About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

55 Osgoode Hall L. J. 599 (2018)
Atrocity Speech Law

handle is hein.journals/ohlj55 and id is 584 raw text is: 






599


Book Review

Atrocity Speech Law,

by Gregory S. Gordon1



SAM ZUCCHI2


THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LAW are interesting things: They exist
solely as ideals waiting to be actualized, but because the law is one of those fields
where academic discourse regularly has a meaningful impact on courtrooms and
legislatures, they are not completely academic in that word's most pejorative sense.
Model legislation, for example, serves as both a theoretical outline of a specific
legal doctrine and a possible model for future legislative and jurisprudential
developments; it is never merely a hypothetical model since it is always ready
to become living law. Theoretical developments in international criminal law
operate similarly, though they have something of a keener edge. Yes, they are
made concrete in the legislature and the courtroom, but grotesque harm must
have been done for the law to enter the courtroom in the first place. And that
is the real horror behind legal developments in international criminal law and
crimes against humanity: If they are ever brought into actual courtrooms, they
are borne on a red wake. It is precisely because that tide keeps rolling in that
books like Atrocity Speech Law are useful.
    Atrocity Speech Law takes as its subject matter the past, present, and future
of international hate speech-Gordon's term for the piecemeal3 law that deals
with public incitement to commit genocide and verbal persecution as a subset
of crimes against humanity. Gordon's main objective is to critique the current


1.  (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
2.  BA (University of King's College), JD (Osgoode Hall).
3.  Gordon, supra note 1 at 3.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most