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“After Outrage: Human Rights Abuses and the Search for Accountability” - International Law Speaker Series Continues at UC San Diego

The 2008-09 “After Outrage: Human Rights Abuses and the Search for Accountability” joint speaker series will conclude with three lectures to be held at UC San Diego. The speaker series is part of the International Law Speaker Series at the Institute for International, Comparative, and Area Studies (IICAS), and is co-sponsored by the International Legal Studies Program at California Western School of Law.

Countries emerging from situations of war, civil conflict, genocide or ethnic cleansing face a daunting task in rebuilding their societies and returning to order. Some countries have sought to prosecute perpetrators in domestic courts. There have also been efforts to establish international tribunals to prosecute perpetrators. Since it has often been impossible to exert the full force of the law to punish the guilty in the aftermath of atrocities, alternative responses have been attempted that include reparations, memorialization, and truth and reconciliation commissions. Each response offers its own approach to justice.

These alternative responses to the scourge of war, political repression, and ethnic cleansing have left us with many vexing moral and political dilemmas. The Sixth Annual Joint Speakers Series will explore the many options for transitional justice - from restitution and reparations to international tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions. Private actions including civil suits for human rights violations as well as non-legal responses will also be explored.

Elazar Barkan, Professor, International and Public Affairs; Co-Director, Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, spoke on "Redress and Human Rights." John Torpey, Professor, Sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center, will give a lecture on "Reparations Politics: Coming to Terms with the Past" on 2/26/09. Concluding the series, Mark A. Drumbl, Class of 1975 Alumni Professor at Washington & Lee University School of Law; Director, Transnational Law Institute, will give a talk on "Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law" on 3/12/09.

Olivier Roy's Lecture Available For Download

Olivier Roy is a political scientist and scholar of Persian language and civilization. He has been a professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales/EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) in Paris since 2003 and senior researcher in political science at the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) since 1985. During 2008-09, Professor Roy will be a Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley's Travers Political Science Department. His teaching at Berkeley will include the following: one undergraduate course offered by the Department of Political Science on the study of contemporary Muslims in a westernized environment and two graduate seminars cross listed with the UC Berkeley School of Law on "Islam in the Public Sphere" and "Comparative Perspective on Religions." In addition, he will organize an international conference on Islamic norms in secular public spheres: political problems, legal issues, and social practices to be held in Spring 2009 at Berkeley.

Professor Roy was a consultant to UNOCA (United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan) in 1988; in the same year he organized and accompanied a special UN team to Afghanistan. In 1993, he was special envoy for the OSCE in Tajikistan and in the following year became head of OSCE's Mission for Tajikistan. He has acted as a part-time consultant to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1984.

Professor Roy Spoke at UC San Diego on February 17, 2009. His lecture covered many topics on his new book, "The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East." If you would like to download a copy of this lecture, please click here.