Search Results

Conclusion Legacies of the Terror

in The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution

Natural right played a critical role in allowing the French Revolution to occur at all. The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” famously enshrined natural law principles. But the ... More

Natural right played a critical role in allowing the French Revolution to occur at all. The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” famously enshrined natural law principles. But the revolutionaries also had other discourses at their disposal, most notably theories of popular sovereignty, legal voluntarism, and constitutional monarchy. It was only with the fall of the monarchy in August 1792, and then more particularly with the trial of Louis XVI, that natural right became regarded as the enforceable legal code of the Revolution. The danger that unmediated natural right presents to civil society resides in its radical concept of hostility, which is summed up in the phrase hostis humani generis (“enemy of the human race”). It is misleading to describe the relation between war and the Terror, or war and Jacobin republicanism, as the progressive imposition of a military logic onto civilian affairs. This chapter discusses the continuity between the Terror and subsequent revolutionary movements worldwide, including totalitarianism.Less

Afterword: Pirates, Terrorists, Narcotraffickers

Sharada Balachandran Orihuela

in Fugitives, Smugglers, and Thieves: Piracy and Personhood in American Literature

The conclusion considers the importance of acts of piracy, terrorism, and narcotrafficking in helping to consolidate and expand the reach of U.S. state power in a post 9/11 world. The U.S. state has ... More

The conclusion considers the importance of acts of piracy, terrorism, and narcotrafficking in helping to consolidate and expand the reach of U.S. state power in a post 9/11 world. The U.S. state has grown and been strengthened by framing certain behaviors as requiring extralegal measures to suppress acts of “inexplicable villainy.” Indeed, perhaps this is why piracy continues to matter. Debates around the existence of Guantanamo Bay and drone strikes point to the capaciousness of the language of terrorism, which has been borrowed from the language of piracy in legitimizing extrajudicial expressions of state power. Indeed, the existence of extrajudicial spaces and expressions of state power, which run counter to the protections guaranteed by the state, have made apparent the need to sustain and perpetuate the language of piracy. It would seem that piracy’s significance has not diminished in the years since the Civil War’s conclusion.Less

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea—An Unfinished Journey: Some very Preliminary Thoughts on Pirates and Other Pernicious People

Daniel-Erasmus Khan

in From Bilateralism to Community Interest: Essays in Honour of Bruno Simma

The phenomenon of maritime piracy has terrorized the seas since time immemorial. The number of attacks worldwide having increased more than tenfold in the past two decades, the pirate menace has ... More

The phenomenon of maritime piracy has terrorized the seas since time immemorial. The number of attacks worldwide having increased more than tenfold in the past two decades, the pirate menace has always constituted a challenge not only for seafaring nations, indiscriminately exposed to the peril of being set upon by these ‘pernicious people’. Rather, as long as the oceans have been plied for commerce, it has affected all those who benefit from seafaring — so, virtually the international community as a whole. Hence, from this perspective good reasons may indeed exist for pirates to be labelled ‘Hostis Humani Generis’ (enemies of mankind), a concept credited to the Roman lawyer, statesman, and political theorist Marcus Tullius Cicero.Less

Epilogue: Napoleon the Prisoner of Peace

Renaud Morieux

in The Society of Prisoners: Anglo-French Wars and Incarceration in the Eighteenth Century

This epilogue sheds new light on a famous case. Napoleon was labelled in 1815 as a permanent prisoner of war, an individual at war against the civil society of European nations, even though France ... More

This epilogue sheds new light on a famous case. Napoleon was labelled in 1815 as a permanent prisoner of war, an individual at war against the civil society of European nations, even though France was then at peace with the rest of Europe. This status of the prisoner of the international community was a novelty. It also drew on eighteenth-century discussions, and it established a precedent. The status of Napoleon in St Helena was never settled, because the famous captive always refused the label that was assigned to him. Around Napoleon, a miniature and inverted society of prisoners took shape on St Helena, a society that was structured by his presence and that of his small retinue.Less

Nuremberg’s Legacy: The UN Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the International Criminal Court

Michael Bazyler

in Holocaust, Genocide, and the Law: A Quest for Justice in a Post-Holocaust World

The Cold War brought the Nuremberg prosecutions to a premature end. It also no longer seemed possible to create an international penal court to adjudge those individuals, including heads of state, ... More

The Cold War brought the Nuremberg prosecutions to a premature end. It also no longer seemed possible to create an international penal court to adjudge those individuals, including heads of state, who would commit crimes in violation of the Nuremberg principles. The end of the Cold War unexpectedly led to the resurrection of the Nuremberg paradigm. In 1993, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to prosecute those accused of committing mass atrocities in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 1994, the Security Council did the same with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), to adjudge individuals arrested for committing mass atrocities during the one hundred-day genocide in Rwanda. The UN tribunals were granted jurisdiction over three crimes: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Both tribunals followed the Nuremberg model. As Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor for the tribunals, stated: “Collectively, we’re linked to Nuremberg. We mention its name every single day.” This chapter examines the work of the ICTY and the ICTR over the last two decades. It compares the work and effectiveness of these modern international criminal tribunals to Nuremberg. It also analyzes the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC), established in 1998 as the first permanent international criminal tribunal in history.Less

Conclusion

Christopher N. Warren

in Literature and the Law of Nations, 1580-1680

The conclusion suggests that when the law of nations traded poetry for professorships and donned the new garb of international law, it did not erase its literary history. Early modern poetics remains ... More

The conclusion suggests that when the law of nations traded poetry for professorships and donned the new garb of international law, it did not erase its literary history. Early modern poetics remains present in the modern structures of international law. From the plural, overlapping landscape of early modern genres came the plural, overlapping landscape of subspecialties now identified as international law. The eighteenth century gave us two altars at which we might sacrifice the literary history of international law: literary aesthetics and a professionalized field of international law. We do better, however, by studying the ways early modern genres continue to shape our world.Less