Breakfast Briefing with Solon Solomon

Civilian War Trauma and Jus Post Bellum: Exploring the Nexus between Trauma, Disability and Transitional Justice

Abstract

In recent years, scholars have started arguing how civilian mental harm in warfare must be acknowledged as a parameter of legal importance even in cases such harm has incidentally occurred. This postulation has begotten in turn further questions on what kind of mental harm and how severity can be juxtaposed to the anticipated military advantage. Scholars have tried to address these questions, yet so far, nothing has been said on the role incidentally incurred civilian war trauma can play in the realms of jus post bellum.

Taking thus the thread from where other scholars have left it when it comes to the laws of war, the seminar will discuss the role civilian mental harm can play in a jus post bellum framework as a consideration begetting legal obligations for the restoration of the status quo ante when it comes to the affected enemy civilians’ mental health. On these grounds, the presentation will discuss such harm as disability, examining these obligations through the lens of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

About the Speaker

Currently Lecturer in the Division of Public & International Law at the Brunel University London School of Law and co-Director of the BUL International Law Group, Solon Solomon has served as visiting lecturer or fellow in a number of academic institutions including King’s College London, Humboldt University in Berlin, Tel Aviv University and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Author of the book ‘The Justiciability of International Disputes: Israel’s Advisory Opinion’, cited before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and co-editor of a volume on the laws of war in courts and quasi-judicial bodies, his research has recently appeared in the Journal of Conflict & Security Law and the Journal of International Dispute Settlement. With an extensive media presence, his opinions have been hosted in a number of media outlets, including The Times, The Financial Times, The Newsweek Magazine, Haaretz, BBC Mundo and The Independent.

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See a list of all the International Law Breakfast Briefings for Spring 2023