What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Standard

What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice. / Holtermann, Jakob v. H.; Kjær, Anne Lise.

In: European Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. 2019, No. Special Issue, 01.2019, p. 49-90.

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Holtermann, JVH & Kjær, AL 2019, 'What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice', European Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 2019, no. Special Issue, pp. 49-90. <https://ejls.eui.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/01/4.-EJLS-NoLesLaw-Holtermann-Kjaer.pdf>

APA

Holtermann, J. V. H., & Kjær, A. L. (2019). What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice. European Journal of Legal Studies, 2019(Special Issue), 49-90. https://ejls.eui.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/01/4.-EJLS-NoLesLaw-Holtermann-Kjaer.pdf

Vancouver

Holtermann JVH, Kjær AL. What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice. European Journal of Legal Studies. 2019 Jan;2019(Special Issue):49-90.

Author

Holtermann, Jakob v. H. ; Kjær, Anne Lise. / What 'If'? The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice. In: European Journal of Legal Studies. 2019 ; Vol. 2019, No. Special Issue. pp. 49-90.

Bibtex

@article{5b730ee84ee744daab80a2abacce617b,
title = "What 'If'?: The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice",
abstract = "Using international criminal law as a case study, this article aims to demonstrate how computer driven corpus linguistics combined with philosophy of law and sociology of science can help improve our understanding of legal knowledge and science. The article is built on a computer driven corpus linguistic study of all judgments from the ICTY and the ICTR from 1996-2017. To our surprise, this study revealed that the frequency of the use of ifs in all judgements had exhibited an almost perfectly steady annual decline – from 93 per 100,000 words on average in 1996 to 34 in 2017. As a linguistic phenomenon, this cuts against how we would expect language to behave. In the search for an explanation, we move from linguistics into the philosophical and sociological study of (legal) knowledge and science. In the most general terms, the explanation ties the disappearing of ifs to the emergence of international criminal law as a distinct specialized legal science, a separate sub-discipline constituted by a professionally shared corpus of knowledge – or of “a substantial body of jurisprudence on genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, as well as forms of individual and superior responsibility”, as the ICTR put it when closing down. ",
keywords = "Faculty of Law, international criminal law, corpus linguistics, epistemic communities, tacit knowledge, paradigm, doxa, Thomas Kuhn, Hans Kelsen, Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, Pierre Bourdieu",
author = "Holtermann, {Jakob v. H.} and Kj{\ae}r, {Anne Lise}",
year = "2019",
month = jan,
language = "English",
volume = "2019",
pages = "49--90",
journal = "European Journal of Legal Studies",
issn = "1973-2937",
publisher = "European University Institute",
number = "Special Issue",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - What 'If'?

T2 - The Emerging Epistemic Community of International Criminal Justice

AU - Holtermann, Jakob v. H.

AU - Kjær, Anne Lise

PY - 2019/1

Y1 - 2019/1

N2 - Using international criminal law as a case study, this article aims to demonstrate how computer driven corpus linguistics combined with philosophy of law and sociology of science can help improve our understanding of legal knowledge and science. The article is built on a computer driven corpus linguistic study of all judgments from the ICTY and the ICTR from 1996-2017. To our surprise, this study revealed that the frequency of the use of ifs in all judgements had exhibited an almost perfectly steady annual decline – from 93 per 100,000 words on average in 1996 to 34 in 2017. As a linguistic phenomenon, this cuts against how we would expect language to behave. In the search for an explanation, we move from linguistics into the philosophical and sociological study of (legal) knowledge and science. In the most general terms, the explanation ties the disappearing of ifs to the emergence of international criminal law as a distinct specialized legal science, a separate sub-discipline constituted by a professionally shared corpus of knowledge – or of “a substantial body of jurisprudence on genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, as well as forms of individual and superior responsibility”, as the ICTR put it when closing down.

AB - Using international criminal law as a case study, this article aims to demonstrate how computer driven corpus linguistics combined with philosophy of law and sociology of science can help improve our understanding of legal knowledge and science. The article is built on a computer driven corpus linguistic study of all judgments from the ICTY and the ICTR from 1996-2017. To our surprise, this study revealed that the frequency of the use of ifs in all judgements had exhibited an almost perfectly steady annual decline – from 93 per 100,000 words on average in 1996 to 34 in 2017. As a linguistic phenomenon, this cuts against how we would expect language to behave. In the search for an explanation, we move from linguistics into the philosophical and sociological study of (legal) knowledge and science. In the most general terms, the explanation ties the disappearing of ifs to the emergence of international criminal law as a distinct specialized legal science, a separate sub-discipline constituted by a professionally shared corpus of knowledge – or of “a substantial body of jurisprudence on genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, as well as forms of individual and superior responsibility”, as the ICTR put it when closing down.

KW - Faculty of Law

KW - international criminal law

KW - corpus linguistics

KW - epistemic communities

KW - tacit knowledge

KW - paradigm

KW - doxa

KW - Thomas Kuhn

KW - Hans Kelsen

KW - Joseph Raz

KW - Ronald Dworkin

KW - Pierre Bourdieu

UR - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3297585

M3 - Journal article

VL - 2019

SP - 49

EP - 90

JO - European Journal of Legal Studies

JF - European Journal of Legal Studies

SN - 1973-2937

IS - Special Issue

ER -

ID: 212848026