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Evil as a Crime Against Humanity

Confronting Mass Atrocities in a Plural World

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Christof Royer

    1. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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  • Weaves together realist, liberal, cosmopolitan and critical insights
  • Portrays mass atrocities as a threat to plurality
  • Provides an action-guiding theoretical account of why and how to confront mass atrocities in a plural world

Part of the book series: International Political Theory (IPoT)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Imagination and Reality

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 1-32

  3. Evil as a Crime Against Humanity

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 33-80

  4. A Responsibility to Protect Humanity from Evil

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 81-130

  5. The International Criminal Court as a Bulwark Against Evil

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 131-185

  6. Evil and World Order: Towards an Agonistic Global Constitutionalism

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 187-238

  7. Tragedy and Hope

    • Christof Royer
    Pages 239-250

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 251-264
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Keywords

About this book

This book seeks to reimagine why and how to confront mass atrocities in world politics. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s conception of evil, it interprets and understands mass atrocities as ‘evil’ in an ‘Arendtian’ sense, that is, as crimes against human plurality and, thus, crimes against humanity itself. This understanding of mass atrocities paves the way for reframing responses to mass atrocities as attempts to confront evil. In doing so, the book focuses on military intervention under the banner of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and judicial intervention by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and reframes them as tools to protect human plurality from evil. Furthermore, the book looks at the place and the role of R2P and the ICC in the changing landscape of world order. It argues that the protection of humanity from evil can serve as a legitimate Grundnorm (basic norm) around which a global constitutional order in an inherently pluralistic world can be constructed.

Reviews

“Christof Royer's Evil as a Crime against Humanity offers a fresh perspective on an old problem: how to account for mass atrocities, both in terms of practical responses and in terms of theoretical frameworks. Royer's argument is that a radical reorientation in our thinking needs to take place, if we are to properly understand what makes these crimes instantiations of evil. Combining philosophical analysis with acute observations on global politics, this book advances the debate around violence in surprising and illuminating ways.” (Mathias Thaler, University of Edinburgh, UK)

“To address the concept of evil in international affairs without falling into cliché is not easy. In this book, Christof Royer demonstrates how one might do so with equal measure of rigour, imagination, and sensitivity.  This sophisticated and nuanced argument is a must read for scholars of international politics, ethics, and law.” (Anthony F Lang, Jr, School of International Relations, University ofSt Andrews, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    Christof Royer

About the author

Christof Royer holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, UK. He specialises in International Political Theory and is particularly interested in questions surrounding the Responsibility to Protect, the International Criminal Court and world order as well as in the political thought of Hannah Arendt, Judith Shklar, Hans Morgenthau, Bernard Williams and Chantal Mouffe. He has published in journals such as Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Criminal Law and Philosophy, Human Rights Review, International Affairs, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Humanity, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory.

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