Jeff Handmaker and Karin Arts (eds), Mobilising International Law for ‘Global Justice’

Abstract

This collection of work, edited by Jeff Handmaker and Karin Arts, addresses the question of how less powerful actors, principally civil society and international lawyers, can play a more impactful role in the quest for ‘global justice’, by engaging with the law in a variety of ways.1 The chapters showcase a diverse range of topics and methodologies. Through a series of case studies, the book aims to provide a number of strategies for these actors to realise the goal of preventing impunity for breaches of international law. In doing so, the book illustrates that it is possible for civil society and international lawyers to effect positive change in State-centric international legal institutions. As international legal institutions themselves are incapable of realising global justice, ultimately, this book provides some guideposts and examples of the creativity that is required for international lawyers and civil society to positively influence international justice. Part one of the book sets out the theme that in order for international lawyers and civil society to effect global justice, the many vocabularies of international law will have to be understood and utilised. This overarching theme is established by renowned international law scholar, Martti Koskenniemi, in the first substantive chapter. Part two illustrates this point through several empirical case studies. Part three provides several examples in which international lawyers and civil society actors sought to incorporate international law on a local level. The book sets an ambitious task, as the editor’s note in the introduction: