The Pursuit of a Brave New World in International Law presents critical perspectives on various inter-related themes in the areas of human rights, international law, terrorism and international criminal justice. The discussions reflect the wide-ranging subjects that John Dugard has engaged with over the last five decades as an international law scholar, teacher and judge. The essays pay homage to Professor Dugard’s impressive body of work as both a theorist and practitioner of international law and international human rights law. While some of the discussions in the volume critically examine his views, as expressed in his academic writings, judicial opinions and official United Nations reports, others deal with subjects that have been inspired by or are related to Dugard’s work. Contributors are: Neil Boister, Trevor P. Chimimba, James Crawford, David Dyzenhaus, Christopher Greenwood, Larissa van den Herik, Christof Heyns, Maurice Kamto, Tiyanjana Maluwa, Max du Plessis, Thomas Probert, Arnold Pronto, Philippe Sands, William A. Schabas, Ivan Shearer, Hennie Strydom, Mia Swart, Dire Tladi, Annemarieke Vermeer-Künzli and Abdulqawi Yusuf.

“In this rich and resonant study, Joanna Newman recounts the little-known story of this Jewish exodus to the British West Indies...”—Times Higher Education In the years leading up to the Second World War, increasingly desperate European Jews looked to far-flung destinations such as Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica in search of refuge from the horrors of Hitler’s Europe. Nearly the New World tells the extraordinary story of Jewish refugees who overcame persecution and sought safety in the West Indies from the 1930s through the end of the war. At the same time, it gives an unsparing account of the xenophobia and bureaucratic infighting that nearly prevented their rescue—and that helped to seal the fate of countless other European Jews for whom escape was never an option. From the introduction: This book is called Nearly the New World because for most refugees who found sanctuary, it was nearly, but not quite, the New World that they had hoped for. The British West Indies were a way station, a temporary destination that allowed them entry when the United States, much of South and Central America, the United Kingdom and Palestine had all become closed. For a small number, it became their home. This is the first comprehensive study of modern Jewish emigration to the British West Indies. It reveals how the histories of the Caribbean, of refugees, and of the Holocaust connect through the potential and actual involvement of the British West Indies as a refuge during the 1930s and the Second World War.

Prior to 1735, South America was terra incognita to many Europeans. But that year, the Paris Academy of Sciences sent a mission to the Spanish American province of Quito (in present-day Ecuador) to study the curvature of the earth at the Equator. Equipped with quadrants and telescopes, the mission’s participants referred to the transfer of scientific knowledge from Europe to the Andes as a “sacred fire” passing mysteriously through European astronomical instruments to observers in South America.By taking an innovative interdisciplinary look at the traces of this expedition, Measuring the New World examines the transatlantic flow of knowledge from West to East. Through ephemeral monuments and geographical maps, this book explores how the social and cultural worlds of South America contributed to the production of European scientific knowledge during the Enlightenment. Neil Safier uses the notebooks of traveling philosophers, as well as specimens from the expedition, to place this particular scientific endeavor in the larger context of early modern print culture and the emerging intellectual category of scientist as author.