A presentation by Valeria Vegh Weis (Universität Konstanz/Universidad de Buenos Aires). This event is part of the Fundamental Rights Research Colloquium hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.
On the 20th anniversary of Mutua’s work on the Savages–Victims–Saviors (SVS) Complex, this paper expands the original analysis to investigate if, and how, the SVS Complex works in international criminal law (rather than international law and human rights) and in an increasingly globalised scenario (rather than the prior stricter division between saviors in the North and victims and savages in the South). To address these inquiries, the presentation will look at the ICL-SVS complex in relation to Germany through the critical appraisal of three cases currently handled under its jurisdiction: crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria; genocide in Namibia; and crimes against humanity perpetrated by a member of the Argentine Navy. Notably, these cases allow us to examine three distinct ICL mechanisms: universal jurisdiction, historical justice, and extradition. The presentation will also assess if ICL and the specific mechanisms of universal jurisdiction, historical justice and extraditions are intrinsically neocolonial instruments, or if they can also be deployed in a counter-colonial manner as empowering tools, breaking with the ICL-SVS complex. Finally, the discussion concludes by exploring what these counter-mechanisms might look like in the three cases.
This presentation is part of the Fundamental Rights Research Colloquium's cluster on „Critical Engagements with Fundamental Rights”.
Valeria Vegh Weis, LL.M, PhD., is Argentinean/German and teaches Criminology and Transitional Justice at Buenos Aires University (UBA) and National Quilmes University (Argentina). She is currently a Research Fellow at Universität Konstanz Zukunftskolleg, where she researches on the role of human rights and victims’ organisations in the confrontation of state crimes. She is also an Associate Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Germany where she co-directs the research group on Transnational Criminal Law in Transatlantic Perspective (1870-1945). From 2019 to 2021, Vegh Weis was an Alexander von Humboldt Post-Doctoral Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin, where she still teaches state crime criminology.
She holds a Ph.D. in Law and an LL.M. in Criminal Law from UBA and an LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University. She has held different fellowships including the Fulbright and the Hauser Global Scholarships. Her book Marxism and Criminology: A History of Criminal Selectivity (BRILL 2017, Haymarket Books 2018) was awarded the Choice Award by the American Library Association and the Outstanding Book Award by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences. She is also the co-author of Bienvenidos al Lawfare with Raúl Zaffaroni and Cristina Caamaño (in Spanish Capital Intelectual 2020, in Portuguese Tirant Le Blanch 2021, in English Brill 2022) and Criminalization of Activism (Routledge 2021), as well as many articles and book chapters on the topics of criminology, transitional justice and criminal law. She has fifteen years of experience working in criminal courts and international organisations, and is the winner of the American Society of Criminology DCCSJ Critical Criminology of the Year Award (2021).
Prior registration is required. Registered attendees will receive the dial-in details as well as a draft paper, on which the presentation is based, via e-mail prior to the event.
