International Law

Don DeLillo completed this novel just weeks before the devastating advent of Covid-19. The Silence is the story of a different catastrophic event.

In Play by the Rules, acclaimed writer and historian Michael Pembroke offers a fresh take on the USA's vast influence and asks whether it is still a force for good. The United States of America has long claimed to be the leader of the 'free world', however for the last seventy-fi...ve years, as it has routinely endeavoured to transform other countries to its liberal democratic, capitalist image, the consequences have been frequently disastrous. Whether this global powerhouse has acted within the rules is up for debate. Variously described as 'self-interested and mutually destructive', many believe 'we are in danger of losing America as a moral authority and inspiration in the world'. Focusing on the role and actions of the USA, and on the qualities of leadership that sustain its power, Play by the Rules is an exploration of these seventy-five years and ultimately questions where the USA has led its allies, including Australia, and what the future might hold as the nations in Asia begin to flex their power. Praise for Michael Pembroke and Korea: Where the American Century Began: 'Started to read and just could not stop - Maddening, painful...Perceptive and compelling - often heart-rending, sometimes downright terrifying - this richly informed study amply establishes its thesis that the 'permanent phenomenon' of American global militarism has its origin in the Korean conflict.' - Noam Chomsky ''I read it in one go on a plane journey - fascinated, educated, appalled, amazed, and gripped. I take my hat off to the richness of the research ... I came away from reading the book in equal parts full of admiration for the book itself, and appalled by the story it tells.' - A.C. Grayling
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This book provides a comphrehensive account of the United Nations human rights programme, written by a world-leading expert with over 30 years' experience in the organization. It takes a chronological approach, starting with the launch of the Commission on Human Rights in 1946, a...nd concluding with proposals for the future.
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North America, New Zealand, and Australia were colonized by England under an international legal principle that is known today as the doctrine of discovery. This book analyses how England applied this doctrine to gain control over the lands, property, government, and human rights... of Indigenous peoples, and how this control continues to this day.
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In New Zealand, as well as in Australia, Canada and other comparable jurisdictions, Indigenous peoples comprise a significantly disproportionate percentage of the prison population. For example, Maori, who comprise 15% of New Zealand's population, make up 50% of its prisoners. Fo...r Maori women, the figure is 60%. These statistics have, moreover, remained more or less the same for at least the past thirty years. With New Zealand as its focus, this book explores how the fact that Indigenous peoples are more likely than any other ethnic group to be apprehended, arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated, might be alleviated. Taking seriously the rights to culture and to self-determination contained in the Treaty of Waitangi, in many comparable jurisdictions (including Australia, Canada, the United States of America), and also in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the book make the case for an Indigenous court founded on Indigenous conceptions of proper conduct, punishment, and behavior. More specifically, the book draws on contemporary notions of `therapeutic jurisprudence' and `restorative justice' in order to argue that such a court would offer an effective way to ameliorate the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous peoples.
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