Peoples' Tribunals and International Law

Peoples' Tribunals and International Law is the first book to analyse how civil society tribunals implement and develop international law. With contributions covering tribunals in Europe, Latin America and Asia, this edited collection provides cross-disciplinary academic and activist perspectives and unique insights into the phenomenon of peoples' tribunals. Written by academics in law, anthropology and international relations, it also incorporates the reflections of civil society activists and advocates on peoples' tribunals. The collection includes chapters ranging from the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, successor to the Bertrand Russell Tribunal established to question the legality of the Vietnam War, to recent tribunals addressing atrocities in Soeharto's Indonesia and violations against migrants in Europe. Peoples' Tribunals and International Law offers the first sustained analysis of the different approaches to international law in tribunal proceedings. It will interest scholars of law, criminology, human rights, politics, sociology, anthropology and international relations.

Introduction Andrew Byrnes and Gabrielle Simm; Part I. Introduction: History of Peoples' Tribunals: 1. International peoples' tribunals: their nature, practice and significance Andrew Byrnes and Gabrielle Simm; 2. The history of the permanent peoples' tribunal Gianni Tognoni; Part II. The Politics of Bearing Witness and Listening: 3. Peoples' tribunals, women's courts and international sexual violence crimes Gabrielle Simm; 4. The Tokyo Women's Tribunal: transboundary activists and the use of law's power Tina Dolgopol; 5. The International People's Tribunal on 1965 crimes against humanity in Indonesia: an anthropological perspective Saskia E. Wieringa; 6. The participation of peoples in the development of international law: the laboratory of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Simona Fraudatario and Gianni Tognoni; Part III. Legal Pluralism and Popular International Law: 7. Accusing 'Europe': articulations of migrant justice and a popular international law Sara Dehm; 8. The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal and indigenous peoples' struggle in Mexico: between coloniality and epistemic justice Rosalba Icaza Garza; 9. Evaluating the Biak Massacre Citizens' Tribunal and the disputed Indonesian region of West Papua Nicola Edwards; 10. Assessing the contribution of the Latin American Water Tribunal to transnational environmental law Belén Olmos Giupponi; Part IV. The Future of International Peoples' Tribunals: 11. Reflections on the past and future of international peoples' tribunals Andrew Byrnes and Gabrielle Simm.

Andrew Byrnes is Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW), where he served as Chair of the Australian Human Rights Centre based in the UNSW Law School from 2005–17. He teaches and writes in the fields of public international law, human rights, and international criminal/humanitarian law. He serves on the Board of the Diplomacy Training Program and was President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law from 2009 to 2013. From November 2012 until September 2014 he was external legal adviser to the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
Gabrielle Simm is Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University of Technology Sydney and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Human Rights Centre, University of New South Wales Law School. She is the author of Sex in Peace Operations (Cambridge, 2013) and has research interests in international law, refugee and migration law. Prior to becoming an academic, she was an international lawyer in the Australian government, a diplomat in Southeast Asia, and a refugee lawyer in Melbourne.