The International Criminal Court and the Pursuit of Justice

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Dr. Maxine Kamari Clarke of Yale University will conduct research on international justice and human rights as these concepts have been interpreted by the International Criminal Court and the African Union Commission. The past two years have witnessed the ICC's intensive focus on African states, including arrest warrants for numerous African leaders. The proposed research -- shaped by current theoretical debates on the globalization of human rights, the anthropology of justice, and genealogies of affect -- explores contestations over justice, documenting the making of the Rome Statute for the ICC and the corresponding rise of the rule of law movement. The project will take place at two critical sites: (1) the ICC at The Hague, in which investigations and adjudication are ongoing; (2) the AU Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where political, economic and culturally shaped decision-making is underway toward the development of an African court with the jurisdiction to handle international crimes committed by individuals. Data will be collected at each site through a variety of social science methods, including interviews, participant observation, and archival research, and analyzed to test three major hypotheses concerning (1) the globalization of human rights and the cooperation of AU leaders; (2) the factors affecting the nature and form of struggles over the meanings of justice; (3) the structures of affect that shape AU cooperation with the ICC.As international justice mechanisms continue to evolve, there is a special urgency to this research as it relates to appropriate forms of legal involvement in the pursuit of peace. This project will advance scientific understandings of international law and justice in the field of Law and Social Sciences, especially in anthropology or interdisciplinary studies of law. The research will also contribute to the training of a graduate student. The empirical findings of this study will be of great importance to policymakers, providing insights into the motivating factors, experiences, and concerns of international justice mechanisms. This research was co-funded by the Cultural Anthropology program and the Law and Social Sciences program.