Review Essays
Identity and Shared Humanity: Reflections on Amartya Sen’s Memoir
The concept and implications of our shared humanity are central to the questions of where we belong, who we are, and how we relate to others. This idea features prominently in Amartya Sen’s work and it runs through his recent memoir Home in the World. Sen’s memoir is a compelling read, giving a fascinating view of the making of a great mind, a Nobel Laureate in welfare economics who is one of the foremost public intellectuals of our time.
Helping Refugees Where They Are
Some policies are not politically feasible. In the context of refugees, many claim it is not politically feasible to start admitting significantly more refugees into wealthy countries. This review essay argues that there are good reasons to suppose increasing refugees’ admissions to wealthy states is politically feasible, if we account for the ways citizens in wealthy states are harmed when refugees are not admitted, and for the ways citizens are harmed when immigration enforcement prevents refugees from arriving.
Climate Displacement and the Legal Gymnastics of Justice: Is It All Political?
The future for people becoming displaced due to climate processes is still unknown. The effects of climate change are more apparent every day, and those most acutely impacted are still unable to access an appropriate legal remedy for their woes. This review essay considers two new books that evaluate the limits to international legal protections and the application of justice.
Lengthening the Shadow of International Law
As of 2010, aggression became a crime for which individuals can be tried at the International Criminal Court. While this development may appear minor to some, it represents a significant turn both in jus ad bellum and in the ambit of the court.
The Many Evils of Inequality: An Examination of T. M. Scanlon’s Pluralist Account
This review essay presents an in-depth theoretical look at—and critique of—Scanlon’s pluralist approach to objectionable inequality.
How Not to Do Things with International Law
In this review essay, Anne Peters considers Ian Hurd’s recent book How to Do Things with International Law. Peters argues that, although the book is provocative and compelling, it may unwittingly reinforce the realist stance that international law is simply power politics in disguise.
Human Rights Under Attack: What Comes Next?
Micheline Ishay laments the recent onslaught against the human rights movement even from professed supporters, taking Samuel Moyn’s recent book Not Enough as indicative of the trend. Rather than piling on more critiques, Ishay writes, what we really need are strategies and solutions.
Reconstructing Globalization in an Illiberal Era
George F. DeMartino examines recent books from Dani Rodrick and Joseph Stiglitz, both of whom press the case for a reconstructed globalization that generates benefits for all and not just for corporate and financial elites, but offer diverging prescriptions for how to achieve it.
