Category: Zoom Out
Can international justice fight the fait accompli of wars?
Faced with the loss of life, injury and destruction caused by war, international lawyers may have mixed feelings about the ability of international law and, more specifically, international justice understood narrowly as international courts...
International Law as a System of Claims
An optimistic short answer to QIL editors’ challenging question is that international justice has, in fact, done a lot either to stop the war in Ukraine,[1] to limit the ferocity of the war in...
International justice cannot stop the war. What can?
The question that motivates this Special Issue – What can international justice do to stop the war? – can be answered in one word: Nothing. My goals in this short essay are to unpack...
What can international justice do to stop the war? An editorial and a question
by Maurizio Arcari and Beatrice Bonafé* Let us start with a frivolous consideration: May 2024 marked QIL’s tenth anniversary. The moment is ripe for an assessment, after such a considerable amount of time,...
Colonialism: The ‘perfect crime’ relentlessly reproducing its victims
1. Repairs and remedies. An introduction Denunciations of the ‘evils’ of colonialism occur over and over again, as does an intermittent readiness to listen to them.[1] But the wounds that have been inflicted cannot...
Europe and the Colonial Legacy: Continuity in a History to Be Told
‘The European empires have two distinct, but interdependent histories. The first […] is the history of the European discovery and colonization of America. It begins with Columbus’s first voyage in 1492 and ends, somewhat...
The participation of indigenous peoples and victims in treaty-making for reconciliation on colonial crimes: between change and stability
1. Introduction Colonialism continues to raise complex issues for international law. Perhaps the most important question pertains to whether former colonial empires have an obligation to provide reparation for the acts of violence they...
Legal aspects concerning the restitution of cultural property removed during colonial occupation
1. Introduction On 18 December 1973, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3187 on the prompt restitution of cultural property, establishing ‘special obligations of those countries which had access to such valuable objects only...
