The victims of international law are at the focus of a lecture, workshop and book launch to be hosted by Kent’s Centre for Critical International Law (CeCIL).
CeCIL’s second annual lecture, to be delivered by Professor Gerry Simpson from the London School of Economics (LSE), will take place on Thursday 17 March and is titled: ‘Crimes Against Humanity: One Hundred Years of Retribution.’ It will begin at 6pm in Eliot Lecture Theatre and will be preceded by a drinks reception at 5pm in Eliot SCR, both of which are open to all.
In his abstract for the lecture, Professor Simpson says: ‘Outside the National Portrait Gallery in London stands a statue to a British nurse named Edith Cavell. On 12 October 1915, Cavell was executed by the Germans in Brussels and partly as a result, there emerged an almost entirely novel way of thinking about international law and war.
‘Defeated enemies became “war criminals”, atrocities became “crimes against humanity” and (a certain sort of) war became “aggression”. The first half of the 20th century, then saw the appearance of an idiom and, then, architecture (Nuremberg, Tokyo) of what became known as international criminal law. This field (sometimes referred to also as “war crimes law”) began as tentative foothold (Versailles, Leipzig) but has now colonised much of our thinking about war and peace (Rome, The Hague).
‘When it comes to human rights abuses, it is de rigueur to call for war crimes trials for the perpetrators, and justice for the victims. But is it desirable to make “ending impunity” a supervening goal of war-making, peace-making and diplomacy? In this lecture I propose to engage in a critical stocktaking of this century of retributive humanitarianism.’
The following day, on Friday 18 March, CeCIL is holding its annual Graduate Workshop from 11am to 1pm in Eliot Lyons Room and from 2pm to 5.15pm in KS12, giving members of the Cecil community an opportunity to present their work in progress.
Professor Simpson is also supporting the launch of a book by Kent Law School Lecturer Dr Luis Eslava in Library A108 and the Templeman Library Gallery on Wednesday 16 March. Professor Simpson will be in conversation with Dr Eslava to discuss Local Space, Global Life : The Everyday Operation of International Law and Development (CUP, 2015). The event will begin at 6pm and all are welcome to attend.
Professor Simpson was appointed to a Chair in Public International Law at LSE January 2016. He previously taught at the University of Melbourne (2007-2015), the Australian National University (1995-1998) and LSE (2000-2007). He is the author of Great Powers and Outlaw States (Cambridge, 2004) and Law, War and Crime: War Crimes Trials and the Reinvention of International Law (Polity 2007), and co-editor (with Kevin Jon Heller) of Hidden Histories (Oxford, 2014) and (with Raimond Gaita) of Who’s Afraid of International Law? (Monash, forthcoming, 2016).
Professor Simpson’s current research projects include an ARC-funded project on Cold War International Law (with Matt Craven, SOAS) and Sundhya Pahuja, (Melbourne) and a counter-history of International Criminal Justice. He is currently also writing about the literary life of international law.He is an editor of The London Review of International Law and an occasional essayist and contributor for Arena Magazine in Melbourne and The Conversation.
CeCIL is an innovative research centre, based at Kent Law School, which aims to foster critical approaches to the field of international law, and other areas of law that touch upon global legal problems.
In addition to an annual lecture, CeCIL offers a programme of activities for Kent Law students. The Centre also organises workshops designed to engage scholars based at other institutions, and strives to engage students, scholars and practitioners interested in the critical study of international law around the world through developing collaborations and joint research efforts.
