Mark A. Drumbl – författare

Informers are generally reviled. After all, 'snitches get stitches.' Informers who report to repressive regimes are particularly disdained. While informers may themselves be victims enlisted by the state, their actions cause other individuals to suffer significant harm. Informers, then, are central to the proliferation of endemic human rights abuses. Yet, little is known about exactly why ordinary people end up informing on--at times betraying--other people to state authorities. Through a case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) that draws from secret police archives, oral histories, and a broad gamut of secondary sources, this book unearths what fuels informers to speak to the secret police in repressive times and considers how transitional justice should approach informers once repression ends. This book unravels the complex drivers behind informing and the dynamics of societal reactions to informing. It explores the agency of both informers and secret police officers. By presenting informers 'up close', and the relationships between informers and secret police officers in high resolution, this book centres the role of emotions in informer motivations and underscores the value of dignity and reconciliation in transitional reconstruction. This book also leverages research from informing in repressive states to better understand informing in so-called liberal democratic states, which, after all, also rely on informers to maintain law and preserve order.To learn more, read the introduction and conclusion from the book's symposium: https://opiniojuris.org/2024/08/19/introduction-to-the-sympo https://opiniojuris.org/2024/08/23/symposium-on-informers-up https://justiceinconflict.org/2024/10/07/disguise-blur-purr- and-nakedness-mark-drumbl-and-barbora-hola-on-informers-up-c lose-stories-from-communist-prague/ https://justiceinconflict.org/2024/10/16/to-change-the-we-as -well-as-the-me-and-the-you-concluding-the-symposium-on-info rmers-up-close/

The international community's efforts to halt child soldiering have yielded some successes. But this pernicious practice persists. It may shift locally, but it endures globally. Preventative measures therefore remain inadequate. Former child soldiers experience challenges readjusting to civilian life. Reintegration is complex and eventful. The homecoming is only the beginning. Reconciliation within communities afflicted by violence committed by and against child soldiers is incomplete. Shortfalls linger on the restorative front. The international community strives to eradicate the scourge of child soldiering. Mostly, though, these efforts replay the same narratives and circulate the same assumptions. Current humanitarian discourse sees child soldiers as passive victims, tools of war, vulnerable, psychologically devastated, and not responsible for their violent acts. This perception has come to suffuse international law and policy. Although reflecting much of the lives of child soldiers, this portrayal also omits critical aspects. This book pursues an alternate path by reimagining the child soldier. It approaches child soldiers with a more nuanced and less judgmental mind. This book takes a second look at these efforts. It aspires to refresh law and policy so as to improve preventative, restorative, and remedial initiatives while also vivifying the dignity of youth. Along the way, Drumbl questions central tenets of contemporary humanitarianism and rethinks elements of international criminal justice. This ground-breaking book is essential reading for anyone committed to truly emboldening the rights of the child. It offers a way to think about child soldiers that would invigorate international law, policy, and best practices. Where does this reimagination lead? Not toward retributive criminal trials, but instead toward restorative forms of justice. Toward forgiveness instead of excuse, thereby facilitating reintegration and promoting social repair within afflicted communities. Toward a better understanding of child soldiering, without which the practice cannot be ended. This book also offers fresh thinking on related issues, ranging from juvenile justice, to humanitarian interventions, to the universality of human rights, to the role of law in responding to mass atrocity.

The international community's efforts to halt child soldiering have yielded some successes. But this pernicious practice persists. It may shift locally, but it endures globally. Preventative measures therefore remain inadequate. Former child soldiers experience challenges readjusting to civilian life. Reintegration is complex and eventful. The homecoming is only the beginning. Reconciliation within communities afflicted by violence committed by and against child soldiers is incomplete. Shortfalls linger on the restorative front.The international community strives to eradicate the scourge of child soldiering. Mostly, though, these efforts replay the same narratives and circulate the same assumptions. Current humanitarian discourse sees child soldiers as passive victims, tools of war, vulnerable, psychologically devastated, and not responsible for their violent acts. This perception has come to suffuse international law and policy. Although reflecting much of the lives of child soldiers, this portrayal also omits critical aspects. This book pursues an alternate path by reimagining the child soldier. It approaches child soldiers with a more nuanced and less judgmental mind.This book takes a second look at these efforts. It aspires to refresh law and policy so as to improve preventative, restorative, and remedial initiatives while also vivifying the dignity of youth. Along the way, Drumbl questions central tenets of contemporary humanitarianism and rethinks elements of international criminal justice. This ground-breaking book is essential reading for anyone committed to truly emboldening the rights of the child. It offers a way to think about child soldiers that would invigorate international law, policy, and best practices. Where does this reimagination lead? Not toward retributive criminal trials, but instead toward restorative forms of justice. Toward forgiveness instead of excuse, thereby facilitating reintegration and promoting social repair within afflicted communities. Toward a better understanding of child soldiering, without which the practice cannot be ended. This book also offers fresh thinking on related issues, ranging from juvenile justice, to humanitarian interventions, to the universality of human rights, to the role of law in responding to mass atrocity.

This book argues that accountability for extraordinary atrocity crimes should not uncritically adopt the methods and assumptions of ordinary liberal criminal law. Criminal punishment designed for common criminals is a response to mass atrocity and a device to promote justice in its aftermath. This book comes to this conclusion after reviewing the sentencing practices of international, national, and local courts and tribunals that punish atrocity perpetrators. Sentencing practices of these institutions fail to attain the goals that international criminal law ascribes to punishment, in particular retribution and deterrence. Fresh thinking is necessary to confront the collective nature of mass atrocity and the disturbing reality that individual membership in group-based killings is often not maladaptive or deviant behavior but, rather, adaptive or conformist behavior. This book turns to a modern, and adventurously pluralist, application of classical notions of cosmopolitanism to advance the frame of international criminal law to a broader construction of atrocity law and towards an interdisciplinary, contextual, and multicultural conception of justice.

This book argues that accountability for extraordinary atrocity crimes should not uncritically adopt the methods and assumptions of ordinary liberal criminal law. Criminal punishment designed for common criminals is a response to mass atrocity and a device to promote justice in its aftermath. This book comes to this conclusion after reviewing the sentencing practices of international, national, and local courts and tribunals that punish atrocity perpetrators. Sentencing practices of these institutions fail to attain the goals that international criminal law ascribes to punishment, in particular retribution and deterrence. Fresh thinking is necessary to confront the collective nature of mass atrocity and the disturbing reality that individual membership in group-based killings is often not maladaptive or deviant behavior but, rather, adaptive or conformist behavior. This book turns to a modern, and adventurously pluralist, application of classical notions of cosmopolitanism to advance the frame of international criminal law to a broader construction of atrocity law and towards an interdisciplinary, contextual, and multicultural conception of justice.

This multi- disciplinary volume provides an innovative approach to children and violence, looking beyond the existing literature that focuses on child soldiers in the ‘Global South.’Harnessing expert contributions from over a dozen countries, the book examines the relationship between children and violence, with a focus on children ensnared in military conflict, embroiled in criminal gangs, and enmeshed in political activism. It analyses how children join fights, how they fight, and what happens to them after fighting officially ends. It addresses cutting- edge issues such as cyberwars, self-defence, intergenerational trauma, gender fluidity, racism and state surveillance. Throughout, the book underscores the need to respect the agency and dignity of children and youth, to build cultures of juvenile rights, and to think critically of the place of the child amid global power politics and decolonisation. Through accessible writing, and the provision of considerable new data, this book supports advocacy work and will enrich teaching and spark further academic research.This book will be of great interest to students of International Law, Human Rights, Childhood Studies, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, Post- Conflict Studies, and Security Studies.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

This book challenges the simplicity, predestination, and self-evident nature of contemporary narratives of transitional justice. Transitional justice is the field of study that examines how states should reckon with massive human rights abuses. The book upends these assumptive narratives on three crucial fronts. The first front is that of innovations. Here, the book questions the ability of transitional justice to deliver tangible successes in an era of rapid and overwhelming technological change and contestation over what constitutes human memory, communicative dialogue, and reliable evidence. The second front involves boundaries. Here the book confronts the professed superpower of transitional justice to do more and more, in an endless concatenation of additives. While there is cause for optimism, this book also suggests that transitional justice remains awkward in how it copes with the existential pressures of environmental, health, and cultural crises. On its third front, refractions, this book identifies how transitional justice addresses racism, misogyny, and democratic backsliding. How the prism of transitional justice interventions refracts these scourges remains inadequate. Throughout, the book asks readers to imagine where the field and practice of transitional justice could go from here—what new innovations are required, what boundaries must be stretched or retrenched, and what perspectives need to be considered due to new ways of seeing current and past atrocities.Accordingly, this book will be of considerable interest to academics, practitioners working on post-conflict reconstruction, and students at all levels ranging from undergraduate to post-doctoral in the areas of law, politics, cultural property, criminology, human rights, international relations, and technology studies.

This book challenges the simplicity, predestination, and self-evident nature of contemporary narratives of transitional justice. Transitional justice is the field of study that examines how states should reckon with massive human rights abuses. The book upends these assumptive narratives on three crucial fronts. The first front is that of innovations. Here, the book questions the ability of transitional justice to deliver tangible successes in an era of rapid and overwhelming technological change and contestation over what constitutes human memory, communicative dialogue, and reliable evidence. The second front involves boundaries. Here the book confronts the professed superpower of transitional justice to do more and more, in an endless concatenation of additives. While there is cause for optimism, this book also suggests that transitional justice remains awkward in how it copes with the existential pressures of environmental, health, and cultural crises. On its third front, refractions, this book identifies how transitional justice addresses racism, misogyny, and democratic backsliding. How the prism of transitional justice interventions refracts these scourges remains inadequate. Throughout, the book asks readers to imagine where the field and practice of transitional justice could go from here—what new innovations are required, what boundaries must be stretched or retrenched, and what perspectives need to be considered due to new ways of seeing current and past atrocities.Accordingly, this book will be of considerable interest to academics, practitioners working on post-conflict reconstruction, and students at all levels ranging from undergraduate to post-doctoral in the areas of law, politics, cultural property, criminology, human rights, international relations, and technology studies.

Although child soldiers have received considerable media and policy attention, they remain poorly understood and inadequately protected. This Research Handbook addresses this troubling gap by offering a reflective and nuanced review of the complex issue of child soldiering.Containing original contributions from leading experts in many disciplines working across six continents, this comprehensive Handbook showcases diverse experiences and unique perspectives. The Handbook unpacks the life-cycle of youth and militarization: from recruitment, to demobilization, and return to civilian life. Challenging prevailing assumptions and conceptions, this uplifting Handbook focuses on the child soldier's capacity to cope with adversity. In so doing, it emphasizes the resilience, humanity and potential of children affected - rather than 'afflicted' - by armed conflict.The Research Handbook on Child Soldiers will be of interest to academics, practitioners and activists alike, with its extensive incorporation of cutting-edge fieldwork and the voices of the children themselves. Promoting equity between generations, this Handbook will also appeal to individuals from many walks of life who are concerned with the rights of the child in times of conflict, peace, and the in-between.

Although child soldiers have received considerable media and policy attention, they remain poorly understood and inadequately protected. This Research Handbook addresses this troubling gap by offering a reflective and nuanced review of the complex issue of child soldiering.Containing original contributions from leading experts in many disciplines working across six continents, this comprehensive Handbook showcases diverse experiences and unique perspectives. The Handbook unpacks the life-cycle of youth and militarization: from recruitment, to demobilization, and return to civilian life. Challenging prevailing assumptions and conceptions, this uplifting Handbook focuses on the child soldier's capacity to cope with adversity. In so doing, it emphasizes the resilience, humanity and potential of children affected - rather than 'afflicted' - by armed conflict.The Research Handbook on Child Soldiers will be of interest to academics, practitioners and activists alike, with its extensive incorporation of cutting-edge fieldwork and the voices of the children themselves. Promoting equity between generations, this Handbook will also appeal to individuals from many walks of life who are concerned with the rights of the child in times of conflict, peace, and the in-between.