RLS Colleague Visits Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin and the Leibniz-Institut für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig

We catch up with Roehampton Law School's member of faculty and researcher, Dr. Rotem Giladi. Dr. Giladi shares his experience on his recent visit to the Faculty of Law, Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin and the Leibniz-Institut für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig? -

Hello Rotem, please can you tell us about your recent visit to Germany?

The trip to Germany involved two lectures and several meetings. On the 18th of January 2023, I was hosted by Prof. Florian Je?berger of the Humboldt University Law Faculty in Berlin,

to talk at the International Criminal Law Discussion Group. The following day, I gave another talk at a Rechtressort of the Simon Dubnow Institute in Leipzig. I also met several colleagues to discuss the existing and the development of several exciting new collaborative projects, as well as the translation, production, and promotion of a new book I am working on.?

What was the main theme of the workshop/conference/seminar?

At Berlin, I discussed (at some length) the idea of under ‘Decolonising International Humanitarian Law?’—a body of law comprising legal rules governing the conduct of warfare. In Leipzig, under the title ‘The Last of the Synthesists’, I presented the introduction—and, really, the core claim—of a book manuscript I am currently writing on a 20th-century Jewish International Lawyer who happened to have been my own teacher’s teacher.?

What was your paper all about?

At Berlin, under the title ‘Decolonising International Humanitarian Law?’, I presented and demonstrated four ambitions implicit in the move to decolonise legal rules governing the conduct of warfare—exposing the colonial origins of the law, identifying their enduring legacies, revealing the distortion of/in legal-historical knowledge about them, and overcoming such origins, legacies and distortions (reform). I also could demonstrate some dilemmas and challenges involved in these ambitions using examples from my current work on the South African War (1899-1902) and other colonial wars. ?

In Leipzig, under the title ‘The Last of the Synthesists’, I presented the introduction—and, really, the core claim—of a book manuscript I am currently writing. The book is another intervention I make in an ongoing debate about the contribution of 20th-century Jewish international lawyers to the discipline. My previous book (Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law: OUP 2021) demonstrated that many Jewish international lawyers were attracted to international law because it offered a source of legal-political imagination and an arena where ideologies of Jewish nationalism could be pursued. The current book project develops this claim by tracing the life, work, international law career and nationalism of Nathan Feinberg—an international lawyer from Lithuania who became Israel’s first international law professor and the founding dean of the Law Faculty at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.?

What do you aim to achieve with your line of research?

-???????decade now, sought to critique overcome orthodox accounts of the law’s intellectual and historical origins; rather than humanitarian impulses, it demonstrated how the growth of that body of rules since the late 19th century served, in effect, various state interests rather than individual welfare. At present, my research expands that critique to explore the role of empire and colonialism in the formation of these legal rules—and their persisting hold on the law’s operation today in armed conflicts such as the Ukraine War, Palestine, and others. In the other project, I seek to gain better understanding of the role played by particular identities and ideals in the making of the international law discipline in order to debunk a prevailing perception of Jews as agents of legal cosmopolitanism. Such insights shed new light on cardinal campaigns for international legal reform taking place from the 1940s onwards: human rights law, the prohibition of genocide, the rights of refugees, the establishment of the International Criminal Court, and more.?

Any advice for researchers?

Just be curious – and follow your instincts. Doing that has taken me to strange new times places, episodes, and personalities – and these have been the source of insight, inspiration, interest, and productivity…

What are your plans for the future?

Well, yes, and many. But for the foreseeable future, exploring the nexus between law, empire, colonialism, and notions of humanity will probably feature at the top of any list I make. Thank you!

Thank you very much for your time Dr. Giladi.

Dr. Rotem Giladi can be reached via this email address: [email protected]