Ron Levi

Crimes of War and the Force of Law

The origin and enforcement of criminal law are central to the sociological study of crime, yet we know relatively little about how the coercive apparatus of criminalization is actualized through prosecutorial and court practices. We use Bourdieus extension of Webers analysis of law to develop a perspective on fields of practice, the juridical field and the force of law at The Hague Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Our research is based on four years of prosecutor interviews, courtroom observations and analyses of trials covering four prosecutorial regimes. Successive and competitive practices have created an interlocking and cumulative force that is a prerequisite to promoting international humanitarian law.

Immigration and Youthful Illegalities in a Global Edge City

This research focuses on immigration and youthful illegalities in the Toronto area, one of the world’s most ethnically diverse global cities. While current research documents a negative relationship between crime and immigration, there is little attention to individual-level mechanisms that explain the paths through which immigrant youth refrain from illegalities. Through a study of two cohorts of adolescents across two generations (1976, 1999), we elaborate a process model that is generic over both generations, and in which measures of bonds to parents and schools, commitments to education, and dispositions of risk aversity mediate youth involvement in illegalities. By focusing on a period when non-European immigration to Toronto increased dramatically, we then identify a compositional effect through which the more recent cohort is engaged in fewer illegalities.

Social skill, the milosevic indictment, and the rebirth of international criminal justice

This paper is about social skill and norm enforcement in the field of international criminal law and its advancement through the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We rely on Fligstein’s model of social skill to illuminate tactics applied successfully in inducing norm enforcement and cooperation in this field. The study draws on a mail-back survey (n = 109) and over 100 in-depth, personal interviews at the Tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor. The qualitative and quantitative findings provide evidence for the role of institutional entrepreneurs in gaining the cooperation required for the emergence, reproduction, and transformation of fields. In the present study, we find evidence that this momentum has led to a transition in the institutional life of the Tribunal and the broader field of international criminal law.

Lawyers, Humanitarian Emergencies, and the Politics of Large Numbers

Introduction: Constructing Transnational Justice, Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth 2. Lawyers, Humanitarian Emergencies, and the Politics of Large Number, Ron Levi and John Hagan 3.The Cause of Universal Jurisdiction: The Rise and Fall of an International Mobilization, Julien Seroussi 4. Lawyering War or Talking Peace? On Militant Usages of the Law in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflicts: A Case Study of International Alert, Sara Dezalay 5. From Peacebuilding in War-Torn Countries to Justice in the Global North, Sandrine Lefranc 6. Legal Cosmopolitanism Divided: Stating, Codifying, and Invoking International Law of State Responsibility, Pierre-Yves Conde 7. Globalizing Intellectual Property Rights: The Politics of Law and Public Health, Diana Rodriguez-Franco 8. The Transnational Meets the National: The Construction of Trade Policy Networks in Brazil, Gregory Shaffer, Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin and Barbara Rosenberg 9. The Force of a Weak Field: Law and Lawyers in the Government of Europe, Antoine Vauchez 10.The European Court of Justice in the Emergent European Field of Power: Transnational Judicial Institutions and National Career Paths, Antonin Cohen 11. Human Rights and the Hegemony of Ideology: European Lawyers and the Cold War Battle over International Human Rights, Mikael Rask MadsenIntroduction: Constructing Transnational Justice, Yves Dezalay and Bryant G. Garth 2. Lawyers, Humanitarian Emergencies, and the Politics of Large Number, Ron Levi and John Hagan 3.The Cause of Universal Jurisdiction: The Rise and Fall of an International Mobilization, Julien Seroussi 4. Lawyering War or Talking Peace? On Militant Usages of the Law in the Resolution of Internal Armed Conflicts: A Case Study of International Alert, Sara Dezalay 5. From Peacebuilding in War-Torn Countries to Justice in the Global North, Sandrine Lefranc 6. Legal Cosmopolitanism Divided: Stating, Codifying, and Invoking International Law of State Responsibility, Pierre-Yves Conde 7. Globalizing Intellectual Property Rights: The Politics of Law and Public Health, Diana Rodriguez-Franco 8. The Transnational Meets the National: The Construction of Trade Policy Networks in Brazil, Gregory Shaffer, Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin and Barbara Rosenberg 9. The Force of a Weak Field: Law and Lawyers in the Government of Europe, Antoine Vauchez 10.The European Court of Justice in the Emergent European Field of Power: Transnational Judicial Institutions and National Career Paths, Antonin Cohen 11. Human Rights and the Hegemony of Ideology: European Lawyers and the Cold War Battle over International Human Rights, Mikael Rask Madsen

Respect of law or respect through law

ABSTRACT What is the role of law and legality in social resilience? This review essay highlights how a sociology of law, culture, and institutions underwrites many of the findings of Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil & Israel. The book provides a trenchant analysis of group boundaries, stigma, and destigmatization across three cities worldwide. I suggest that in addition to the role of formal law and legal constraints that the book identifies, we can attend to how legality offers a repertoire for resilience on which people draw when faced with stigma, discrimination, or contentious situations, even when formal law falls short. In this way, combining a sociology of law with a sociology of culture can provide us with an understanding of how societies offer social resilience, and how this resource varies across social, national, and legal contexts.