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The Sentimental Court
The Affective Life of International Criminal Justice
Brief Description
Modern law seems to be designed to keep emotions at bay. The Sentimental Court argues the exact opposite: that the law is not designed to cast out affective dynamics, but to create them. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork—both during the trial of former Lord's Resistance Army...
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The Sentimental Court
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See moreWhat is the role of affect in international criminal law and transitional justice in (post-)colonial Africa and beyond? Instead of accepting at face value the commonly held assumption that the law systematically neutralizes emotions, Jonas Bens argues that the law purposefully creates, mobilizes, shapes, and transforms atmospheres and sentiments.
Analyses how atmospheres and sentiments shape the workings of international criminal law in (post-)colonial Africa and beyond.
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Description
Modern law seems to be designed to keep emotions at bay. The Sentimental Court argues the exact opposite: that the law is not designed to cast out affective dynamics, but to create them.
Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork—both during the trial of former Lord's Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court's headquarters in The Netherlands and in rural northern Uganda at the scenes of violence—this book is an in-depth investigation of the affective life of legalised transitional justice interventions in Africa.
Jonas Bens argues that the law purposefully creates, mobilises, shapes, and transforms atmospheres and sentiments. He further discusses how we should think about the future of law and justice in our colonial present by focusing on the politics of atmosphere and sentiment in which they are entangled.
Series: Cambridge Studies in Law and Society
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The Practice and Problems of Transnational Counter-Terrorism
The attacks of 9/11 kickstarted the development of a pervasive and durable transnational counter-terrorism order. This has evolved into a vast institutional architecture with direct effects on domestic law around the world and a number of impacts on everyday life that are often poorly understood. States found, fund and lead institutions inside and outside the United Nations that develop and...Paperback$11700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Sentimental Court
Modern law seems to be designed to keep emotions at bay. The Sentimental Court argues the exact opposite: that the law is not designed to cast out affective dynamics, but to create them. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork—both during the trial of former Lord's Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court's headquarters in The Netherlands and in...Paperback$11700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781009069359
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 26 February 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Illustration: Worked examples or Exercises
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Weight: 436g
Pages: 266
About the Author
Jonas Bens is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Collaborative Research Center Affective Societies at Freie Universität Berlin. His work focuses on law, statehood, and colonialism in capitalist modernity. His books include The Indigenous Paradox: Rights, Sovereignty and Culture in the Americas (2020).
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