Monopolizing Global Justice: International Criminal Law as Challenge to Human Diversity
Journal of International Criminal Justice Forthcoming
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 63/2014
23 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2014 Last revised: 12 Dec 2014
Date Written: November 1, 2014
Abstract
Over the past two decades, international criminal law has been increasingly institutionalized and has become one of the dominant frames for defining issues of justice and conflict resolution. Indeed, international criminal law is often presented as the road towards global justice. But the rise of international criminal law and its equation with global justice come with a profound risk: alternative conceptions of justice can be marginalized. Based on field work in Uganda and Sudan, we present five examples of alternative conceptions of justice that in fact have been side-lined: the restoration of relationships, putting an end to on-going violence, redistribution, non-criminal law forms of punishment and equality. However, international criminal law’s monopolization of discourses of justice threatens not only alternative conceptions of justice, but also international criminal law itself. It frustrates one of its main aims: the protection of diversity.
Keywords: global justice, international criminal law, Arendt, diversity, tribunalization, conceptions of justice
JEL Classification: K3, K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation