Anette Bringedal Houge, Sladjana Lazic and Kjersti Lohne from the Research School in Peace and Conflict were united in Atlanta earlier this week to participate on a panel entitled 'Cosmopolitan legalism and universal law: rethorical promises and (un)intended consequences' in the annual convention of the International Studies Association (ISA).
Since the 1990s, cosmopolitan projects have been pursued as law-making endeavors, with the establishment of an international criminal justice system as its paradigmatic example. But what is it that makes law-making the 'obvious' strategy for managing cosmopolitan dilemmas? Individually and combined, the papers in this panel offered empirical and theoretical contributions to the current debate about the global force of law and its universalist aspirations. By pointing attention to the definitional powers of various stakeholders, participants asked: whose justice and whose law is created in the name of cosmopolitanism?
Papers:
- Crimes of aggression and the judicialization of war, Marieke de Hoon (Vrije University Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
- Cosmopolitan legalism, criminal justice and human rights NGOs, Kjersti Lohne (PRIO)
- Transitional Justice and Post-Violence Legitimacy in the former Yugoslavia: Victims' Perspectives, Sladjana Lazic (NTNU, Norway)
- 'The fight against impunity': The construction of a panacea for sexual violence in conflict?, Anette Bringedal Houge & Kjersti Lohne (University of Oslo, Norway)
The session was chaired by PRIO's Inger Skjelsbæk. Nickolas Rajkovic, Chair of International Law at Tilburg Law School, was the discussant.
Participants were joined by members Ortrun Merkle and Theresa Ammann for a Research School dinner on Thursday night.