Penal humanitarianism beyond the nation state: An analysis of international criminal justice

Kjersti Lohne

doi:10.1177/1362480618806917

Abstract

In a recent account of border control, Mary Bosworth introduces the notion of ‘penal humanitarianism’ to describe how humanitarianism enables penal power to move beyond the nation state. Based on a study of international criminal justice, this article applies and develops the notion of penal humanitarianism, and argues that that power to punish is particularly driven by humanitarian reason when punishment is disembedded from the nation state altogether. Disguising the fact of situatedness through claims to the global and universal, international criminal justice is not only a product of situated relations of power, but also constitutes new geographies of penal power. By complicating notions of humanitarianism, penal power and the state, international criminal justice raises interesting questions about the epistemological privilege of the nation state framework in the sociology of punishment.

Highlights

International criminal justice is the normative and material system of international criminal laws and tribunals established to ensure individual criminal accountability for extreme forms of violence generally referred to as core international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression
In a recent account of border control, Mary Bosworth introduces the notion of ‘penal humanitarianism’ to describe how humanitarianism enables penal power to move beyond the nation state
Based on a study of international criminal justice, this article applies and develops the notion of penal humanitarianism, and argues that that power to punish is driven by humanitarian reason when punishment is disembedded from the nation state altogether

Summary

Introduction

International criminal justice is the normative and material system of international criminal laws and tribunals established to ensure individual criminal accountability for extreme forms of violence generally referred to as core international crimes: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. Notwithstanding the burgeoning literature on ‘supranational criminology’ (Smeulers and Haveman, 2008), the field of international criminal justice has yet to attract the attention of sociology of punishment (but see Findlay, 2008; Savelsberg, 2018). This lack of engagement contributes to criminology’s increasing fragmentation (Bosworth and Hoyle, 2011) instead of being viewed as an indicator of how, under conditions of globalization, ‘penal power has expanded but has changed, at least in part, in its justification and its effect’ (Bosworth, 2012: 125)

Objectives

Conclusion