version
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Opinion piece in The Irish Times on the civil society campaign for the UN to re-establish the Special Committee against Apartheid and to investigate Israeli apartheid - web version
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Embracing a radical critique of Israeli apartheid is a precondition for bringing it to a just end.
Research Interests: International Law, Race and Racism, Race and Ethnicity, Israel/Palestine, Palestine, and 9 moreApartheid, Zionism, Palestinian Studies, Decolonization, Post-Apartheid, TWAIL - Third World Approaches to International Law, Israeli apartheid, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
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The Irish Times, 27 April 2021 - op-ed piece following publication of the Human Rights Watch report on Israeli apartheid
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International investment law is one vehicle that neoliberalism has harnessed to facilitate deregulation, privatisation and competition in ways that more democratic spaces would ostensibly not permit. It is naïve to think that... more
International investment law is one vehicle that neoliberalism has harnessed to facilitate deregulation, privatisation and competition in ways that more democratic spaces would ostensibly not permit. It is naïve to think that mega-regional agreements like CETA and their investor protection mechanisms will prove substantively different. But there are alternatives, beginning with non-ratification as an essential and urgent turn towards a more progressive internationalism.
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The program for government agreed upon between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Greens is no blueprint for radical action. While media reports have spoken of a “strongly Green-influenced programme for government,” presenting the Greens as... more
The program for government agreed upon between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Greens is no blueprint for radical action. While media reports have spoken of a “strongly Green-influenced programme for government,” presenting the Greens as the “big winner” from the negotiations, the deal is far less ambitious on climate change than such coverage suggests. Its incrementalist thrust is entirely deaf to the eco-socialist calls for “system change, not climate change” that have become commonplace in recent years. The new government won’t deliver the change Irish society needs, but Ireland’s left-wing forces still have a real opening in the coming years.
Italian translation: https://jacobinitalia.it/lirlanda-torna-a-destra/
Spanish translation: https://www.sinpermiso.info/textos/el-nuevo-gobierno-irlandes-no-hace-mas-que-ponerle-una-cara-verde-al-orden-establecido
Italian translation: https://jacobinitalia.it/lirlanda-torna-a-destra/
Spanish translation: https://www.sinpermiso.info/textos/el-nuevo-gobierno-irlandes-no-hace-mas-que-ponerle-una-cara-verde-al-orden-establecido
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The election in Ireland in early February marked a clear acceleration of the country’s ongoing left turn over recent years. Then came the virus.
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A post-pandemic transformation will require honest analysis and sustained organising. There is no doubt, at least, that this pandemic has shattered some of the dogma of there being no alternatives to predominant capitalist models. The... more
A post-pandemic transformation will require honest analysis and sustained organising. There is no doubt, at least, that this pandemic has shattered some of the dogma of there being no alternatives to predominant capitalist models. The message should be clear: ‘we won’t go back to normal, because normal was the problem’.
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There is a sense among many people involved in advocacy and activism for Palestinian freedom that international law is unequivocally on the side of the Palestinians. The obstruction of that freedom is a problem of politics impeding law;... more
There is a sense among many people involved in advocacy and activism for Palestinian freedom that international law is unequivocally on the side of the Palestinians. The obstruction of that freedom is a problem of politics impeding law; of might trumping right. If only the law were applied to its letter, justice and equality would supplant occupation and apartheid.
Would that it were so straightforward.
Would that it were so straightforward.
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The logic of emergency underpins the catastrophe of 1948; its shadow continues to loom over the catastrophe of today and tomorrow. It permeates the ‘jagged time’ of catastrophe, as J.M. Coetzee puts it, in which empire locates its... more
The logic of emergency underpins the catastrophe of 1948; its shadow continues to loom over the catastrophe of today and tomorrow. It permeates the ‘jagged time’ of catastrophe, as J.M. Coetzee puts it, in which empire locates its existence.
Short essay by John Reynolds on the Nakba Files, 26 March 2017
http://nakbafiles.org/2017/03/26/routine-emergency-in-the-jagged-time-of-catastrophe/
Short essay by John Reynolds on the Nakba Files, 26 March 2017
http://nakbafiles.org/2017/03/26/routine-emergency-in-the-jagged-time-of-catastrophe/
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Irish Times opinion piece
In a blog post for The Nakba Files, John Reynolds explores the critical edges of international law in search of potentially helpful tools in dealing with the Nakba: "For those seeking to draw tactically on international law to confront... more
In a blog post for The Nakba Files, John Reynolds explores the critical edges of international law in search of potentially helpful tools in dealing with the Nakba:
"For those seeking to draw tactically on international law to confront the Nakba, the international legal prohibition of apartheid can be useful in going further than the prohibition of colonialism."
This is an edited excerpt from John Reynolds, ‘Anti-Colonial Legalities: Paradigms, Tactics & Strategy’ (2015) 18 Palestine Yearbook of International Law 8-52
"For those seeking to draw tactically on international law to confront the Nakba, the international legal prohibition of apartheid can be useful in going further than the prohibition of colonialism."
This is an edited excerpt from John Reynolds, ‘Anti-Colonial Legalities: Paradigms, Tactics & Strategy’ (2015) 18 Palestine Yearbook of International Law 8-52
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Jadaliyya, 25 July 2015
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Human Rights in Ireland, 9 February 2015
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Structural adjustment and austerity have been implemented in recent years in Ireland in keeping with right-wing thinking, coming in the form of a 2:1 ratio of cuts in services to tax increases (themselves often regressive in nature).... more
Structural adjustment and austerity have been implemented in recent years in Ireland in keeping with right-wing thinking, coming in the form of a 2:1 ratio of cuts in services to tax increases (themselves often regressive in nature). Levels of poverty and inequality have deepened. Socio-economic protections have been resolutely subordinated by the state’s loyalty to financial institutions and the imperatives of transnational capital. There has been no departure from the race to the bottom for foreign investment in which Ireland is engaged, with the diversion of resources to corporate tax reduction measures continuing in various guises.
In the face of such market hegemony, what can international human rights discourse offer when it comes to social justice advocacy and budget analysis?
In the face of such market hegemony, what can international human rights discourse offer when it comes to social justice advocacy and budget analysis?
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The Journal, 18 August 2014
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Yaffa Zilbershats’ reply to our article ['Apartheid, International Law, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory' (2013) 24:3 European Journal of International Law 867-913] roots itself in the familiar refuge of Israeli exceptionalism.
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Jadaliyya, 2 November 2011
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In the 1970s, 60,000 residents of Cape Town's District Six were forcibly removed following its designation as a White Area by the apartheid regime. Based on testimony from international legal experts and witnesses from the ground in... more
In the 1970s, 60,000 residents of Cape Town's District Six were forcibly removed following its designation as a White Area by the apartheid regime. Based on testimony from international legal experts and witnesses from the ground in Israel/Palestine, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine convenes in November 2011 in the District Six museum in Cape Town to examine Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people in the context of the prohibition of apartheid under international law.
~ Introduction ~ The Apartheid Narrative ~ Beyond Rhetoric ~ Beyond Compartmentalisation ~ The Legitimacy War ~
~ Introduction ~ The Apartheid Narrative ~ Beyond Rhetoric ~ Beyond Compartmentalisation ~ The Legitimacy War ~
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Politico, 15 September 2011
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With states of emergency proving salient to the unfolding of the Arab uprisings in the spring of 2011 and continuing to permeate the political landscape — through opposition to long-standing emergencies as well as proclamations of new... more
With states of emergency proving salient to the unfolding of the Arab uprisings in the spring of 2011 and continuing to permeate the political landscape — through opposition to long-standing emergencies as well as proclamations of new ones — it is worth reflecting on the genesis and underlying essence of emergency law. The ostensible premise of the doctrine of emergency is one of a last resort mechanism to be implemented for the common good, with the temporary suspension of certain freedoms necessary to facilitate an expedient return to "normalcy" and the full restoration of liberal rights. Historical experience, however, from European colonialism to Arab authoriarianism, suggests that reality is otherwise.
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Human Rights in Ireland, 24 November 2010
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Adalah Newsletter, Volume 62, July 2009 - contribution to symposium on 'Five Years after the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Wall'
* November 2021 pre-publication draft * The idea of apartheid without racist ideology – without race itself – may appear implausible, but is in no small part the result of how international law has defined and dealt with apartheid over... more
* November 2021 pre-publication draft *
The idea of apartheid without racist ideology – without race itself – may appear implausible, but is in no small part the result of how international law has defined and dealt with apartheid over time. Particular developments and interpretations of international law universalize apartheid to such an extent that it can become a broad form of institutional domestic discrimination and is distanced from its distinctly settler-colonial origins. It is understandable and perhaps inevitable, then, that human rights organizations have utilized the less contentious, narrower version of apartheid offered to them by international law. This enables them to apply an apartheid framework to situations of systemic discrimination in their reporting and analysis, without having to reckon with the material imperatives of decolonization in the face an ongoing settler-colonial project. The more liberal, criminal law-oriented understanding of apartheid can potentially be remedied by formal equality rights, without necessarily having to directly confront the colonial conquest and political economy dynamics that the apartheid regime has consolidated. The consequence of this in Palestine would be to de-link Israeli apartheid from Israeli settler-colonialism and the Nakba. This could allow for a vision of apartheid appearing to be ended, but without the necessary elements of decolonization, reparations or redistribution. In South Africa, this has produced forms of ‘neo-apartheid’ or ‘neoliberal apartheid’. It is imperative that anti-apartheid analysis and campaigning today is conscious of these pitfalls.
The idea of apartheid without racist ideology – without race itself – may appear implausible, but is in no small part the result of how international law has defined and dealt with apartheid over time. Particular developments and interpretations of international law universalize apartheid to such an extent that it can become a broad form of institutional domestic discrimination and is distanced from its distinctly settler-colonial origins. It is understandable and perhaps inevitable, then, that human rights organizations have utilized the less contentious, narrower version of apartheid offered to them by international law. This enables them to apply an apartheid framework to situations of systemic discrimination in their reporting and analysis, without having to reckon with the material imperatives of decolonization in the face an ongoing settler-colonial project. The more liberal, criminal law-oriented understanding of apartheid can potentially be remedied by formal equality rights, without necessarily having to directly confront the colonial conquest and political economy dynamics that the apartheid regime has consolidated. The consequence of this in Palestine would be to de-link Israeli apartheid from Israeli settler-colonialism and the Nakba. This could allow for a vision of apartheid appearing to be ended, but without the necessary elements of decolonization, reparations or redistribution. In South Africa, this has produced forms of ‘neo-apartheid’ or ‘neoliberal apartheid’. It is imperative that anti-apartheid analysis and campaigning today is conscious of these pitfalls.
Research Interests:
The March 2024 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the Human Rights Council is focused on the anatomy of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The report points, importantly, to the... more
The March 2024 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the Human Rights Council is focused on the anatomy of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The report points, importantly, to the settler colonial context and the reality that ‘Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure’.
Research Interests:
Tom Moerenhout (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) and John Reynolds (Department of Law, National University of Ireland, Maynooth) on the obligations of the Irish State under international law with... more
Tom Moerenhout (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) and John Reynolds (Department of Law, National University of Ireland, Maynooth) on the obligations of the Irish State under international law with respect to the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018.
Research Interests:
(A Report for the Irish Cancer Society) Free trade agreements and investment treaties have the stated aims of promoting economic activity and growth through increased global trade and investment flows. The presumption that broader... more
(A Report for the Irish Cancer Society)
Free trade agreements and investment treaties have the stated aims of promoting economic activity and growth through increased global trade and investment flows. The presumption that broader societal benefits—such as improved population health—will trickle down from such market liberalisation is called into question by deepening levels of social and economic inequality around the world. Against this backdrop, the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union has generated concern as to its potential effects on public interest regulatory space and standards. The present study seeks to build on and deepen the existing research and analysis in this regard, with the specific purpose of clarifying and evaluating TTIP’s implications on health policy in Ireland. The clear conclusion drawn from the study is that the predicted economic benefits from TTIP are too small or speculative to justify the associated social risks.
Free trade agreements and investment treaties have the stated aims of promoting economic activity and growth through increased global trade and investment flows. The presumption that broader societal benefits—such as improved population health—will trickle down from such market liberalisation is called into question by deepening levels of social and economic inequality around the world. Against this backdrop, the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union has generated concern as to its potential effects on public interest regulatory space and standards. The present study seeks to build on and deepen the existing research and analysis in this regard, with the specific purpose of clarifying and evaluating TTIP’s implications on health policy in Ireland. The clear conclusion drawn from the study is that the predicted economic benefits from TTIP are too small or speculative to justify the associated social risks.
Research Interests:
al-Majdal #41 - Spring/Summer 2009
Research Interests:
Since the extension of the jurisdiction of the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) to encompass the OPT very early on in the occupation, Palestinians have been petitioning the Court regularly, with generally little positive effect. This... more
Since the extension of the jurisdiction of the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) to encompass the OPT very early on in the occupation, Palestinians have been petitioning the Court regularly, with generally little positive effect. This short study seeks to tackle broadly the issues and concerns facing all those charged with legally protecting the rights of Palestinians. From this analysis it becomes apparent that more often than not, in matters relating to the OPT, the Court misconstrues norms and provisions of international law essential to the protection of the Palestinian civilian population or simply fails to address them. Instead, it tends to endorse the position of the Israeli military and government authorities through flawed and often politically subservient legal reasoning.
Al-Haq, 2010
Al-Haq, 2010
Research Interests:
Located in the Latroun enclave of the West Bank, north-west of Jerusalem, these three Palestinian villages were razed to the ground by the Israeli army upon its occupation of the area in June 1967, despite the fact that it was met with no... more
Located in the Latroun enclave of the West Bank, north-west of Jerusalem, these three Palestinian villages were razed to the ground by the Israeli army upon its occupation of the area in June 1967, despite the fact that it was met with no resistance. The study presents revealing information unearthed in Israeli government archives, demonstrating the intent behind this destruction. The civilian residents of the villages, numbering up to 10,000, were forcibly transferred out of the area. Over 40 years later, and despite repeated attempts, the villagers have been prevented from returning to their land to rebuild their houses and their lives. They remain displaced in the West Bank, Jordan, and beyond.
Al-Haq, 2007
Al-Haq, 2007
Research Interests:
Al-Nu’man is a small village consisting of one street and approximately 5 houses situated southeast of Jerusalem and northeast of Bethlehem, a few hundred metres north of Beit Sahour. In 967, Israel illegally de facto annexed East... more
Al-Nu’man is a small village consisting of one street and approximately 5 houses situated southeast of Jerusalem and northeast of Bethlehem, a few hundred metres north of Beit Sahour. In 967, Israel illegally de facto annexed East Jerusalem and surrounding areas, including the land of al-Nu’man village. However, the inhabitants of the village were recorded as West Bank residents and given West Bank IDs rather than the Jerusalem IDs received by most Palestinians in illegally annexed areas. As West Bank ID holders, these residents are considered by Israel to be illegally present in Jerusalem simply by being in their homes. In 2006, as a result of Israeli development plans in the area, to which the presence of the village is an obstacle, al- Nu’man is the target of a systematic campaign aiming to remove its inhabitants and subsequently appropriate its land.
Al-Haq, 2006
Al-Haq, 2006
Research Interests:
Full text: https://twailr.com/human-shields-and-the-location-of-agency/ Neve Gordon & Nicola Perugini discuss their new book, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire (University of California Press, 2020) with Ayça... more
Full text: https://twailr.com/human-shields-and-the-location-of-agency/
Neve Gordon & Nicola Perugini discuss their new book, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire (University of California Press, 2020) with Ayça Çubukçu, Noura Erakat & John Reynolds.
Neve Gordon & Nicola Perugini discuss their new book, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire (University of California Press, 2020) with Ayça Çubukçu, Noura Erakat & John Reynolds.
Research Interests:
Neve Gordon & Nicola Perugini discuss their new book, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire (University of California Press, 2020) with Ayça Çubukçu, Noura Erakat & John Reynolds.
Research Interests:
Ntina Tzouvala discusses her book, 'Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law' (Cambridge University Press, 2020) with John Reynolds of the TWAIL Review editorial collective.
Research Interests:
Rupture Radio podcast interview, July 2020 ~
https://anchor.fm/ruptureradio/episodes/New-Situation--Old-Order---Interview-w-Colin-Coulter-and-John-Reynolds-egqk62
https://anchor.fm/ruptureradio/episodes/New-Situation--Old-Order---Interview-w-Colin-Coulter-and-John-Reynolds-egqk62
Jadaliyya podcast interview with Noura Erakat & Bassam Haddad, 25 March 2020 ~
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40877
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/40877
Darryl Li discusses his book, 'The Universal Enemy: Jihad, Empire, and the Challenge of Solidarity' (Stanford University Press, 2020) with John Reynolds of the TWAIL Review editorial collective.
Noura Erakat in conversation with John Reynolds on Noura’s book Justice for Some: Law & the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019)
Research Interests:
Intervista a John Reynolds di Francesca Borri, 'Qualcuno con cui parlari - Israeliani e palestinese' (Roma: manifestolibri, 2010)
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Human Rights, International Human Rights Law, Labour Law, United Nations, Capitalism, and 14 moreNeoliberalism, Socio Economic Rights, International Human Rights Philosophy, Irish Constitutional Law, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Right to Health, International human rights, Social Inequality, International Law and Human Rights, Poverty and Inequality, Human Right to Water, Labor Organizing and Worker's Rights, The Right to Food, and The right to housing
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On 15 October 2023, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies signed a public statement warning of the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians... more
On 15 October 2023, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies signed a public statement warning of the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Signatories include prominent Holocaust and genocide studies scholars, as well as many international law and TWAIL scholars.
Research Interests:
Progressive International, 2023
12 December 2016
Workshop: Race, Racism and International Law - Critical Race Theory in Global Context - New York University, 16 October 2020
Covid-19 and the Scripts of Emergency Powers - New York University, 18 May 2020
Transnational Legal Discourse on Race and Empire - UCLA School of Law, 31 January 2020
Symposium on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech - Maynooth University—National University of Ireland, 26 November 2019
Book Launch: Noura Erakat's 'Justice for Some' - Trinity College Dublin, 16 October 2019
United Nations Human Rights Council - United Nations, Geneva, 8 July 2019
John Reynolds & Noura Erakat, Laws of War & Lawyers of War - British Society for Middle Eastern Studies conference, University of Leeds, 25 June 2019
Noura Erakat & John Reynolds, 'We Were Basically Pioneers': Lawyers, Laws of War & the Shrinking Civilian - Law & Society Association - Annual Conference, Washington DC, 1 June 2019
The Ethics of Law & Justice - University of Liverpool, School of Law & Social Justice, 8 May 2019
International Law in the Global South Seminar Series - Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, 11 March 2019
Third World Approaches to International Law & Critical Race Theory Workshop - UCLA School of Law, 9 March 2019
Critical Perspectives on Race and Human Rights: Transnational Re-Imaginings - UCLA School of Law, 8 March 2019
EU Member State Responsibilities under International Law - European Parliament, Brussels, 4 December 2018
Seven Decades since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The History and Future of Human Rights and Palestine - Muwatin Centre for Democracy & Human Rights, Birzeit University, 6 October 2018
The Threshold from Occupation to Annexation - Birzeit University, Palestine, 4 October 2018
Law & Society Association - New Books in the Field of International Law & Politics, Toronto, 7 June 2018
Keynote Address, Palestine Freedom Conference - Liberty Hall, Dublin, 13 May 2018
Irish Centre for Human Rights, Annual Doctoral Seminar - NUI Galway, 26 April 2018
Emergency Legal Cultures: British Imperial Legacies – International Conference
Duke University, 26 February 2018
Duke University, 26 February 2018
Sadaka High-Level Forum – ’50 Years of Occupation: Roadblocks to Justice’
Dublin, November 2017
Dublin, November 2017
Freedom of Speech and Higher Education – International Conference
Trinity College Dublin, 12 September 2017
Trinity College Dublin, 12 September 2017
Danzando tra i popoli
Blessano, Friuli, 1 Settembre 2017
Blessano, Friuli, 1 Settembre 2017
Words of Violence: Discourses of Abuse in Conflict, Crisis and States of Emergency
University of Liverpool, 23 July 2017
University of Liverpool, 23 July 2017
Comhlámh Trade Justice Group
Dublin, 11 July 2017
Dublin, 11 July 2017
Law & Society Association, Annual Conference - Walls, Borders, and Bridges
México City, 23 June 2017
México City, 23 June 2017
Fascism and the International: The Global Order, Yesterday and Tomorrow
Museo de Arte Moderno, México City, 19 June 2017
Museo de Arte Moderno, México City, 19 June 2017
International Law & the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Exceptionalism, Responsibility
Cork City Hall & University College Cork
31 March 2017
Cork City Hall & University College Cork
31 March 2017
Legacies of the Tricontinental: Imperialism, Resistance, Law
University of Coimbra, Portugal, 24 September 2016
University of Coimbra, Portugal, 24 September 2016
Law & Society Association, New Orleans, 4 June 2016 Roundtable panel: Praxis and the Global South In this talk I use Walter Rodney Speaks: The Making of an African Intellectual to reflect on the role of the institutionally embedded but... more
Law & Society Association, New Orleans, 4 June 2016
Roundtable panel: Praxis and the Global South
In this talk I use Walter Rodney Speaks: The Making of an African Intellectual to reflect on the role of the institutionally embedded but oppositional scholar, oriented to the South and struggling against (Northern) hegemonic thought, institutions and learning. Rodney’s life and work embodied a richness of intersecting contributions from his multiple standpoints as Marxist and Pan-Africanist, university academic and community educator, social critic and political activist. The synthesis of these various ways of being—as enacted across continents—and Rodney’s insights on the dynamics of black and Third World political and social development, are of continued value in thinking about praxis of the South.
Roundtable panel: Praxis and the Global South
In this talk I use Walter Rodney Speaks: The Making of an African Intellectual to reflect on the role of the institutionally embedded but oppositional scholar, oriented to the South and struggling against (Northern) hegemonic thought, institutions and learning. Rodney’s life and work embodied a richness of intersecting contributions from his multiple standpoints as Marxist and Pan-Africanist, university academic and community educator, social critic and political activist. The synthesis of these various ways of being—as enacted across continents—and Rodney’s insights on the dynamics of black and Third World political and social development, are of continued value in thinking about praxis of the South.
Symposium on the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership
Maynooth University—National University of Ireland, 20 April 2016
Maynooth University—National University of Ireland, 20 April 2016
Seminar on: Empire & Extra-Territorial Violence
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
13 April 2016
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
13 April 2016
Colloquium: A New Generation of International Trade Deals
Trinity College Dublin, 11 March 2016
Trinity College Dublin, 11 March 2016
Alternative Strategies for Realizing Justice In Palestine
Birzeit University, Palestine
14 December 2015
Birzeit University, Palestine
14 December 2015
'Walter Benjamin in Palestine' workshop & conference
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre
Ramallah, Palestine, 11 December 2015
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre
Ramallah, Palestine, 11 December 2015
European International Studies Association - Conference on International Relations: The Worlds of Violence
Sicily, 23 September 2015
Sicily, 23 September 2015
Research Interests:
Third World Approaches to International Law Workshop
Maynooth University—National University of Ireland
11 September 2015
Maynooth University—National University of Ireland
11 September 2015
Irish Cancer Society
Report Launch
Dublin, 16 July 2015
Report Launch
Dublin, 16 July 2015
'Discourses of Abuse'
School of Law & Social Justice
University of Liverpool, 8 July 2015
School of Law & Social Justice
University of Liverpool, 8 July 2015
Third World Approaches to International Law Workshop
University of Windsor, 8 June 2015
University of Windsor, 8 June 2015
Institute for Global Law and Policy
'Heterodox Traditions'
Harvard University, 1 June 2015
'Heterodox Traditions'
Harvard University, 1 June 2015
Irish Society of International Law
Irish Red Cross Roundtable on The Conflicts Involving ISIS
Dublin, 6 March 2015
Irish Red Cross Roundtable on The Conflicts Involving ISIS
Dublin, 6 March 2015
Third World Approaches to International Law
'On Praxis and the Intellectual'
The American University in Cairo, 22 February 2015
'On Praxis and the Intellectual'
The American University in Cairo, 22 February 2015
University of Kent
Centre for Critical International Law
Canterbury, 27 January 2015
Centre for Critical International Law
Canterbury, 27 January 2015
'Towards a Materialist History of International Law'
London School of Economics, 5 December 2014
London School of Economics, 5 December 2014
UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People
Parliament of Andalucia
Sevilla, 2 December 2014
Parliament of Andalucia
Sevilla, 2 December 2014
Free Legal Advice Centres
'Budget 2015: A Human Rights Analysis'
Dublin, 16 October 2014
'Budget 2015: A Human Rights Analysis'
Dublin, 16 October 2014
Unite the Union 'TTIP European Day of Action' Dublin, 11 October 2014 Talk given at Unite Union headquarters, Dublin on the European Day of Action against the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), 11 October 2014. The... more
Unite the Union
'TTIP European Day of Action'
Dublin, 11 October 2014
Talk given at Unite Union headquarters, Dublin on the European Day of Action against the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), 11 October 2014. The talk outlines the role that investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms have played in privileging the interests of multinational investors and capital over those of global South nations, and discusses the proposed dispute settlement process under the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership.
'TTIP European Day of Action'
Dublin, 11 October 2014
Talk given at Unite Union headquarters, Dublin on the European Day of Action against the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), 11 October 2014. The talk outlines the role that investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms have played in privileging the interests of multinational investors and capital over those of global South nations, and discusses the proposed dispute settlement process under the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership.
Research Interests:
Institute for Global Law and Policy: Research Project Workshop
'Bandung and the Global South: 60 Years of Transformative International Law'
Harvard University, 3 June 2014
'Bandung and the Global South: 60 Years of Transformative International Law'
Harvard University, 3 June 2014
European Cooperation in Science and Technology
'Teaching International Criminal Law: Between Fragmentation and Constitutionalisation'
London School of Economics, 31 May 2014
'Teaching International Criminal Law: Between Fragmentation and Constitutionalisation'
London School of Economics, 31 May 2014
Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law
City University, London, 19 October 2013
City University, London, 19 October 2013
TWAIL Cairo conference 2015; call for papers published April 2014
Research Interests:
TWAIL Cairo conference - February 2015; full programme
Research Interests:
Follow up to 2015 TWAIL Cairo conference, writing workshop held at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in September 2015 for special issue in Third World Quarterly (2016, Vol. 37:11).
Research Interests:
(2016) Vol. 37:11
Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual
Third World Approaches to International Law: On Praxis and the Intellectual
Research Interests:
This Special Issue emerges from the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) Cairo Conference in 2015 and addresses the conference theme, ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’, by focusing on... more
This Special Issue emerges from the Third World Approaches to
International Law (TWAIL) Cairo Conference in 2015 and addresses
the conference theme, ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’, by focusing
on different aspects of the intellectual as a political actor. In
introducing this Issue, we provide some background to the TWAIL
network, movement, event, and publications; and delineate our
own understandings of scholarly praxis as editors and conference
organisers. Broadly, we understand praxis as the relationship between
what we say as scholars and what we do – as the inextricability of
theory from lived experience. Understood in this way, praxis is central
to TWAIL, as TWAIL scholars strive to reconcile international law’s
promise of justice with the proliferation of injustice in the world it
purports to govern. Reconciliation occurs in the realm of praxis and
TWAIL scholars engage in a variety of struggles, including those
for greater self-awareness, disciplinary upheaval, and institutional
resistance and transformation.
International Law (TWAIL) Cairo Conference in 2015 and addresses
the conference theme, ‘On Praxis and the Intellectual’, by focusing
on different aspects of the intellectual as a political actor. In
introducing this Issue, we provide some background to the TWAIL
network, movement, event, and publications; and delineate our
own understandings of scholarly praxis as editors and conference
organisers. Broadly, we understand praxis as the relationship between
what we say as scholars and what we do – as the inextricability of
theory from lived experience. Understood in this way, praxis is central
to TWAIL, as TWAIL scholars strive to reconcile international law’s
promise of justice with the proliferation of injustice in the world it
purports to govern. Reconciliation occurs in the realm of praxis and
TWAIL scholars engage in a variety of struggles, including those
for greater self-awareness, disciplinary upheaval, and institutional
resistance and transformation.
Research Interests:
Journal of International Criminal Justice (2016) Vol. 14:4, including:
Symposium on Third World Approaches to International Criminal Law
Symposium on Third World Approaches to International Criminal Law
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice (2016, Vol. 33:3)
Third World Approaches to International Law special issue
'Conspiring in Cairo & Canada: Placing TWAIL Scholarship and Praxis'
Third World Approaches to International Law special issue
'Conspiring in Cairo & Canada: Placing TWAIL Scholarship and Praxis'