Arts and Humanities History

Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics

Description

This cluster of papers explores the history of international humanitarianism, human rights, and the role of non-governmental organizations in global aid efforts. It delves into topics such as colonialism, decolonization, the Global South, Amnesty International, the New International Economic Order, and civil rights movements. The papers provide insights into the evolution of humanitarian action and its intersection with political and social developments.

Keywords

Humanitarianism; Human Rights; International Aid; NGOs; Colonialism; Decolonization; Global South; Amnesty International; New International Economic Order; Civil Rights

Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today's idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades … Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today's idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. In this pioneering book, Samuel Moyn elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage and asks what it reveals about the ideal's troubled present and uncertain future. For some, human rights stretch back to the dawn of Western civilization, the age of the American and French Revolutions, or the post - World War II moment when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed. Revisiting these episodes in a dramatic tour of humanity's moral history, Last Utopia shows that it was in the decade after 1968 that human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. Across eastern and western Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Latin America, human rights crystallized in a few short years as social activism and political rhetoric moved it from the hallways of the United Nations to the global forefront. It was on the ruins of earlier political utopias, Moyn argues, that human rights achieved contemporary prominence. The morality of individual rights substituted for the soiled political dreams of revolutionary communism and nationalism as international law became an alternative to popular struggle and bloody violence. But as the ideal of human rights enters into rival political agendas, it requires more vigilance and scrutiny than when it became the watchword of our hopes.
How were human rights invented, and how does their tumultuous history influence their perception and our ability to protect them today? From Professor Lynn Hunt comes this extraordinary cultural and … How were human rights invented, and how does their tumultuous history influence their perception and our ability to protect them today? From Professor Lynn Hunt comes this extraordinary cultural and intellectual history, which traces the roots of human rights to the rejection of torture as a means for finding the truth. She demonstrates how ideas of human relationships portrayed in novels and art helped spread these new ideals and how human rights continue to be contested today.
Introduction: The Crooked Timber of Humanitarianism 1. Co-Dependence: Humanitarianism and the World PART I: The Age of Imperial Humanitarianism 2. The Humanitarian Big Bang 3. Saving Slaves, Sinners, Savages, and … Introduction: The Crooked Timber of Humanitarianism 1. Co-Dependence: Humanitarianism and the World PART I: The Age of Imperial Humanitarianism 2. The Humanitarian Big Bang 3. Saving Slaves, Sinners, Savages, and Societies 4. Saving Soldiers and Civilians during War PART II: The Age of Neo-Humanitarianism 5. The New International 6. Neo-Humanitarianism 7. Humanitarianism during Wartime PART III: The Age of Liberal Humanitarianism 8. It's a Humanitarian's World 9. Armed for Humanity 10. Politics and Anti-Politics, or the New Paternalism Conclusion: The Empire of Humanity Notes References Index
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This chapter looks at how widely the trajectories of European state formation varied as a function of the geography of coercion and capital, the organization of major power-holders, and pressure … This chapter looks at how widely the trajectories of European state formation varied as a function of the geography of coercion and capital, the organization of major power-holders, and pressure from other states. It examines how a long series of unequal struggles among rulers, other powerholders, and ordinary people created specific state institutions and claims on the state. Great power competition and intervention play no more than supporting parts in any particular coup and in the maintenance of any particular military regime. The chapter explains how much the eventual organizational convergence of European states resulted from competition among them, both within Europe and in the rest of world. After centuries of divergences among capital-intensive, coercion-intensive, and capitalized-coercion paths of state formation, European states began to converge a few centuries ago; war and mutual influence caused convergence. World War II transformed the state system and the states within it.
In his 1941 State of Union message President Franklin Roosevelt called for protection worldwide of four essential freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, … In his 1941 State of Union message President Franklin Roosevelt called for protection worldwide of four essential freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Roosevelt's enunciation of these freedoms was part of a movement that gathered strength in 1940s and strived to make protection of human rights part of conditions for peace at end of World War II. In 1947 Eleanor Roosevelt was elected to be chair of United Nations Commission on Human Rights that was charged to produce a separate document for this purpose.The resulting Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, has become moral backbone of more than two hundred human rights instruments that are now a part of our world. The document has been a source of hope and inspiration to thousands of groups and millions of oppressed individuals.Johannes Morsink offers a behind-the-scenes account of Declaration's origins and development. He reports on detailed discussions that took place in United Nations, tells us which countries argued for or against each provision of Declaration, explains why certain important amendments were rejected, and shows how common revulsion toward Holocaust provided consensus needed to adopt this universal code of ethics.
What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of … What makes people love and die for nations, as well as hate and kill in their name? While many studies have been written on nationalist political movements, the sense of nationality - the personal and cultural feeling of belonging to the nation - has not received proportionate attention. In this widely acclaimed work, Benedict Anderson examines the creation and global spread of the 'imagined communities' of nationality. Anderson explores the processes that created these communities: the territorialisation of religious faiths, the decline of antique kingship, the interaction between capitalism and print, the development of vernacular languages-of-state, and changing conceptions of time. He shows how an originary nationalism born in the Americas was modularly adopted by popular movements in Europe, by the imperialist powers, and by the anti-imperialist resistances in Asia and Africa. This revised edition includes two new chapters, one of which discusses the complex role of the colonialist state's mindset in the development of Third World nationalism, while the other analyses the processes by which all over the world, nations came to imagine themselves as old.
The authors examine the impact of the international human rights regime on governments' human rights practices. They propose an explanation that highlights a “paradox of empty promises.” Their core arguments … The authors examine the impact of the international human rights regime on governments' human rights practices. They propose an explanation that highlights a “paradox of empty promises.” Their core arguments are that the global institutionalization of human rights has created an international context in which (1) governments often ratify human rights treaties as a matter of window dressing, radically decoupling policy from practice and at times exacerbating negative human rights practices, but (2) the emergent global legitimacy of human rights exerts independent global civil society effects that improve states’ actual human rights practices. The authors’ statistical analyses on a comprehensive sample of government repression from 1976 to 1999 find support for their argument.
In this article, I look at “imperial formations” rather than at empire per se to register the ongoing quality of processes of decimation, displacement, and reclamation. Imperial formations are relations … In this article, I look at “imperial formations” rather than at empire per se to register the ongoing quality of processes of decimation, displacement, and reclamation. Imperial formations are relations of force, harboring political forms that endure beyond the formal exclusions that legislate against equal opportunity, commensurate dignities, and equal rights. Working with the concept of imperial formation, rather than empire per se, the emphasis shifts from fixed forms of sovereignty and its denials to gradated forms of sovereignty and what has long marked the technologies of imperial rule—sliding and contested scales of differential rights. Imperial formations are defined by racialized relations of allocations and appropriations. Unlike empires, they are processes of becoming, not fixed things. Not least they are states of deferral that mete out promissory notes that are not exceptions to their operation but constitutive of them: imperial guardianship, trusteeships, delayed autonomy, temporary intervention, conditional tutelage, military takeover in the name of humanitarian works, violent intervention in the name of human rights, and security measures in the name of peace.
Educators frequently recommend that children read aloud to parents at home in the belief that the activity will positively contribute to children's literacy growth.From a research perspective, however, little is … Educators frequently recommend that children read aloud to parents at home in the belief that the activity will positively contribute to children's literacy growth.From a research perspective, however, little is known about these at-home reading experiences.Using a social constructivist theoretical perspective, the present study investigated the relationships between children's reading ability, children's sex, mothers' educational level, and mothers' helping behaviors during children's at-home oral reading practice.Seventy-six mother-child pairs from a suburban, middle-class community participated in the project.Accelerated and at-risk third grade readers took home a tape recorder and a third grade science text to read aloud to mothers.The conversations were audiotaped, professionally transcribed, and then coded.Results of the study indicated that the conversations between at-risk readers and their mothers were marked by the frequent use of error correction interventions, while the conversations between accelerated readers and their mothers were marked by children's extensive verbal involvement.A pattern of richer language interaction was also seen in the conversations of mothers and daughters when compared to those of mothers and sons.High school educated mothers used significantly more error correction interventions than did college educated mothers despite the fact that there were equal numbers of accelerated and at-risk readers in each of the educational groups.Additionally, college educated mothers asked significantly more high level questions than did high school educated mothers.Implications for practice are discussed.(Contains 58 references and 5 figures of data; appendixes contain the coding scheme and guidelines for using the scheme.)
Within the last two decades, there have been numerous publications on empire and imperialism in political theory and the history of political thought. While most scholars of this ‘turn to … Within the last two decades, there have been numerous publications on empire and imperialism in political theory and the history of political thought. While most scholars of this ‘turn to empire’ have focused on the historical conjunction of empire and liberalism, Adom Getachew's study Worldmaking after empire: the rise and fall of self-determination investigates historical examples of anti-colonial alternatives to empire. Drawing on archival sources from three different continents, this illuminating book reconstructs almost forgotten attempts to reconstitute the international order after the Second World War. Getachew shows that the anti-colonial struggle for self-determination reflected the conditionality of the nation-state theoretically and practically through the international sphere. The first chapter lays the theoretical groundwork for the later journey into the intellectual history of inter- and postwar anti-colonialist ‘worldmaking’. The author's starting-point is the claim that empire is not only a form of alien rule and exclusion from international society, but...
History of the Bamenda Grassfields, West Cameroon {1966)MIMEOGRAPHED notes by Mrs History of the Bamenda Grassfields, West Cameroon {1966)MIMEOGRAPHED notes by Mrs
Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current … Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term 'state' was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an agent which, although influenced by the society that surrounds it, also shapes social and political processes. The contributors to this volume, which includes some of the best recent interdisciplinary scholarship on states in relation to social structures, make use of theoretically engaged comparative and historical investigations to provide improved conceptualizations of states and how they operate. Each of the book's major parts presents a related set of analytical issues about modern states, which are explored in the context of a wide range of times and places, both contemporary and historical, and in developing and advanced-industrial nations. The first part examines state strategies in newly developing countries. The second part analyzes war making and state making in early modern Europe, and discusses states in relation to the post-World War II international economy. The third part pursues new insights into how states influence political cleavages and collective action. In the final chapter, the editors bring together the questions raised by the contributors and suggest tentative conclusions that emerge from an overview of all the articles. As a programmatic work that proposes new directions for the analysis of modern states, the volume will appeal to a wide range of teachers and students of political science, political economy, sociology, history, and anthropology.
People are now coming out of the closet on the word empire,'' said the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer.''The fact is no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically and … People are now coming out of the closet on the word empire,'' said the conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer.''The fact is no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically and militarily in the history of the world since the Roman Empire.''The metaphor of coming out is striking, part of a broader trend of appropriating the language of progressive movements in the service of empire.How outrageous to apply the language of gay pride to a military power that demands that its soldiers stay in the closet.-AmyKaplan, ''Violent Belongings and the Question of Empire Today''
In this classic work, noted political sociologist Juan Linz provides an unparalleled study of the nature of nondemocratic regimes. Linz's seminal analysis develops the fundamental distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian … In this classic work, noted political sociologist Juan Linz provides an unparalleled study of the nature of nondemocratic regimes. Linz's seminal analysis develops the fundamental distinction between totalitarian and authoritarian systems. It also presents a pathbreaking discussion of the personalistic, lawless, nonideological type of authoritarian rule that he calls (following Weber) the "sultanistic regime." The core of the book (including a 40-page bibliography) was published in 1975 as a chapter in the Handbook of Political Science, long out of print.The author has chosen not to change the original text for this new edition, but instead has added an extensive introduction reflecting on some of the contributions to the literature and the changes that have taken place in world politics and in the nature of regimes since the 1970s.
Every normal female Every normal female
| Edinburgh University Press eBooks
| Cambridge University Press eBooks
| Cambridge University Press eBooks
| Cambridge University Press eBooks
Zeynep Elif Koç | International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence
Kaushik Chatterjee | Anthem Press eBooks
| The New Press eBooks
| Oxford University Press eBooks
Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, … Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
Michael Onyebuchi Eze | Manchester University Press eBooks
| Manchester University Press eBooks
Marco Mariano | Nuovi Autoritarismi e Democrazie Diritto Istituzioni Società (NAD-DIS)
Da comunità immaginata a zona di sicurezza a impero internazionale. Le tante vite della Dottrina Monroe Quella bicentenaria della Dottrina Monroe è una storia di adattamenti, trasformazioni e appropriazioni. La … Da comunità immaginata a zona di sicurezza a impero internazionale. Le tante vite della Dottrina Monroe Quella bicentenaria della Dottrina Monroe è una storia di adattamenti, trasformazioni e appropriazioni. La prima parte del saggio analizza i più significativi tra questi adattamenti. Il testo del 1823 concepiva l’emisfero occidentale come una “comunità immaginata” di repubbliche americane basata su un’identità condivisa, seppur un po’ sfuggente, mentre il corollario del 1904 la trasformò in un sistema di sicurezza imposto dagli Stati Uniti. Infine, il suo dispiegamento all’interno del sistema interamericano nel corso del XX secolo portò alla creazione di un “impero internazionale” guidato dagli Stati Uniti. La seconda parte esamina la Seconda conferenza internazionale degli Stati americani (1901-1902), un episodio spesso trascurato nella storia del sistema interamericano che di fatto aprì la strada all’impero internazionale come tipologia di formazione imperiale operante nell'emisfero occidentale per tutto il XX secolo.
| Oxford University Press eBooks
Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, … Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
| Oxford University Press eBooks
Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, … Abstract This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
This article introduces and discusses the incipient historiography of the European Parliament. It argues that more systematic research in this direction has strong potential to overcome limitations of research both … This article introduces and discusses the incipient historiography of the European Parliament. It argues that more systematic research in this direction has strong potential to overcome limitations of research both on European integration and the member states. It can encourage and support those working on national history, or histories, to leave their intellectual ghettos and explore both vertical and horizontal connections in contemporary European history. Researching and writing about the history of the European Parliament can also contribute to a broader interdisciplinary debate about transnational democracy beyond the state, in what is now the highly institutionalised and legally integrated European Union. Focussing on the period of the Cold War, the article sets out a research agenda for addressing the internal politics of the European Parliament, its role in post-war European democracy and polity-building; and its underrated contribution to the Europeanization of policymaking. What could result is, befitting for a pluralistic democratic institution, not one, but several histories of the European Parliament and transnational democracy.
Lara Saguisag | State University of New York Press eBooks
This chapter examines the return and reception of deported migrants from North America to Finland during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its main sources compose of case files on … This chapter examines the return and reception of deported migrants from North America to Finland during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its main sources compose of case files on deportations held at Finnish diplomatic archives. By using these sources, the chapter looks into the process of deporting migrants from the perspective of the receiving state. It probes the attitudes of Finnish authorities to the deported migrants but also sheds light on the experiences of the deportees themselves. It traces the return journeys of the deportees and their reception in Finland. The chapter illustrates how deportations relied on transnational bureaucratic work. It argues that the reception of deportees was an important yet oft-overlooked venue for state- and nation-building where the deportees, too, had real if circumscribed agency.
| Cambridge University Press eBooks
The chapter provides the first comparative analysis of forced migrants in the Nordic historiographical traditions. Research outside the Nordic context has pointed to silences and blind spots regarding forced migrants, … The chapter provides the first comparative analysis of forced migrants in the Nordic historiographical traditions. Research outside the Nordic context has pointed to silences and blind spots regarding forced migrants, who have appeared as anomalies in nation-state-centric historiography. To what extent does a hypothesis of silences hold in the case of the Nordic countries? The chapter analyses relevant research in history and related fields in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden that covers the period from early modern times to the present. While highlighting the scale and complexity of histories of forced migration in the Nordic region, the overview finds highly patchy national research fields well into the 1990s, with forced migrants rarely in the focus and often subsumed into general migration or labor history. After the Second World War, specific groups such as Jewish refugees or Karelian “evacuees” received some scholarly attention, with critical research questioning self-celebratory national narratives particularly from 1970s onward. Yet major publications appeared as exceptions to an overall rule of silence and were often written outside the profession of history. Only from the 1990s onward has there been a sustained historical interest, reflecting contemporary debates on immigration and human rights. Expansion of research has been accompanied with diversifying methodological and theoretical approaches and a shift of focus towards the perspectives, agency, and specific experiences of forced migrants.
| Helsinki University Press eBooks
Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories sheds light on the often-overlooked histories of forced migrants in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during the 20th and 21st centuries. It offers the … Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories sheds light on the often-overlooked histories of forced migrants in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden during the 20th and 21st centuries. It offers the first comparative, region-wide volume focused specifically on the histories of refugees and other groups of forced migrants across the Nordic countries. Nordic historiographies have long tended to marginalise or omit the presence of these migrants, producing a perception of forced migration as something ‘new’ or ‘exceptional’. This volume challenges that notion by uncovering the long and varied histories of forced migration within, between, to, and from the Nordic region. In doing so, it repositions forced migrants as integral to the shaping of Nordic societies. The volume includes contributions from and about all the five Nordic countries. It examines both national specificities and shared regional patterns, offering insights into how forced migration has been regulated, remembered, and represented in public discourses across borders. The chapters engage with a wide range of forced migrant groups, such as wartime evacuees, refugees, deportees, Holocaust survivors, and more recent asylum-seekers. Central to the volume is the recognition of forced migrants as historical actors. Drawing on oral histories, personal testimonies, and archival research, the book foregrounds the agency of forced migrants themselves, countering their frequent portrayal as passive or voiceless. By tracing historiographical trends and shifting discourses, regulatory frameworks, and memory practices, Forced Migrants in Nordic Histories contributes a vital historical dimension to contemporary debates on forced migration.
Abstract The question of Western hegemony, specifically the universality/relativism of rights, has plagued the human rights project since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such debates … Abstract The question of Western hegemony, specifically the universality/relativism of rights, has plagued the human rights project since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such debates about universality and relativism mirror broader debates about Eurocentrism in International Relations (IR) theory. This chapter argues that global IR has made significant progress in decentering IR theory as well as highlighting the multiple agencies in the global arena, but it has been less successful in cumulating insights from different regions. Here, CAS stands as a natural ally. With its commitment to exploring substantive questions to identify and explain similarities and differences across regions, CAS can generate novel insights that are at least partially portable across regions or within a given population of cases. The chapter considers three specific human rights puzzles to show how CAS can help mediate between ardent proponents of universalist and particularist visions of human rights.
Gregory A. Daddis | Oxford University Press eBooks
Abstract This chapter explores the intersection of modernization theory and American interventionism during the Cold War. By the late 1950s, US policymakers believed that exporting American-style institutions and economic aid … Abstract This chapter explores the intersection of modernization theory and American interventionism during the Cold War. By the late 1950s, US policymakers believed that exporting American-style institutions and economic aid could stabilize developing nations and counter communism. However, this faith was built on flawed assumptions, as American leaders misread local conditions and underestimated the resentment their actions would provoke. In practice, modernization efforts often became coercive and militarized, linking development to security especially in regions like Southeast Asia and Latin America. As the chapter reveals, the faith in using war and development as transformative powers not only failed to achieve its goals but also led to destructive consequences, particularly in Vietnam.
Tobias Berger | International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique
| Yale University Press eBooks
| Yale University Press eBooks
Oumar Ba | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Rebecca Adler‐Nissen , Halvard Leira | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks

Civil conflict

2025-06-17
Jessica Maves Braithwaite | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Paul Belasik | CRC Press eBooks
Daniel Odin Shaw , Louise Mallinder | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Amnesties are legal or policy measures to bar ongoing or future criminal investigations or prosecutions for specified crimes or offenders. They have been used for millennia to resolve political crises … Amnesties are legal or policy measures to bar ongoing or future criminal investigations or prosecutions for specified crimes or offenders. They have been used for millennia to resolve political crises and ongoing conflicts within and between states. This means that they are a common feature of peace agreements and are often integrated into processes to encourage armed groups to surrender or to encourage perpetrators to disclose the truth of their actions. These legal tools are thus closely connected to efforts to resolve political disputes. However, their application to genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross human rights violations has become highly controversial due to the expansion of international criminal law and the turn toward criminal law within human rights. This expansion has taken the form of the elaboration of treaties to require states to investigate, prosecute, and punish specific international crimes; the creation of international or hybrid criminal courts; and the development of case law by international criminal tribunals and human rights institutions that argues that amnesties for international crimes and serious violations conflict with states’ obligations to investigate, prosecute, and punish those violations. It is often argued that these legal developments toward accountability have resulted in the emergence of an international norm that prohibits amnesties for international crimes and serious human rights violations. The obligations resulting from this norm are articulated by scholars, jurists, activists, and policymakers in different ways with respect to different actors. For example, it is viewed as requiring states to refrain from granting amnesties for international crimes and serious human rights violations, and in more expansive interpretations to require them to annul past amnesties for these crimes. The United Nations has interpreted the norm prohibiting amnesties to mean that its personnel cannot endorse peace agreements that provide amnesties for international crimes. In addition, it is often connected to the legal principle that national amnesties for international crimes and serious violations cannot bar prosecutions before international courts or extraterritorial prosecutions by other states. International relations scholars developed an expansive literature exploring the emergence, consolidation, contestation, and localization of the norms that require the investigation, prosecution, and punishment of international crimes and serious human rights violations. This literature has tended to only make limited reference to amnesty laws. However, it does yield important insights that could inform future research to explore how the antiamnesty norm emerged, examining measuring its robustness, and interpreting compliance or noncompliance with the norm. Key to understanding the normative status of the antiamnesty norm is understanding state compliance with the norm’s requirement that they should refrain from granting amnesties. Here, international relations scholarship is somewhat more developed that analyses of the emergence and contestation of amnesty norms. There is a growing body of publications that explore questions about when, where, and why amnesties are used and what impacts they have on peace and reconciliation. Most of these studies use qualitative analyses of single case study contexts, but a body of large-<italic>N</italic> quantitative analyses is emerging.
Nick Gibb , Robert Peal | Routledge eBooks
Abstract This article compares legislation addressing the legacy of slavery in France and the Netherlands. By virtue of its 2001 ‘Taubira Law’, France recognised the transatlantic slave trade as a … Abstract This article compares legislation addressing the legacy of slavery in France and the Netherlands. By virtue of its 2001 ‘Taubira Law’, France recognised the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. Two decades later, the Netherlands has opted for softer measures, materialising in state apologies from the Prime Minister Mark Rutte (2022) and the King Willem-Alexander (2023) for the slavery trade by the Dutch empire, without its Parliament embedding these actions into a more extensive memory law. This article critically explores these divergent approaches, zooming into the strengths of France’s formal legislative framework vis-à-vis the less prescriptive strategy in the Netherlands. Although the French legislative model seems more robust in its legal reckoning with the colonial past, that potentially aligns with global movements towards decolonisation and racial equity, the Dutch model benefits from avoiding the controversies associated with more rigid memory laws elsewhere, including their role in prompting ‘cancel culture’. The softer approach in the Netherlands, while still adhering to international human rights standards, may foster a reconciliation on collective memory that acknowledges the Dutch colonial past without undermining social and academic dialogue on the complex subject of slavery. The constitutional context of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is wider than the country of the Netherlands, also bears considerable socio-legal intricacies in adopting a memory law on such issues. The model of symbolic recognition notably through the King, who embodies a form of ontological security and mnemonic constitutionalism in a monarchy, aptly fits the socio-legal settings of the Netherlands.