Monographs by Jonas Bens
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Modern law seems to be designed to keep emotions at bay. The Sentimental Court argues the exact o... more Modern law seems to be designed to keep emotions at bay. The Sentimental Court argues the exact opposite: that the law is not designed to cast out affective dynamics but to create them. Drawing on extensive ethnographic !eldwork ! both during the trial of former Lord’s Resistance Army commander Dominic Ongwen at the International Criminal Court’s headquarters in the Netherlands and in rural northern Uganda at the scenes of violence ! this book is an in-depth investigation of the affective life of legalized transitional justice interventions in Africa. Jonas Bens argues that the law purposefully creates, mobilizes, shapes, and transforms atmospheres and sentiments and further discusses how we should think about the future of law and justice in our colonial present by focusing on the politics of atmosphere and sentiment in which they are entangled.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020
In the twenty-first century, it is politically and legally commonplace that indigenous communitie... more In the twenty-first century, it is politically and legally commonplace that indigenous communities go to court to assert their rights against the postcolonial nation-state in which they reside. But upon closer examination, this constellation is far from straightforward. Indigenous communities make their claims as independent entities, governed by their own laws. And yet, they bring a case before the court of another sovereign, subjecting themselves to its foreign rule of law.
According to Jonas Bens, when native communities enter into legal relationships with postcolonial nation-states, they "become indigenous." Indigenous communities define themselves as separated from the settler nation-state and insist that their rights originate from within their own system of laws. At the same time, indigenous communities must argue that they are incorporated in the settler nation-state to be able to use its judiciary to enforce these rights. As such, they are simultaneously included into and excluded from the state.
Tracing how the indigenous paradox is inscribed into the law by investigating several indigenous rights cases in the Americas, from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first, Bens illustrates how indigenous communities have managed&;and continue to manage&;to navigate this paradox by developing lines of legal reasoning that mobilize the concepts of sovereignty and culture. Bens argues that understanding indigeneity as a paradoxical formation sheds light on pressing questions concerning the role of legal pluralism and shared sovereignty in contemporary multicultural societies.
Many claim that political deliberation has become exceedingly affective, and hence, destabilizing... more Many claim that political deliberation has become exceedingly affective, and hence, destabilizing. The authors of this book revisit that assumption. While recognizing that significant changes are occurring, these authors also point out the limitations of turning to contemporary democratic theory to understand and unpack these shifts. They propose, instead, to reframe this debate by deploying the analytic framework of affective societies, which highlights how affect and emotion are present in all aspects of the social. What changes over time and place are the modes and calibrations of affective and emotional registers. With this line of thinking, the authors are able to gesture towards a new outline of the political.
Journal Articles by Jonas Bens
Journal of Pragmatics, 2021
In their studies of culture and society, many if not most scholars from the social sciences and h... more In their studies of culture and society, many if not most scholars from the social sciences and humanities aspire to a critical approach. Recently, this practice of academic critique has become an object of study in its own right. Contributing to this "critique of critique," I propose ideas for a linguistic anthropology of critique. I suggest mobilizing the concept of text trajectory from the toolbox of critical ethnographies of language and deploying it to investigate the trajectories of those critical texts that social and cultural sciences produce. It then becomes clear that critique is not merely a certain genre of text, but is, rather, a specific manner in which texts become embedded in affective dynamics in trajectories of recontextualizations-in-performance. To capture this complex process, I introduce the concept of affective text trajectory. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the role of language and affect at International Criminal Court proceedings in northern Uganda, this article describes the affective text trajectory of one of the author's blog posts. The author suggests that in order to assess the critical potential of a text, one should investigate how it becomes embedded in affective dynamics throughout its trajectory.
Discourse, Context and Media, 2021
In this paper, we examine the international criminal trial of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a Malian Is... more In this paper, we examine the international criminal trial of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a Malian Islamist who appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, charged with the destruction of Islamic shrines during the 2012 jihadist occupation of Timbuktu. Our objective is to analyze the al-Mahdi case as a dialogical network (the destructions occurred in the context of an asynchronous, translocal, press-mediated exchange between jihadists and the international community) and as an event unfolding at a dialogical site (when the commander responsible for the destructions was referred to the ICC four years later). These two dialogical orders exist largely independent of each other but are at crucial points also partly entangled. We conclude by pointing out the relevance of this 'doubly dialogical' approach to the broader field of sociolegal studies of international criminal justice.
Dialectical Anthropology , 2021
There is an ongoing debate in anthropology on the kinds of subject positions activists ascribe to... more There is an ongoing debate in anthropology on the kinds of subject positions activists ascribe to the marginalized actors they encounter and the political consequences this brings about. Drawing from ethnographic research on refugee activism in Germany and transitional justice activism in Uganda, we revisit the respective debates on humanitarian activism, human rights activism, and political activism and argue to reframe the analysis. Instead of looking for the "right" subject position activists should ascribe to the people they engage with, the anthropology of activism should embrace a research approach that looks at the material conditions, in which activists and their subjects find themselves in and the kind of agency they are able to develop within these conditions.
Parallax, 2020
Affective witnessing in the courtroom does not denote a specific mode of giving testimony. I rath... more Affective witnessing in the courtroom does not denote a specific mode of giving testimony. I rather argue that courtroom witnessing is always affective. The use of emotional displays plays an important role in processes of witnessing, but their absence does not indicate the absence of affective dynamics. The performance of emotion is rather one mode among others to shape the affective arrangement of the courtroom. Witnesses, be they human or non-human bodies, have performative power not by the ‘credibility points’ they accumulate as individual entities, but with respect to the relational position they occupy inside an affective arrangement. Actors in the courtroom compete with each other by attempting to introduce bodies as witnesses and to relate and position them in specific ways. The degree to which they are able to manipulate the affective arrangement to their advantage determines their chances to successfully establish a version of the past they desire.
Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unoffical Law, 2018
Legal anthropology and legal sociology have much in common. Traditionally, however, these approac... more Legal anthropology and legal sociology have much in common. Traditionally, however, these approaches have tried to maintain disciplinary boundaries toward each other. Latest since the 1990s, these boundaries have become more and more porous and the academic practices of boundary-making do seem to convince practitioners of these fields less and less. The recent emergence of a subfield of the anthropology of the state situated at the interface of legal anthropology, legal sociology, ethnographic studies of bureaucracies and organizational sociology attests to this development. In this introduction, we propose to consciously transgress the traditional boundaries between legal anthropology, legal sociology and the anthropology of the state when it comes to the ethnographic investigation of official law. Based on the contributions to this special issue-consisting of empirical articles and commentaries-we map several avenues for boundary transgressions and the theoretical reconceptualizations these may engender. Among them are: looking at legal institutions of the state as practicing both informal formality and formal informality; moving from socio-spatial metaphors to investigating official law-places and-spaces as ethnographic objects; and studying norm-making within official law as a wider field of practice.
Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unoffical Law, 2018
This article proposes a methodological approach to courtroom ethnography by developing the idea o... more This article proposes a methodological approach to courtroom ethnography by developing the idea of the courtroom as an affective arrangement. In the courtroom, humans and their linguistic utterances, but also material objects and infrastructures, visuals, voices, and sounds are relationally entangled. This is the analytical entry point for ethnographically describing the atmosphere of a court proceeding without reducing atmosphere either to the result of courtroom talk or to the emotional experiences of the participants. For a thick ethnographic description of courtroom atmospheres, the ethnographer should point out how all kinds of different bodies perform in the theatre of power that is a court proceeding.
Journal of Legal Anthropology, 2018
In The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, the International Criminal Court (ICC) tried the des... more In The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, the International Criminal Court (ICC) tried the destruction of UNESCO World Heritage sites as a war crime for the first time. In this case, the value of things in relation to the value of persons became the central issue. Based on courtroom ethnography conducted during the proceedings and informed by affect and emotion research, this article identifies the rhetorical practice of sentimentalising persons and things as an important process of legal meaning making. Through sentimentalising, all parties rhetorically produce normative arrangements of bodies by way of emotionally differentiating the relevant persons, things and other entities from and affectively relating them to each other. Sentimentalising provides an affective-emotional frame in which to determine the degree of guilt and innocence, justice and injustice.
Ethnohistory, Apr 1, 2018
When representatives of the Cherokee nation went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1831 to sue the sta... more When representatives of the Cherokee nation went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1831 to sue the state of Georgia, they initiated a paradoxical endeavor. They argued that they were a " foreign state, " but subjected themselves at the same time to the jurisdiction of the court of another state. In the course of this campaign they transformed themselves from a political to a legal subject and took the position of what today would be called an " indigenous " community. The Court translated the paradoxical formation of indigeneity―being legally incorporated and excluded at the same time―into the legal text of the judgment by inventing the contradictory phrase " domestic dependent nation. " Analyzing as an autoethnographic text the bill that the Cherokee Nation presented to the Supreme Court, this essay investigates how the Cherokee's indigeneity was produced in their interaction with the legal field of the (post) colonial state and how the paradoxical roots of indigeneity can serve as a starting point from which to rethink the native–settler relationship and the indigenous condition.
Critical Asian Studies, Apr 27, 2017
In this essay we propose an alternative approach to assessing the state of democracy in Indonesia... more In this essay we propose an alternative approach to assessing the state of democracy in Indonesia. We focus not on institutional indicators (as is usually the case) but on manifestations of political discourses in the public sphere. In applying post-Marxist political theory through the work of Slavoj Žižek and Chantal Mouffe, we argue that democracy's main defining feature is that it allows antagonistic discourses about alternative policies to coexist, yet still manages to coalesce around a minimal consensus on how these discursive conflicts are to be dealt with in a fair way. Applying this approach to democracy analysis to Indonesia, we suggest that the major obstacles to democratic practice do not emerge from institutional problems, but from an overbearing political discourse that imposes broad consensus and harmony on most political issues. Political discourse in Indonesia is generally structured around " Islam " and " the people. " These themes provide a basis for a political consensus that conceals economic and social contradictions and reveals considerable depoliticization in Indonesian democratic practice.
International Journal of Law in Context, 2016
Focusing on the history of US anthropology between World War II and the high point of the Vietnam... more Focusing on the history of US anthropology between World War II and the high point of the Vietnam War protests in the late 1960s, this paper aims to historicise the assumed epistemological divide between anthropological and legal thinking. It is shown how anthropology as a discipline in the US has restructured some of its basic assumptions and changed its institutional structure in the context of legal interventions in larger struggles, specifically the court-based battles against racial segregation and the legal proceedings related to indigenous land rights before the Indian Claims Commission. Special consideration is given to an analysis of how objectivity is conceptualised in the literature on anthropological expert witnessing: from mechanical objectivity before 1970 to critical objectivity after 1970. The paper concludes with a caveat against exaggerating existing epistemological differences between anthropology and law, and suggests a more pragmatic approach to interdisciplinary communication.
Kriegsführung im Cyberspace ist unlängst aus dem Bereich der Science-Fiction-Literatur auf die Ag... more Kriegsführung im Cyberspace ist unlängst aus dem Bereich der Science-Fiction-Literatur auf die Agenda der internationalen Sicherheitspolitik gerückt. Hieraus ergeben sich auch neue Herausforderungen für das Völkerrecht, insbesondere das ius ad bellum. Der Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, unter welchen Bedingungen Cyberangriffe als bewaffneter Angriff angesehen werden können, der im Rahmen des Art. 51 der UN-Charta den angegriffenen Staat zu Selbstverteidigungsmaßnahmen berechtigt. Hierzu erfolgt ein Überblick über den kaum fünfzehn Jahre alten, kontroversen Forschungsstand und eine Stellungnahme zu wesentlichen Streitfragen. Damit verbunden sind Überlegungen zu einem dem technischen Fortschritt angepassten Begriff des bewaffneten Angriffs.
Edited Volumes by Jonas Bens
Was verbirgt sich hinter dem Begriff »Gerechtigkeitsgefühle«? Inwieweit spielt die gefühlte Legit... more Was verbirgt sich hinter dem Begriff »Gerechtigkeitsgefühle«? Inwieweit spielt die gefühlte Legitimität von Recht eine Rolle? Um diesen Fragen auf die Spur zu kommen, mobilisiert der Band rechtsanthropologische, rechtssoziologische und kulturpsychologische Ansätze. In ethnographischen Fallstudien zu Madagaskar, zum Südsudan, zu Indonesien, Israel/Palästina, Peru, Uganda und Südafrika werden Gerichtssäle, Grenzübergänge, Besprechungsräume, Büros und offizielle Dokumente ebenso analysiert wie Alltagspraktiken, Mediendiskurse, Demonstrationen und Debatten in den Social Media.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliograf... more Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.
Book Chapters by Jonas Bens
Körper-Kränkungen: Der menschliche Leib als Medium der Herabsetzung , 2021
Es ist eine Alltagserfahrung für alle Menschen, dass ihnen bestimmte Körper, seien sie menschlich... more Es ist eine Alltagserfahrung für alle Menschen, dass ihnen bestimmte Körper, seien sie menschlich oder nichtmenschlich, wichtiger, näher und wertvoller sind als andere. In manchen Fällen wird die Schändung bestimmter Körper als eine derart verwerfliche Handlung angesehen, dass sie unter "die schwersten Verbrechen …, welche die internationale Gemeinschaft als Ganzes berühren" gezählt wird. Wer eine solche Tat begeht, muss sich vor dem Internationalen Strafgerichtshof verantworten. Welche Körper für die internationale Gemeinschaft derart nah, wichtig und wertvoll sind, hängt offensichtlich nicht allein von der Frage ab, ob es sich bei diesen Körpern um Menschen oder Dinge handelt. In diesem Text argumentiere ich, dass, um das Mensch-Ding-Verhältnis zu bestimmen, ein Prozess der rechtlichen Bedeutungsproduktion durchlaufen werden muss, den ich "Sentimentalisierung von Menschen und Dingen" nenne und dessen Ergebnis ein normatives Körperarrangement ist. Erst vor dem Hintergrund eines solchen affektiv hergestellten normativen Körperarrangements kann der unterschiedliche Wert von Menschen und Dingen bemessen werden. Wie klargeworden ist, gibt es in einem Gerichtssaal (und freilich auch außerhalb) niemals nur ein normatives Arrangement von Körpern, das die Bedeutungsproduktion für den Wert verschiedener Körper unbestritten regeln könnte. Alle Parteien in einer Debatte betreiben Sentimentalisierung und konkurrieren um die Etablierung eines plausiblen Rahmens, um Bewertungen über Schuld und Unschuld, Gerechtigkeit und Ungerechtigkeit, vorzunehmen.
Umkämpfte Vielfalt: Affektive Dynamiken institutioneller Diversifizierung, 2021
Nur ein genauer Blick auf die affektiven Dynamiken in der Praxis der Diversität erlaubt Rückschlü... more Nur ein genauer Blick auf die affektiven Dynamiken in der Praxis der Diversität erlaubt Rückschlüsse darauf, wo eine Politik der Diversität das Potential für echte kulturelle Transformation entfaltet und wo sie lediglich affektive Regierungspraktik ist, um die westliche Moderne zu reproduzieren und zu stabilisieren. Eine ehrliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem kolonialen Erbe erfordert mehr als eine Affektpolitik liberaler Deliberation, die die kulturelle Substanz des politischen Liberalismus verschleiert. Solange Diversitätspolitik darauf beharrt, einen euronormativen Rahmen als neutral vorzugeben, der nicht infrage gestellt werden darf, dient der Verweis auf Diversität letztlich nur der Einhegung des Anderen unter den Bedingungen europäischer Wissens- und Herrschaftsordnungen. Eine transformative Politik der Diversität beginnt erst dort, wo die Spielregeln der Diversität selbst zur Disposition gestellt werden dürfen. Dann also, wenn eine Perspektive der Provinzialisierung Europas möglich wird und nicht nur westlich-moderne Epistemologien und Ontologien, sondern auch deren Gefühlsmodi denaturalisiert werden.
Hass/Literatur: Literatur- und kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zu einer Theorie- und Diskursgeschichte (Jürgen Brokoff, Robert Walter-Jochum, Hg.), 2019
Die Vorstellung vom kausalen Zusammenhang von performierter Hassrede und Gewaltakten bildet den A... more Die Vorstellung vom kausalen Zusammenhang von performierter Hassrede und Gewaltakten bildet den Ausgangspunkt der vorliegenden Überlegungen. Dazu sind zunächst einige Ausführungen über die Strafbarkeit der Hassrede, besonders im internationalen Strafrecht, zu machen, um auf dieser Basis zu den entscheidenden Problemen der Kausalität zu kommen. Dabei kommt es darauf an, juristische, rhetoriktheoretische, sprechakttheoretische und affekttheoretische Überlegungen miteinander ins Gespräch zu bringen. Es ist das Anliegen dieses Aufsatzes, herauszustellen, dass die Frage der Kausalität des affektiven Sprechens im Kern ein normatives Problem ist – eine Fokussierung, die in der anhaltenden Diskussion um die Angemessenheit der Strafbarkeit affektiven Sprechens nicht immer ausreichend Berücksichtigung findet.
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Monographs by Jonas Bens
According to Jonas Bens, when native communities enter into legal relationships with postcolonial nation-states, they "become indigenous." Indigenous communities define themselves as separated from the settler nation-state and insist that their rights originate from within their own system of laws. At the same time, indigenous communities must argue that they are incorporated in the settler nation-state to be able to use its judiciary to enforce these rights. As such, they are simultaneously included into and excluded from the state.
Tracing how the indigenous paradox is inscribed into the law by investigating several indigenous rights cases in the Americas, from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first, Bens illustrates how indigenous communities have managed&;and continue to manage&;to navigate this paradox by developing lines of legal reasoning that mobilize the concepts of sovereignty and culture. Bens argues that understanding indigeneity as a paradoxical formation sheds light on pressing questions concerning the role of legal pluralism and shared sovereignty in contemporary multicultural societies.
Journal Articles by Jonas Bens
Edited Volumes by Jonas Bens
Book Chapters by Jonas Bens
According to Jonas Bens, when native communities enter into legal relationships with postcolonial nation-states, they "become indigenous." Indigenous communities define themselves as separated from the settler nation-state and insist that their rights originate from within their own system of laws. At the same time, indigenous communities must argue that they are incorporated in the settler nation-state to be able to use its judiciary to enforce these rights. As such, they are simultaneously included into and excluded from the state.
Tracing how the indigenous paradox is inscribed into the law by investigating several indigenous rights cases in the Americas, from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first, Bens illustrates how indigenous communities have managed&;and continue to manage&;to navigate this paradox by developing lines of legal reasoning that mobilize the concepts of sovereignty and culture. Bens argues that understanding indigeneity as a paradoxical formation sheds light on pressing questions concerning the role of legal pluralism and shared sovereignty in contemporary multicultural societies.
such investigations.