CRITICAL LEGAL THINKING
LAW AND THE POLITICAL
CRITICAL LEGAL THINKING
LAW AND THE POLITICAL
‘After’ the Rojava Revolution? Rethinking Political Hope in a Post-Autonomy Syria
Since early 2026, Rojava in North East Syria, has been under renewed assault by the new Syrian regime. A majority-Kurdish region, Rojava has, for more than 12 years been home to one of the world’s largest experiments in democratic autonomy and ecological living. The Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), led by Kurdish activists and facilitated by the organisational work of Tevgera Civaka Demokratîk (TEV-DEM; ‘Movement for a Democratic Society’), has built a new model of political community and legality in the wake of the Syrian civil war. Since 2014, the DAANES has provided safety, political and legal rights, and the means to lead a meaningful and peaceful life for almost 5 million stateless peoples from more than 11 religious and ethnic backgrounds. The DAANES experiment in Rojava can also be credited, uncontroversially, with the defeat of Daesh, through the organisation of its population into self-defence units that have also empowered women to...
ARTICLES
The Left and Catalonia
How a Left position regarding the Catalonia referendum on 1 Oct 2017 could present itself juridically and politically The Catalonia referendum this Sunday will become part of the history of Europe, possibly for the worst of reasons. I will not discuss here the...
On Marx’s Philosophical Methodology in the Grundrisse
There is a considerable debate about the value of Marx’s earlier philosophical works relative to his mature period writing the three volumes of Capital. Some believe that they are of great importance for understanding Marx, while others such as Althusser[1] famously...
Letter to the Editors of the Journal of the History of International Law
[This letter was sent to the editors of the Journal of the History of International Law on 29 August 2017 and published at Opinio Juris. It is republished here with permission.] Dear Editors, We are writing to express our grave concern about the publication of an...
Tenses of Violence: Antifascist Action & Legal Critique in Charlottesville’s Wake
[M]any Trump supporters said they welcomed [Trump’s] visit as an opportunity to express their views.Tim Foley, an Army veteran who leads his own citizens’ border patrol in Arizona, showed his Glock handgun to a reporter, saying he and his comrades had come to Phoenix...
The Jamestown Massacre: Rigour & International Legal History
Over recent years there have been significant advances in scholarship on the history of international law. Critical histories, including feminist, Marxist and most productively Third World perspectives, shed fresh light on the history of the discipline and its...
From the Cybernetic World War towards a Cybernetic Civil War
On an emerging phenomenon in the field of political affairs. On the Road to the Cybernetic World War Energy is essential for the production and movement of “things”. Using an assemblage of machines the industrial revolution exponentially increased the energy available...
Catastrophe at Warwick
A catastrophe is only violent in its uncalled for appearing, and its coming is all around us in the smallest things. This year’s Critical Legal Conference takes place at Warwick under the title Catastrophe. This is not without reason, for it sees the notion of...
The Razor’s Edge of Politics: Notes on the Meaning of the Encryption of Power
The original theory of the encryption of power was formulated by Gabriel Méndez-Hincapíe and I in an article published in Spanish in 2012. In the following years, several panels regarding the theory where held at the Critical Legal Conference, in 2014 at the...
The Workerant
In the unfolding drama of work in the digital age, new circumstance demands new language. Gig economy, on-demand work, sharing economy, precarious work, automation, zero-hour contracts, outsourcing, workfare. Whilst the entire stage set changes, the central character...
Poverty, Indigeneity and the Socio-Legal Adjudication of Self-Sufficiency
A man who has a language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language.” — Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks In 2013, Darlene Necan, a homeless First Nations woman from northern Ontario, Canada, began the construction of a modest one-room...
What does ‘the crowd’ Want? Populism and the Origin of Democracy
The liberal critique of the recent rise of populism reveals an uneasiness toward ‘unruly’ emotional crowds and their leaders’ anti-democratic postures – albeit these figures have captured political power through democratic means.[i] Trump, Le Pen, Modi, and Erdogan...
Macron & Africa’s ‘civilisational’ problem
Mr Macron has been nostalgic lately. First, he was nostalgic for the 18th century and hereditary rule asserting that the French people did not want to execute the king and that the revolution has left a (king-shaped) void at the heart of the Republic that only other...
Protecting Public Space: The Gypsy and Traveller Community
The Gypsy and Traveller community is obliged to have respect for a system which both marginalises and excludes them. On 5 July 2017, a community of Travellers pulled up to Preston Park in Brighton. The council and the police soon descended on them to inform them that...
History and Historical Mystification: Critical Observations on Badiou’s Politics
Alain Badiou is one of continental philosophy’s most original and creative minds. His politics can be understood as evading both the temptations of analytical political theory and post-modern skepticism through his metaphysics. According to Badiou, the multiplicity of...
Looking in the mirror: reflections on the DUP and ‘the Irish problem’
The chatter, comments, and headlines are clear: the perennial 'Irish problem' has returned to haunt the British stage. But what is there to hear in the silence that frames the chatter? To the surprise and unease of many in Britain the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)...
Radical Reconfigurations? Old and new futures in Northern Ireland
As the Conservative Party’s majority evaporated in the early hours of 9th June 2017, the new parliamentary power of the DUP quickly came into focus. With Sinn Fein resolutely abstaining from taking their seats, the Democratic Unionist Party find themselves in a...
Five theses on youth & the sociology of the UK election
(or some quickly gathered thoughts) Thesis 1. Contemporary capitalism rarely appears simple. Back in 1848 Marx wrote in the opening of The Communist Manifesto about how “Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has...
Words Matter: Titles and Framing in the International Justice Scene
Sacrificing nuance, sensitivity and specificity for the sake of a ‘catchy’ title is not a neutral choice, but reiterates dominant narratives and is violently short sighted. Scrolling through my social media feed one evening last week, I came across an announcement...
Editorial: Labour’s Insurgent Electoral Campaign
Whatever happens in today's election in the UK, Corbyn's campaign has been a success. Not in generations has there been an insurgent electoral campaign from the Labour party. By this we mean a campaign that faced down almost universal media antipathy (even hatred) but...
The ‘Right to the City’ Emerges? Moscow’s Anti-Regeneration Protests
Last month saw some of the most populous and socially significant protests in Moscow. A series of rallies was held against the plans by the Moscow authorities to demolish old ex-public housing stock and resettle over a million residents. What was supposed to be an...
Why is it difficult to accept foreign policy plays a part in terrorism?
In the travel documentary, In America, Stephen Fry visits a tea party in Massachusetts to speak with Harvard Professor Peter Gomes. The conversation discusses the re-imagined history of the United States, describing how American political solutions are sought for...
KEY CONCEPTS
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