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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2022
The purpose of this article is to advocate for new methods of studying international law. Hissène Habré, former President of Chad, was convicted by a hybrid tribunal in Dakar. Our book on this judicial process (The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré, Oxford University Press, 2020) develops a novel empirical format of first-person testimonials, followed by expert analyses, to trace and contextualize the decades-long story of attempts to bring Habré to justice. The empirical materials collected in our book demonstrate that the Habré trial challenges a linear distribution of power from international (global) actors to local, demonstrating rather a series of horizontal relations between the local and international. Based on this research experience, the article lays out the method we developed. It facilitates an assessment of the legal and political impact of court decisions, routines and broader bureaucratic politics through which the practices of judging are constructed. “Justice” does not speak with one voice; it is made up of multiple actors with different professional interests and personal goals. It is also impacted by power dynamics and by the structure of the institution, including by institutional routine and legal bureaucracy.
1 Weill, Sharon, Seelinger, Kim Thuy and Carlson, Kerstin Bree (eds), The President on Trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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3 Prior to researching the EAC itself, Seelinger was involved in the development of an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court in December 2015, regarding the potential to charge sexual violence crimes according to the EAC statute and based on customary international law in effect during the 1980s.
4 Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Force of Law: Toward a Sociology of the Juridical Field”, Hastings Law Journal, Vol. 38, No. 5, 1987Google Scholar; Christensen, Mikkel J., “Crafting and Promoting International Crimes: A Controversy Between Legal Professionals of Core Crimes and Anti-Corruption”, Leiden Journal of International Law, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2017CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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6 Weill, Sharon, “Transnational Jihadism and the Role of Criminal Judges: An Ethnography of French Courts”, Journal of Law and Society, Vol. 47, No. S1, 2020CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weill, Sharon, "French Foreign Fighters: The Engagement of Administrative and Criminal Justice in France", International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 100, No. 907–909, 2018CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Carlson, Kerstin Bree, The Justice Laboratory: International Law in Africa, Chatham House/Brookings, London, 2022Google Scholar.
