CRITICAL LEGAL THINKING
LAW AND THE POLITICAL
CRITICAL LEGAL THINKING
LAW AND THE POLITICAL
Rage Against the End of International Law: From Venezuela to the Global
In a recent piece published at Opinio Juris,[i] Nikolas M. Rajkovic calls on international lawyers to recalibrate their “ways of seeing” to account for the multi-scalar, relational, and interconnected nature of contemporary authority and power. His article invites a critical reexamination and update of the visual and conceptual tools lawyers use to understand the world, by way of moving beyond the outdated “cartographic lens” of international law. He suggests that the discipline must recognize that what appears as a crisis of international law is, in fact, a crisis of its epistemic frameworks. This way, he contends, international law can better respond to the challenges of an epoch shaped by global flows, geopolitical dynamics, emerging networks, and infrastructures. Transformation, not collapse, is the path forward, he concludes. While Rajkovic’s call for a radical transformation in legal thinking is compelling and his writing has much to be liked about, it nonetheless, to...
ARTICLES
(K)not Politics: Thoughts on Ukraine and Protest
The events in Ukraine have caused many to wonder what sparked the protests in November and why things unfolded into such violence this February. How do we understand European and Russian interest in this country, and what media, what sources of information can be...
Some Reflections on the #ACCELERATE MANIFESTO
The Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics (MAP) opens by noting the depth of the current crisis – “cataclysm” – and a negation of the future by “coming apocalypses”. No need for alarm however: there is nothing political-theological here whatsoever, so those who...
What’s Going on in Venezuela?
It’s difficult to briefly explain the situation in Venezuela right now. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is complicated, like most things. No matter how various political protagonists, human rights groups and news media would like to paint things as simple,...
Racism as Excessive Legalism
We rightly celebrate that we live in a society where law and order prevail. The capacity to follow established rules allows for the smooth operation of the many necessary transactions that make up our everyday life. And the law, among other things, guarantees that we...
#Accelerationism: Remembering the Future
For the last forty years the vision of our societies as progressive and heading in a better direction has been systematically eroded. Under the permutation of capitalism that began in the 1970s, gained traction in the 1980s, appeared victorious in the 1990s, and faced...
The Insecurity of Public Interest: Criminal Law and Dumpster Diving
The idea of insecurity seems to have an ever increasing hold on our contemporary social imaginary, a tendency which is now regularly used by the authorities in order to legitimise a specific notion of public interest. Last week, this notion came to the fore when the...
For a Theory of Destituent Power
A reflection on the destiny of democracy today here in Athens is in some way disturbing, because it obliges to think the end of democracy in the very place where it was born. As a matter of fact, the hypothesis I would like to suggest is that the prevailing...
Regulatory exceptionalism: the EU short selling ban
A much remarked upon feature of the Global Financial Crisis ('GFC') has been the recourse of governments to permanent states of exception, purportedly justified by the need to protect financial stability. We have seen everything from prime ministers being...
Guantanamo is still there … and the number of Guantanomos is multiplying.
One of the reasons why President Obama’s mandate has fallen many miles short of expectations is his clear lack of will — let’s dispense with euphemisms — to deliver his promise to close the six different camps making up the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay. This is where...
The Five Extraordinary Features of the Sochi Winter Olympics
Introduction On 7 February 2014, the Sochi Winter Olympics will commence. It is estimated that these games will cost at least US$51 billion — the most expensive in history — costing Russia more than the $40 billion that China spent on the 2008 Summer Olympics. The UK...
Badiou’s Jurisprudence II: ‘We Have Become Simulacra’
If freedom, as Deleuze claims, is to engage in jurisprudence, do we not encounter a paradox in the alliance between Alain Badiou and Jacques Vergès? A paradox that strikes at the heart of the colonial and juridical situation of a colonized people? If Vergès institutes...
Patrick McAuslan, or the Yes
Professor Patrick McAuslan passed away on the 11th of January, 2014. I do not know the details of his apparently deteriorating health, or of his death for that matter. I know very basic things about the whole event, and I have chosen to keep it like this. This is...
A Generation Gaining its Voice
I ended 2013 listening to Glen Greenwald’s keynote address at the Chaos Computer Club’s 30c3 conference in Hamburg. Though Greenwald was convinced that change is possible, he was certain it would not arise through political debate or democratic processes. Instead his...
What the Duggan Inquest Teaches us about Fear and Sovereignty
After the Met Police killed Mark Duggan in 2011 it had felt like London took a collective breath and had been waiting to exhale, hoping that the inquest into his fatal shooting would uphold some sense of justice. This hope was sadly extinguished this week. When I read...
Badiou’s Jurisprudence: The Event of Law and The Law of The Event
In a lecture published in the Cardozo Law Review in 2008, Alain Badiou articulates his understanding of Being, Event, and Simulacrum in relationship to Logic and Law. With an incredible power of precision, Badiou reminds his audience of Aristotle’s three main pillars...
Post-Modern Absurdities: Chomsky, Post-Structuralism and Science
I like Noam Chomsky. I like how he can cut through the vagaries and distortions of much mainstream thought. I like how he always contextualises political events and has a deep sensitivity towards, and knowledge of, history. I like how he made William Buckley — latter...
Lauren Berlant as Cynical Philosopher: An Introduction
If body, then everything can follow (Berlant, Cruel Optimism, 266) ‘Stray dogs have knowledge,’ the late Greek writer Margarita Karapanou writes, ‘because they have suffered pain… Pedigree dogs in relation to stray dogs are still unborn’ (my translation). In this...
Between Repression and Paternalism: European Asylum and Immigration Policy after the Lampedusa Tragedy
Crocodile Tears In the space of just over a week the world watched in astonishment as two ships sank off the Italian coast, giving rise to staggering death-tolls (359 on the 3rd of October, more than 50 on the 11th) and various expressions of grief. Among the mourners...
The Law of University Protest: Notes from the UK
December 1st saw the launch of "Defend the Irish University"; a charter which underscores common experiences of university privatisation in Ireland and the UK, and suggests possibilities for resistance. It is important to take note of what is happening to students and...
A Right to the University
On 4 December, the University of London was granted an injunction from the High Court that prohibits ‘persons unknown (including students of the University of London) from ‘entering or remaining upon the campus and buildings of University of London for the purpose of...
A Longer Road to Freedom: Addressing 21st Century Apartheids
The death of Nelson Mandela seems to unite minds and hearts the world over in a celebration of his life’s achievements and an apparently near-universal sadness at the passing of ‘a great light’ from the world. International leaders are lining up to give their deeply...
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