The slave trade, abolition and the long history of international criminal law : the recaptive and the victim / Emily Haslam.

London ; New York : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

©2020

vii, 145 pages ; 25 cm

"Modern international criminal law typically traces its origins to the 20th century Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, excluding the slave trade and abolition. Yet, as this book shows, the slave trade and abolition resound in international criminal law in multiple ways. Its central focus lies in a close examination of the often-controversial litigation, in the first part of the nineteenth century, arising from British efforts to capture slave ships, much of it before Mixed Commissions. With archival-based research into this litigation, it explores the legal construction of so-called 'recaptives' (slaves found on board captured slave ships). The book argues that, notwithstanding its promise of freedom, the law actually constructed recaptives restrictively. In particular, it focused on questions of intervention rather than recaptives' rights. At the same time it shows how a critical reading of the archive reveals that recaptives contributed to litigation in important, but hitherto largely unrecognized, ways. The book is, however, not simply a contribution to the history of international law. Efforts to deliver justice through international criminal law continue to face considerable challenges and raise testing questions about the construction - and alternative construction - of victims. By inscribing the recaptive in international criminal legal history, the book offers an original contribution to these contentious issues and a reflection on critical international criminal legal history writing and its accompanying methodological and political choices"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online version: Haslam, Emily. Slave trade, abolition and the long history of international criminal law Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019

KZ7155 .H37 2020

English

9781138348899 hardcover
1138348899 hardcover
9780429436482 electronic book

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