War Crimes, Atrocity and Justice (PDF)

What do we know about war crimes and justice? What are the
discursive practices through which the dominant images of war
crimes, atrocity and justice are understood?

In this wide ranging text, Michael J. Shapiro contrasts the
justice-related imagery of the war crimes trial (for example the
solitary, headphone-wearing defendant at the Hague listening with
intent to a catalogue of charges) with ?literary justice?:
representations in literature, film, and biographical testimony,
raising questions about atrocities and justice that juridical
proceedings exclude.

By engaging with the ambiguities exposed by the artistic and
experiential genres, reading them alongside policy and archival
documentation and critical theoretical discourses, Shapiro?s War
Crimes, Atrocity, and Justice challenges traditional notions of
?responsibility? in juridical settings. His comparative readings
instead encourage a focus on the conditions of possibility for war
crimes as they arise from the actions of states, non-state agencies
and individuals involved in arms trading, peace keeping, sex
trafficking, and law enforcement and adjudication.

Theory springs to life as Shapiro draws on examples from legal
discourse, literature, media, film, and television, to build a
nuanced picture of politics and the problem of justice. It will be
of great interest to students of film and media, literature,
cultural studies, contemporary philosophy and political science