You probably assume that you know what the word “expat” means. The writer Lucy Mushita first heard that word from European and American professionals who had come to work in her home country (Zimbabwe); they used it to describe themselves. She looked it up in a dictionary and found out that “expat” designates someone who goes to live or work in a country that is not his or her own. Later, however, she discovered that the word had a more limited scope than what its dictionary meaning suggested. “When I arrived in France and introduced myself as an expat, people looked at me with wide eyes,” she describes in her latest book Expat Blues. “They asked me if I’d fled poverty, misery or war, and I replied that I hadn’t. I was an expat. I was an expat who had followed her husband to France. But I realized that the word didn’t work for black people in the Western world.”
Justice
A moment for accountability? Syria and the pursuit of entrepreneurial justice after Assad – EJIL: Talk! – Go Health Pro
For those Syrians waking up to a shattered country devoid of its dictator or those exiled by war, no superlative can quite capture the enormity of events that have transpired in the last few days. Assad’s fall not only marks the end of the Ba’ath regime (as occurred across the border in Iraq in 2003), but it also signals a seismic shift in the fortunes of the country’s 14-year civil war and 54 years of brutal rule by father and by son. I myself lived in Damascus in 2008-2009 studying Arabic. The personal security and safety I had experienced during my time there before the civil war was only possible through palpable fear and extreme repression. An unspoken rule – or a ‘social contract’ of sorts – seemed to prevail: I could only continue to presume that the chances of being mugged or assaulted were miniscule while I continued to observe the requirement of political silence. In exchange for everyday safety as provided by an authoritarian regime, Syrians had to sacrifice any scope for criticising or challenging the nature of Ba’ath rule. Memories of the Sunni rebellion in 1982, which resulted in the regime’s annihilation of Hama’s old town and its population, prompted most Syrians to repress all political inclinations. Infamous interrogation centres and prisons were located in suburban streets or on the edge of towns, serving as ready reminders of the repercussions that would result in the wake of any form of dissent. Yet while this edifice of securitised repression appeared impregnable to me and to many Syrians, this illusion was shattered in 2011 once the regime responded to peaceful protests in the wake of Tunisia’s and Egypt’s uprisings with overwhelming force and depravity. Perhaps the level of brutality came as a shock, but once the regime responded so harshly, it was impossible to rewind the clock: violence spawned more violence such that once again the space for any form of political expression radically narrowed. The country soon slid into a stereotypically-wrenching civil war that was made far worse by an assortment of intervening states.
TwoLaw Laws of War Lecture Series; CfP Legitimacy of International Governance Workshop; CfP Cambridge International Law Journal Conference; CfP Politics of International Dispute Settlement; CfP ASIL International Criminal Law Interest Group; CfP International Court of Justice at 80; CfS ASIL International Criminal Law Scholarship Prize; Frameworks for Synergizing Sustainable Development Goals and IP Workshop; Expanding Access to Justice Book Launch; Modern Slavery in the Fishing Industry Panel – EJIL: Talk! – Go Health Pro
1. TwoLaw – Lecture Series on the Laws of War. On 28 November 2024, from 6-7 pm CET, Claire Vergerio (independent scholar) will give the next lecture of the TwoLaw – Lecture Series on the Laws of war. The topic of the lecture is “War, States, and International Order: Alberico Gentili and the Foundational Myth of the Laws of War” and focuses on the historical development of the prerogative of sovereign states to wage war. Vergerio argues that this arrangement was not derived from the ideas of Alberico Gentili and that this story was invented by a group of prominent international lawyers. Email jessica.oheim {at} student(.)uni-tueb
2. Call for Papers: Guidance, Expertise, Theoretical Authority and the Legitimacy of International Governance. This workshop will bring together international lawyers, philosophers, political scientists and scholars in related fields interested in exploring the role that epistemic authority and expertise play in today’s global governance. Abstracts are invited for a 2 day workshop to take place at Maynooth University, Ireland on 20 – 21 March 2025 to be sent to theoreticalauthority (at) gmail(,)com by 5 January 2025. Papers may address questions at a general level, or through a focus on one or more specific regimes, organisations, courts or tribunals. Contributions are invited from scholars in law, philosophy, political science and related disciplines, with a view to developing an interdisciplinary conversation around these questions. More information can be found here or email gurkan (.)capar(at)mu(.ie).
Is the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on granting asylum to Afghan women an implication of qualification of gender apartheid in Afghanistan? – EJIL: Talk! – Go Health Pro
Introduction
From a feminist perspective, international law has frequently failed to adequately address gender issues, primarily due to the challenges posed by a male-centric discourse reflected in its organizational and normative structure. This limitation is particularly evident in refugee law, where gender-based persecution has long struggled to gain recognition as a ground on its own for asylum. The 1951 Refugee Convention, developed in the context of post-war Europe with a limited understanding of the concept of persecution (see here and here), defines a refugee as someone fleeing their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, with gender being notably absent. This historical framework continues to hinder protections for women from Afghanistan under current refugee law, who face severe deprivation of fundamental rights and systematic discrimination. This system of oppression recently gained legal attention as ‘gender apartheid’ to distinguish the severity of the situation of women’s rights in this context (see this and this).
The Court of Justice decidedly jumps on the procurement protectionism bandwagon, creating legal uncertainty along the way (C‑652/22) — How to Crack a Nut – Go Health Pro
By falling just short of mandating a complete ban on access to EU procurement by third-country economic operators not covered by international agreements, in Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret (C-652/22) (‘Kolin’), the Court of Justice has suddenly crystallised a change in EU procurement-related trade policy. Kolin will have many, and potentially quite problematic, practical … Read more
