BOOK: Immi TALLGREN & Thomas SKOUTERIS (eds.), The New Histories of International Criminal Law [The History and Theory of International Law] (Oxford: OUP, 2019), 288 p. ISBN 9780198829638, 70 GBP

(image source: OUP)

Book abstract:

The language of international criminal law has considerable traction in global politics, and much of its legitimacy is embedded in apparently 'axiomatic' historical truths. This innovative edited collection brings together some of the world's leading international lawyers with a very clear mandate in mind: to re-evaluate ('retry') the dominant historiographical tradition in the field of international criminal law. Carefully curated, and with contributions by leading scholars, The New Histories of International Criminal Law pursues three research objectives: to bring to the fore the structure and function of contemporary histories of international criminal law, to take issue with the consequences of these histories, and to call for their demystification. The essays discern several registers on which the received historiographical tradition must be retried: tropology; inclusions/exclusions; gender; race; representations of the victim and the perpetrator; history and memory; ideology and master narratives; international criminal law and hegemonic theories; and more. This book intervenes critically in the fields of international criminal law and international legal history by bringing in new voices and fresh approaches. Taken as a whole, it provides a rich account of the dilemmas, conundrums, and possibilities entailed in writing histories

Contents:

 1: Editors' Introduction, Immi Tallgren & Thomas Skouteris 2: Foreword, Martti Koskenniemi 3: Unprecedents, Gerry Simpson 4: Founding Moments and Founding Fathers: Shaping Publics Through the Sentimentalization of History Narratives, Kamari Clarke 5: From the Sentimental Story of the State to the Verbrecherstaat; Or, the Rise of the Atrocity Paradigm, Lawrence Douglas 6: International Criminal Justice History Writing as Anachronism, Frederic Megret 7: Redeeming Rape: Berlin 1945 and the Making of Modern International Criminal Law, Heidi Matthews 8: 'Voglio una donna!': Of Contributing to History of International Criminal Law with the Help of Women Who Perpetrated International Crimes, Immi Tallgren 9: Writing More Inclusive Histories of International Criminal Law: Lessons From the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Emily Haslam 10: The 'Africa Blue Books' at Versailles: World War I, Narrative and Unthinkable Histories of International Criminal Law, Christopher Gevers 11: Crimes Against Humanity: Racialized Subjects and Deracialized Histories, Vasuki Nesiah 12: Nazi Atrocities, International Criminal Law, and War Crimes Trials. The Soviet Union and the Global Moment of Post-World War II Justice, Franziska Exeler 13: Theodor Meron and the Humanization of International Law, Aleksi Peltonen 14: Histories of the Jewish 'Collaborator': Exile, not Guilt, Mark Drumbl

(source: ESILHIL)