Acknowledgements
On the long journey with this book I have sought out and encountered many fascinating, inspiring and stimulating people from all walks of life: academics of every type including lawyers, anthropologists, sociologists and historians, judges, prosecutors and defenders, trade union activists, diplomats and parliamentarians of all colours and nationalities, squatters and anarchists, ex-detainees and prisoners of war, generals and footsoldiers, refuseniks and resistance fighters, company directors and private military contractors, middle management and civil service bureaucrats, cause lawyers and City types (and those that are both). I am grateful to all of them. Especially, in order of appearance:
This book started with Joel Bakan’s The Corporation (the film and the book), which echoed many of the experiences of the relationship between capital and law I had had as a commercial solicitor at Bird & Bird in the City of London and which led to my return to academia. I am grateful to my Ph.D. supervisor Catherine Redgwell at UCL for giving me the space and freedom to explore an untrodden path and for her faith in my ability to do so sensibly, and to Riz Mokal for his friendship during these years. My early work has benefitted enormously from discussions with Jason Beckett, Akbar Rasulov and Jörg Kammerhoffer. My time as an in-house solicitor at Habitat enabled me to understand the real-life effects of the intricacies of global corporate group structures as well as the relationship between human rights, contract law and international production chains. I am grateful for Andrea Shemberg’s invitation to be part of the Expert Panel for the International Commission of Jurists’ first Business and Human Rights Report (Corporate Complicity and Legal Accountability: The Report of the ICJ’s Expert Legal Panel on Corporate Complicity in International Crimes), and the opportunity to volunteer with the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights – both when the CSR debate was only just morphing into the BHR debate. Life and my view of (international law) took a different turn, however, when faced with a different reality in Palestine. I am grateful to Azem Bishara for providing the impetus for this life-changing decision, Aeyal Gross, Arthur Neslen and Rachel Shabi for the soft landing, and especially Anne Paq (who I’m grateful to count as one of my closest people, wherever she is in the world), Lymor Goldstein and Nadav Frankovitch for deeply inspiring friendships. My gracious institutional hosts in Palestine included Mudar Qassis at the Institute of Law (with whom I first visited Gaza), Birzeit University, Muhammed Shelaldeh at the Palestinian School of Law, Al-Quds University, Assaf Likhovski at the CEGLA Center, and Ronen Shamir (who has become an important intellectual ally) also at Tel Aviv University.
Most importantly in this period, Munir Nusseibeh and Radi Darwish, with whom I created the Al-Quds Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Clinic. I treasure this opportunity to work with many gifted students, passionate, driven and tenacious human rights professionals, especially those who became close friends: Mahmoud Abu Rahma of Al-Mezan, Smadar Ben Natan, and Miri Weingarten of PHR-I, as well as Sahar Frances of Addameer and Sha’wan Jabarin at Al-Haq prominently amongst many others. At Diakonia I am grateful for the sustaining political solidarity with Wa’el Abu-Nemeh especially, for the chance to investigate and report on corporate human rights and IHL violations in the West Bank and Gaza with Joakim Wohlfeil and for the opportunity to organise the ‘Enforcing IHL’ conference with many international human rights litigators in Brussels. Important friends at this time, and still today, Simon Boas, Vivian Korsten, Anne de Jong, Amber Houssian, Suzanne Goedeken and Liza Franke – as well as many others. The late Samer ‘Asli’ (Rest in Peace and Power), Mohammed Jaradat, Fady Swaitti and Ibrahim Burnat were solid companions. I owe deep thanks to Yehuda Shaul, Dalit Baum, Shir Hever and Jonathan Pollak who showed me how to carve a politically meaningful path in a politically messy world.
While in Palestine my mind was blown when reading China Miéville’s ‘Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law’, and my understanding was challenged, deepened and shaped through the many discussions with China, Robert Knox, Paavo Kotiaho, Irina Ceric and Alessandra Asteriti, as well as, and most enjoyably over large jigsaw puzzles, Hannah Franzki.
Moving to Berlin I found a stimulating temporary home (thanks to Tsafrir Cohen) at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights – thank you especially to comrade Kamil Majchrzak – and the late Michael Ratner – as well as an intellectual community with Florian Jeßberger and Jochen Bung at Das Franz-von-Liszt-Institut for International Criminal Law, Humboldt University, Berlin. Benedikt Naarman and Reut Paz were great study buddies while Antonia, Sarah K, Anna, Üner and their crew sustained me socially. The Universal Jurisdiction and strategic litigation squad included legal warriors Ward Ferdinandusse, Liesbeth Zegveld, Maria LaHood and Daniel Machover most importantly, as well as true comrade Ben Hayes.
I am grateful to Francesca Marotta for allowing me to experience the UN Human Rights system from the inside as one of the lawyers on Justice Richard Goldstone’s Fact Finding Mission on the 2008–09 ‘Operation Cast Lead’ Israeli assault on Gaza, and working me harder than anyone ever has before or since.
I thank my thorough and stimulating Ph.D. examiners Susan Marks and Douglas Guilfoyle, and my colleagues at City, University of London, especially my dear friend and office mate, may he rest in peace as well as power, Riccardo Montana, and my comrades Ioannis Kalpouzos, Marios Costa and Mazen Masri.
My fascination with the corporation has led me to set up the Critical Corporation Project together with André Spicer, David Whyte, Paddy Ireland, Tom Hadden, Peter Fleming, Martin Parker, David Quentin, David Hansen-Miller, Liam Campling, Andrew Sanchez and a host of others, in a 3-year ESRC-funded seminar series and edited collection: The Corporation: A Critical, Multidisciplinary Handbook, and an exciting series of activist workshops with the Radical Housing Network, Concrete Action, Corporate Watch and a launch event with my book’s inspiration, Joel Bakan.
This also led to the opportunity to teach ‘The Corporation in Global Society’ at David Kennedy’s Harvard IGLP Workshops in Doha, Bogota and Bangkok together with my more senior, always brilliant, and slightly less Marxist intellectual twin Dan Danielsen, to organising two joint conferences on Corporate Power and Resistance with the Corporation in Global Society Research Group at Harvard’s Institute of Global Law and Policy in June 2014. Moreover, it led to many of our ‘Critical Corporation’ crew joining Dan Danielsen and Jennifer Bair in the Law and the Global Value Chain Research Group. I owe a lot to the IGLP gatherings, not least the encounters and discussions with Alejandra Azuero, Swethaa Ballakrishnan, Genevieve Painter, Honor Brabazon, Christopher Gevers and many others.
I have presented the research in this book at numerous fora including the Melbourne ‘Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials’ event, and am grateful to UCL, IGLP and City for generous funding. I am especially grateful to Glenn Morgan and Bobby Bannerjee for the opportunity to present my research at LAEMOS in Havana, Cuba, in March 2013 and Susanne Soederberg and Laureen Snider for including us in the ‘Critical Perspectives on Corporate Power’ CRN at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in Boston in 2013, Seattle in 2015 (kayaktivism!) and Mexico City in 2017. My next project ‘Queering Corporate Power’ has been inspired by many of you.
At Brill/Historical Materialism and TAT Zetwerk, Danny Hayward, Jennifer Obdam and Cas Van den Hof and colleagues have been supportive, encouraging and patient. Jay Boggis and Zee Ahmed provided eagle-eyed editing under high pressure with humour and grace. Deep thanks go to the anonymous reviewer.
Finally, and above all, to my queer family Cloe, Sib, Lamble, Usch, Goz, Leila, Rosa, Saio, Çeylan, Jo and the kickabout crew, my brothers from another mother David, Vanja and comrade Tomaso, oldest friend in London Holly, even older friend Tessa in Den Haag and my home family: Jasmijn, Marijn, Eva, Milou, Kees and Annet.
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Some of the chapters have appeared in previous form:
A shorter version of Chapter 2B was published as Baars 2015.
An earlier version of Chapter 3A was published as Baars 2013.
An earlier version of Chapter 4A was published as Baars 2014a.
Earlier versions of Chapter 6 were published as Baars 2016 and Baars 2017.