The Lasting Colonial Legacy of Sri Lanka's Black July Pogroms
In the summer of 1983, ethnic violence swept the island nation of Sri Lanka. Known as Black July, the outbreak of communal violence between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority communities left thousands dead and hundreds missing. Four decades later, the legacy of the violence lives on, searing Sri Lanka‘s social and political landscape. This [...]
Foundations of Nuclear War Avoidance: An Intellectual and Legal Challenge
“It must not be forgotten that it is perhaps more dangerous for a nation to allow itself to be conquered intellectually than by arms.” —Guillaume Apollinaire, “The New Spirit and the Poets” (1917) Nuclear weapons remain unique in the history of warfare and corresponding international law. Even a single instance of nuclear war-fighting could signify [...]
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a section of the newly enacted SAFE-T Act that eliminated cash bail in the state was legal under the state’s constitution. Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, stated: The Illinois Constitution of 1970 does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure [...]
DOJ: Minneapolis Police Department consistently violated civil rights
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report Friday alleging that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) “engage in a pattern or practice of conduct in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law.” The report comes after an extensive investigation that began in April 2021 after the death of George Floyd at the hands [...]
When Aggression and Genocide Combine: Putin's 'Hiterlite' War Against Ukraine
Vladimir Putin’s multiple crimes against Ukraine include aggression and genocide. But what happens when these two categories of criminality come together? Among other things, this result is not “merely” additive; it is also synergistic. Hence, the cumulative Russian wrongdoing is actually greater than the calculable sum of its component “parts.” What pertinent connections ought to [...]
The recent inflating of U.S.-China tensions has popped the illusion that Washington and Beijing might be able to limit their antagonism to economic competition, as the scuttling of a high-level diplomatic summit in Beijing over the shooting of a Chinese spy balloon recalls the postponement of an Eisenhower-Khrushchev meeting in 1960 following the downing of [...]
“t kind of makes you think people hate you because of the way you dress” an excerpt from an interview recorded in the article by Chris Allen titled, “‘People hate you because of the way you dress’: Understanding the invisible experience of veiled British Muslim women victims of Islamophobia.” Thomas Hammarberg, the Former Commissioner for [...]
Canada dispatch: British Columbia decriminalizes possession of small amounts of several 'hard' drugs
Canadian law students are reporting for JURIST on national and international developments in and affecting Canada. Mélanie Cantin is JURIST’s Chief Correspondent for Canada and a 2L at the University of Ottawa. As of today, Tuesday January 31, 2023, it is no longer a criminal offence to possess under 2.5 grams of certain previously illicit [...]
A critical attribute of tyranny is its multi-faced character. We are familiar with tyranny with its domestic face, and it is largely understood that this domestic face often turns outward through war and imperialism. That tyranny turns about-face back to the domestic sphere as the laws, policies and practices of external tyranny return to roost [...]
UN secretary general criticizes oil firms for concealing fossil fuel impact on climate change
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Wednesday accused Big Oil of peddling a “big lie” about their contribution in global warming. Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Guterres said, “We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our [...]
