Book

My book States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge University Press, 2020) theorizes the ways in which states that are presumed to be weaker in the international system use the International Criminal Court (ICC) to advance their security and political interests. Ultimately, the book contends that African states have managed to instrumentally and strategically use the international justice system to their advantage, a theoretical framework that challenges the “justice cascade” argument. The empirical work of this study focuses on four major themes around the intersection of power, states’ interests, and the global governance of atrocity crimes: first, the strategic use of self-referrals to the ICC; second, complementarity between the national and the international justice systems; third, the limits of state cooperation with international courts; and fourth, the use of international courts in domestic political conflicts.

The draft manuscript on which this book was based was the 2019 International Studies Association (ISA) Northeast Scholars’ Circle honoree. 

Reviews, etc.

OpinioJuris hosted a Symposium on States of Justice, which was convened and introduced by Owiso Owiso. Read the reviews by Nabil Orina, Emma Charlene Lubaale, Sithembile Mbete, Melissa L. Simms, Ezéchiel Amani Cirimwami, K. K. Sithebe, Nestor Nkrurunziza, Kelly-Jo Bluen, and my response.

States of Justice got an excellent review by Kate Cronin-Furman on the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage.

I have answered a few questions about the book and beyond on the blog and the Morehouse Faculty blog.

Here are my discussions with Madina Thiam, host of the New Books African Studies podcast and with Kim Yi Dionne on the Ufahamu Africa podcast.

An Author Meets Critics roundtable is forthcoming at the 2020 African Studies Association conference.

Invited Talks

Centre on Conflict, Rights, and Justice, SOAS University of London, 20 October 2020

Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, 31 March 2021

Center for African Studies, University of Florida, 5 February 2021

Department of Global Studies, UC Santa Barbara, 17 February 2021

The Australian National University, 15 March 2021

Centre d’études en politique internationale, Université d’Ottawa, 25 March 2021

Center of European and International Law, Leicester Law School, 22 April 2021

Blurbs

States of Justice by Oumar Ba offers us a fresh and compelling analysis of the ICC through questions that call on us to think about how state actors that are variously positioned deploy mechanisms and strategies to leverage their interests.  By considering the ways in which Kenya and Libya engaged with the ICC following its intervention, and how other African states engaged in political maneuvers, the book sheds critical light on the play of power and politics in an uneven world. It does not just focus on the ICC and its relationship with African states, but also explores alternate spaces of engagement that are key to understanding not only law, but the place of politics in an unequal world.  States of Justice is a tremendous contribution to the field, a must read! Kamari Clarke, Professor of Anthropology, The University of California, Los Angeles, author of Fictions of Justice: The ICC and the Challenges of Legal Pluralism (CUP, 2009) and Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback (Duke, 2019).

In this book, Oumar Ba persuasively addresses the legitimacy gap that the ICC faces today, which is threatening to undermine international justice. He does so by exploring the moral paradox and institutional difficulties of delivering justice ‘by pursuing individual criminal accountability in a world made of states.’ This paradox and attendant problems have long been overlooked by both defenders and critics of the ICC, particularly around ‘Africa’. Oumar Ba’s masterfully moves the debate with abundant facts and persuasive arguments. The book should be a requirement for novices and the initiates alike who wish to advance ‘international justice.’ I strongly recommend it too for courses on humanitarian law. Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui, Cornell University

The International Criminal Court cannot escape the unruly effects of power politics. In fact, it depends on state cooperation and must find ways of navigating the forces of state competition and power maximization. But if we are to confront this reality, we also need to rigorously engage the strategies of its states parties bent on using the court to gain pollical advantage. Oumar Ba’s important new book argues powerfully for such engagement in the context of African politics. Its systematic analysis of African state parties’ strategies toward the ICC is a rich and insightful study of the shifting political dynamics of these states’ cooperation with the ICC. With its theoretical and empirical rigor, it shows just how important it is to probe the complex politics of the less powerful, authoritarian African states. Steven C. Roach, author of Decency and Difference: Humanity and the Global Challenge of Identity Politics.