This paper seeks to render intelligible the meaning of the vibrant tradition of people-led war crimes tribunals (PWCTs) which has emerged in the past half a century. Drawing upon recent postcolonial critiques of extant literature on geographies of care and responsibility, and informed by Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), we question the capacity of the international legal system to provide justice for ‘others’ (especially subaltern and colonised communities) at a distance. We situate PWCTs in the context of the claim that the international legal system is systemically contaminated because it is conceptually Western. We interrogate the seminal Russell Tribunal on Vietnam (1966–67) and in so doing are led to place under scrutiny the postcolonial and dialectical ethics which characterised the work of French philosopher, literary giant, and political activist Jean-Paul Sartre before, during, and after his tenure as Executive President of this tribunal. We argue that insofar as PWCTs speak subaltern truth to power, they work to decentre the Western ethical, legal, and juridical canon and confront insidious epistemic injustices. We conclude that any search for a postcolonial ethics to guide caring from afar can both inform and be informed by PWCTs.
AnderssonS (2011) “A secondary bibliography of the international war crimes tribunal: London, Stockholm and Roskilde”. Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies31: 167–187
2.
AndersonT C (1991) “Sartre's early ethics and the ontology of Being and Nothingness”. In: AronsonRvan den HovenA (eds) Sartre Alive, Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, pp. 183–201
3.
AndersonT C (1993) Sartre's Two Ethics: From Authenticity to Integral Humanity, Chicago, IL, Open Court
4.
AnghieAChimniB SMickelsonKOkaforO (2003) The Third World and International Legal Order: Law, Politics and Globalization, Leiden: Nijhoff
5.
BalakrishnanR (1998) “Locating the Third World in cultural geography”. Third World Legal Studies15: 1–20
6.
BarnettC (2005) “Who cares?”. In: ClokePCrangMGoodwinM (eds) Introducing Human Geographies, London, 588–601. Arnold
7.
BarnettC (2012) “Geography and ethics: placing life in the space of reasons”. Progress in Human Geography36: 379–388
8.
BassiouniM C (2011) Crimes Against Humanity: Historical Evolution and Contemporary Application, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9.
BellL A (1989) Sartre's Ethics of Authenticity, Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press
10.
BowdG PClaytonD W (2013) “Geographical warfare in the tropics: Yves Lacoste and the Vietnam war”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers103: 627–646
11.
BoyleMKobayashiA (2011) “Metropolitan anxieties: a critical appraisal of Sartre's theory of colonialism”. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series42: 158–177
12.
Caze LaM (2007) “Sartre integrating ethics and politics: the case of terrorism”. Parrhesia3: 43–54
13.
ChimniB S (2006) “Third World approaches to international law: a manifesto”. International Community Law Review8: 3–25
14.
ComaroffJ L (2001) “Colonialism, culture, and the law: a foreword”. Law and Society Inquiry305: 1–5
15.
CrittendenP (2009) Sartre in Search of an Ethics, Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
16.
CroweD (2014) Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History, New York: Palgrave Macmillan
17.
Cuadrado-QuesadaASimmG (2014) “Peoples tribunals: a progressive mechanism to achieve justice”. Human Rights Defender23: 21–23
18.
de BeauvoirS (1948) The Ethics of Ambiguity, New York: Citadel Presstranslated by B Frechtman
19.
DetmerD (1988) Freedom as a Value: A Critique of the Ethical Theory of Jean-Paul Sartre, La Salle, IL, Open Court
20.
EslavaLPahujaS (2011) “Between resistance and reform: TWAIL and the universality of international law”. Trade, Law and Development3: 103–130
21.
FalkR A (1968) The Vietnam War and International Law, California: Princeton University Press
22.
FalkR A (1969) The Vietnam War and International Law, Volume 2, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
23.
FalkR A (1972) The Vietnam War and International Law Volume 3, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
24.
FalkR A (1976) The Vietnam War and International Law Volume 4, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
25.
FalkRStevensJRajagopalB (2008) International Law and the Third World: Reshaping Justice, New York: Routledge
26.
FrickerM (1998) “Rational authority and social power: towards a truly social epistemology”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series98: 159–177
27.
FrickerM (2007) Epistemic Injustice; Power and the Ethics of Knowing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
28.
GandiL (2014) Common Cause: Postcolonial Ethics and the Practice of Democracy, 1900-1955, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
29.
GathiiJ T (1998) “International law and Eurocentricity”. European Journal of International Law9: 184–211
30.
GathiiJ T (2011) “TWAIL: a brief history of its origins, its decentralized network, and a tentative bibliography”. Trade Law and Development3: 26–48
31.
GilliganC (1982) In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
32.
GregoryD (1995) “Imaginative geographies”. Progress in Human Geography19: 447–485
33.
GregoryD (2004) The Colonial Present: Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq, Malden, MA: Blackwell
34.
GrovoguiS N (1996) Sovereigns, Quasi Sovereigns, and Africans: Race and Self-determination in International Law, Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press
35.
GrovoguiS N (2006) Beyond Eurocentrism and Anarchy: Memories of International Order and Institutions, London: Palgrave Macmillan
36.
HaganJ (2001) Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
37.
Haskell J D, forthcoming, “The Twail Paradox Financial and Mercantile Law Review”, volume 1
38.
HeldV (1993) Feminist Morality: Transforming Culture, Society, and Politics, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press
39.
JeansonF (1981) Sartre and the Problem of Morality, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Presstranslated by R Stone
40.
JeffreyAJakalaM (2014) “The hybrid legal geographies of a war crimes court”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers104: 652–667
41.
KampmarkB (2014) “Citizens' war crimes' tribunals”. Social Alternatives33: 5–10
42.
KobayashiABoyleM (2014) “Colonizing colonized: Sartre and Fanon”. In: BakanADuaE (eds) Theorizing Anti-racism: Rethinking the Tensions Between Marxism and Critical Race Theory, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 184–204
43.
LawsonV (2007) “Geographies of care and responsibility”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers97: 1–11
44.
LinsenberdG E (2000) An Investigation of Jean Paul Sartre's Posthumously Published Notebooks for an Ethics, Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press
45.
MadgeCRaghuramPNoxoloP (2009) “Engaged pedagogy and responsibility: a postcolonial analysis of international students”. Geoforum40: 34–45
46.
MasseyD (1991) “A global sense of place”. Marxism Today38: 24–29
47.
MasseyD (2004) “Geographies of responsibility”. Geografiska Annaler: Series B86: 5–18
48.
MehtaH C (2012) “North Vietnam's informal diplomacy with Bertrand Russell: peace activism and the international war crimes tribunal”. Peace and Change37: 64–94
49.
MickelsonK (1998) “Rhetoric and rage: Third World voices in international legal discourse”. Wisconsin International Law Journal16: 353–419
50.
MickelsonK (2008) “Taking stock of TWAIL histories”. International Community Law Review10: 355–378
51.
MutuaM (2000) “What is TWAIL?”. American Society of International Law Proceedings94: 31–40
52.
(2008) “Situating Third World approaches to international law (TWAIL): inspirations, challenges and possibilities”. In: MickelsonKOdumosuIParmarP (eds) International Community Law Review10: 15–28
53.
NicholsT (2010) “Speaking justice, performing reconciliation: twin challenges for a postcolonial ethics critical studies in improvisation”. Études critiques en improvisation6: 1–15
54.
NoddingsN (1984) Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press
55.
NoxoloPRaghuramPMadgeC (2012) “Unsettling responsibility: postcolonial interventions”. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series37: 418–429
56.
OkaforO (2008) “Critical Third World approaches to international law (TWAIL): theory, methodology, or both?”. International Community Law Review10: 371–378
57.
PahujaS (2011) Decolonising International Law: Development, Economic Growth and: The Politics of Universality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
58.
RaghuramPMadgeCNoxoloP (2009) “Rethinking responsibility and care for a postcolonial world”. Geoforum40: 5–13
59.
RajkovicN M (2012) “Global law and governmentality: reconceptualizing the ‘rule of law’ as rule ‘through’ law”. European Journal of International Relations18: 29–52
60.
RobbinsM S (2007) Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield
61.
RussellB (1967) War Crimes in Vietnam, London: Allen and Unwin
62.
RussellB (1971) “Bertrand Russell speech to the first meeting of members of the war crimes tribunal”. In: LimquecoPWeissP (eds) Prevent the Crime of Silence: Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal Founded by Bertrand Russell, London: Allen Lane, pp. 1–3
63.
Russell Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal. LimquecoPWeissP (1971) Prevent the Crime of Silence: Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal Founded by Bertrand Russell, London: Allen Lane
64.
SantoniR E (2003) Sartre on Violence: Curiously Ambivalent, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press
65.
SartreJ-P (1943) Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology, London: Routledge
66.
SartreJ-P (1948) Existentialism Is a Humanism, London: Methuen
67.
SartreJ-P (1967) “Imperialist morality”. New Left Review41: 3–32
68.
SartreJ-P (1971) “Inaugural statement: Stockholm meeting”. In: LimquecoPWeissP (eds) Prevent the Crime of Silence: Reports from the Sessions of the International War Crimes Tribunal Founded by Bertrand Russell, London: Allen Lane, pp. 1–7
69.
SartreJ-P (1976) Critique of Dialectical Reason Volume 1: Theory of Practical Ensembles, London, New Left Books
70.
SartreJ-P (1983) “Vietnam, imperialism, and genocide”. In: SartreJ-P (ed.) Between Existentialism and Marxism, London, 67–83. Verso
71.
SartreJ-P (1991) Critique of Dialectical Reason, Volume 2: The Intelligibility of History, London, Verso
72.
SartreJ-P (1992) Notebook for an Ethics, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press[1983] translated by D Pellauer
73.
SartreJ-PLevyB (1995) Hope Now: The 1980 Interviews, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Presstranslated by A van den Hoven
74.
SmithC A (2012) The Rise and Fall of War Crimes Trials: From Charles I to Bush II, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
75.
StoneRBowmanE (1986) “Dialectical ethics: a first look at Sartre's unpublished 1964 Rome lecture notes”. Social Text13-14: 195–215
76.
StoneRBowmanE (1991) “Sartre's ‘Morality and History’: a first look at the notes for the unpublished 1965 Cornell Lectures”. In: AronsonR (ed.) Sartre Alive, Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, pp. 53–82. translated by A van den Hoven
77.
SzeJ A M (2010) Sartre and the Moral Limits of War and Terrorism, London: Routledge
78.
TaylorC (1991) The Ethics of Authenticity, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
79.
TomesR R (2000) Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954-1975, New York: New York University Press
80.
TongRWilliamsN (2011) “Feminist ethics”. In: ZaltaE (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford, CA, The Metaphysics Research Lab
81.
TrontoJ C (1993) Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care, New York: Routledge
