Michelle Burgis-Kasthala
Biographic Data
| ID | 3450513 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Burgis-Kasthala |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Burgis-Kasthala |
| SIGNATURE | BURGIS-KASTHALA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6860-5864 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Frontiers of gender equality
Contemporary International Criminal Law After Critique
Contemporary international criminal law (ICL) is a well-established field of scholarship and practice that wields significant influence in framing how certain events come to be understood and acted upon. Yet, as the field has increasingly captured the public’s attention and imagination, a body of critical scholarship has risen in prominence that seeks to test and challenge ICL’s underlying assumptions. In such a climate, this article suggests tha…
Roaming Charges Spot the Difference in Downtown Beirut
Time for Justice? Reflections on Narrative Absences and Presences in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Ayyash Decision
After a tumultuous inception and drawn-out in absentia trial, the Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon finally handed down its key judgment in August 2020. This article offers a critical appraisal of the tribunal and the decision, first, by situating the finding within Lebanon’s political context and, second, by adopting a close narrative reading of the text itself. It argues that the judgment is structured around a series of presenc…
The Politics of Normative Intervention and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Lebanon's turbulent history has seen many political assassinations, but only one, the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri, led to the establishment of an international tribunal – The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) – in 2009. Why was the STL created? This study suggests that the creation of the STL constituted a ‘normative intervention': purposeful attempts by domestic and international actors to transmit norms and institutions to a country to re…
Assembling Atrocity Archives for Syria
This article provides an ethnographically informed comparative case study of the atrocity archiving work being undertaken by two entities: the not-for-profit, civil society organization, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), and the United Nations’ International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM). Insights from data collected are read alongside debates within the fields of international criminal l…
Researching secret spaces
This article uses the case study of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) and its work on Syria as a way to reflect on the challenges international lawyers face in conducting research in relation to secret, highly constrained spaces. In particular, the article engages with debates within anthropology on the nature of para-ethnographic research as a way to think about research relationships between international legal …
Entrepreneurial Justice
This article argues that the crisis of governance generated by the Syrian civil war presents both a challenge and an opportunity to practitioners of international criminal justice. The article also argues that, irrespective of the Syrian case, international criminal law (ICL) institutions are in need of innovation and that increasingly ICL discourses display a blurring between public and private idioms. Evaluating the contribution of the Commissi…
Introduction
This introduction explores interdisciplinarity by first considering law as a discipline to account for how international criminal law has emerged as a field of practice and scholarship within the broader epistemic context of law. It then considers the nature of international criminal law scholarship before turning to questions of interdisciplinarity
Scholarship as Dialogue? TWAIL and the Politics of Methodology
Scholars of International Criminal Law (ICL) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) rarely speak to each other and part of the reason for this is often divergent approaches to methodology. Thus, this article begins with an exploration of the ways in which international lawyers (mis)conceive methodology in their work so as to account for patterns of scholarly dialogue as well as silence. I argue in this article that ICL scholars c…
Over-stating Palestine's UN Membership Bid?An Ethnographic Study on the Narratives of Statehood
This study employs a select ethnography of Palestinian workers in the field of international law and human rights to explore how an epistemic community gives content and meaning to international law in its professional and personal life. Through a series of interviews conducted in the West Bank in the wake of the Palestinian attempt to gain full United Nations membership in September 2011, the article constructs a meta-narrative about the nature …
Defining Justice during Transition? International and Domestic Contestations over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Entrepreneurial Justice
This article argues that the crisis of governance generated by the Syrian civil war presents both a challenge and an opportunity to practitioners of international criminal justice. The article also argues that, irrespective of the Syrian case, international criminal law (ICL) institutions are in need of innovation and that increasingly ICL discourses display a blurring between public and private idioms. Evaluating the contribution of the Commissi…
Over-stating Palestine's UN Membership Bid?An Ethnographic Study on the Narratives of Statehood
This study employs a select ethnography of Palestinian workers in the field of international law and human rights to explore how an epistemic community gives content and meaning to international law in its professional and personal life. Through a series of interviews conducted in the West Bank in the wake of the Palestinian attempt to gain full United Nations membership in September 2011, the article constructs a meta-narrative about the nature …
Scholarship as Dialogue? TWAIL and the Politics of Methodology
Scholars of International Criminal Law (ICL) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) rarely speak to each other and part of the reason for this is often divergent approaches to methodology. Thus, this article begins with an exploration of the ways in which international lawyers (mis)conceive methodology in their work so as to account for patterns of scholarly dialogue as well as silence. I argue in this article that ICL scholars c…
Researching secret spaces
This article uses the case study of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) and its work on Syria as a way to reflect on the challenges international lawyers face in conducting research in relation to secret, highly constrained spaces. In particular, the article engages with debates within anthropology on the nature of para-ethnographic research as a way to think about research relationships between international legal …
Defining Justice during Transition? International and Domestic Contestations over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Over-stating Palestine's UN Membership Bid?An Ethnographic Study on the Narratives of Statehood
This study employs a select ethnography of Palestinian workers in the field of international law and human rights to explore how an epistemic community gives content and meaning to international law in its professional and personal life. Through a series of interviews conducted in the West Bank in the wake of the Palestinian attempt to gain full United Nations membership in September 2011, the article constructs a meta-narrative about the nature …
Scholarship as Dialogue? TWAIL and the Politics of Methodology
Scholars of International Criminal Law (ICL) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) rarely speak to each other and part of the reason for this is often divergent approaches to methodology. Thus, this article begins with an exploration of the ways in which international lawyers (mis)conceive methodology in their work so as to account for patterns of scholarly dialogue as well as silence. I argue in this article that ICL scholars c…
Introduction
This introduction explores interdisciplinarity by first considering law as a discipline to account for how international criminal law has emerged as a field of practice and scholarship within the broader epistemic context of law. It then considers the nature of international criminal law scholarship before turning to questions of interdisciplinarity
Entrepreneurial Justice
This article argues that the crisis of governance generated by the Syrian civil war presents both a challenge and an opportunity to practitioners of international criminal justice. The article also argues that, irrespective of the Syrian case, international criminal law (ICL) institutions are in need of innovation and that increasingly ICL discourses display a blurring between public and private idioms. Evaluating the contribution of the Commissi…
Researching secret spaces
This article uses the case study of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) and its work on Syria as a way to reflect on the challenges international lawyers face in conducting research in relation to secret, highly constrained spaces. In particular, the article engages with debates within anthropology on the nature of para-ethnographic research as a way to think about research relationships between international legal …
The Politics of Normative Intervention and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
Lebanon's turbulent history has seen many political assassinations, but only one, the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri, led to the establishment of an international tribunal – The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) – in 2009. Why was the STL created? This study suggests that the creation of the STL constituted a ‘normative intervention': purposeful attempts by domestic and international actors to transmit norms and institutions to a country to re…
Assembling Atrocity Archives for Syria
This article provides an ethnographically informed comparative case study of the atrocity archiving work being undertaken by two entities: the not-for-profit, civil society organization, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), and the United Nations’ International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM). Insights from data collected are read alongside debates within the fields of international criminal l…
Time for Justice? Reflections on Narrative Absences and Presences in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Ayyash Decision
After a tumultuous inception and drawn-out in absentia trial, the Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon finally handed down its key judgment in August 2020. This article offers a critical appraisal of the tribunal and the decision, first, by situating the finding within Lebanon’s political context and, second, by adopting a close narrative reading of the text itself. It argues that the judgment is structured around a series of presenc…
Roaming Charges Spot the Difference in Downtown Beirut
Contemporary International Criminal Law After Critique
Contemporary international criminal law (ICL) is a well-established field of scholarship and practice that wields significant influence in framing how certain events come to be understood and acted upon. Yet, as the field has increasingly captured the public’s attention and imagination, a body of critical scholarship has risen in prominence that seeks to test and challenge ICL’s underlying assumptions. In such a climate, this article suggests tha…
Frontiers of gender equality
Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · International Law and Human Rights (6 works) · Economic Justice (5 works) · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (4 works) · Middle East Politics and Society (4 works) · Politics (4 works)