Professor John Strawson
Emeritus Professor
Department of Law, Justice and Policing
School of Business and Law , Royal Docks School Of Business And Law
Areas Of Interest
- International law
- Middle East studies
- Palestinian-Israeli conflict
- Islamic legal studies
- Human rights
- Conflict resolution
OVERVIEW
John Strawson has held a visiting position at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands, and has been visiting professor at Birzeit University, Palestine and at the International Islamic University Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. At UEL he directs the LLM programs. His publications include: Partitioning Palestine: Legal Fundamentalism in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (2010), Law after Ground Zero (Editor, 2002) and Injustice, Memory and Faith in Human Rights (Co-editor, 2018).
Research and impact
John Strawson discussing Human Rights at the Pinsker Center.
John Strawson debating the legality of any Israeli attempt to annex Palestinian Occupied Territory.
Publications
Book Reviews and Shorter Articles
- After 12 Years of Netanyahu, here’s what to expect from the new coalition government in Israel, The Conversation, June 3, 2021, at: https://theconversation.com/after-12-years-of-netanyahu-heres-what-to-expect-from-a-new-coalition-government-in-israel-162054
- Israeli Politics and the Palestine Question: everything you need to know, The Conversation, May 17, 2021, at: https://theconversation.com/israeli-politics-and-the-palestine-question-everything-you-need-to-know-157520
- Israeli Elections: Mansour Abbas emerges as possible first Arab kingmaker in nation’s history, The Conversation, March 30, 2021, at: https://theconversation.com/israeli-election-mansour-abbas-emerges-as-possible-first-arab-kingmaker-in-nations-history-158155
- Book Review: Matti Freidman, Spies of No County; Secret Lives at the birth of Israel, Fathom Issue 24 (2020), at: https://fathomjournal.org/from-john-strawson-to-lyn-julius-fathom-writers-share-their-favourite-books-and-films-week-5/
- The Word Crimes Controversy – A Personal Reflection, Fathom, Issue 23 (2019) at: http://fathomjournal.org/the-word-crimes-controversy-6-a-personal-reflection-by-john-strawson/
- Book Review: Robert P Barnidge, Jr, Self-Determination, Statehood and the Law of Negotiation: The Case of Palestine, Fathom Issue 21 (2018) at: http://fathomjournal.org/book-review-self-determination-statehood-and-the-law-of-negotiation-the-case-of-palestine/
- Book Review: Ethan B Katz, Lisa Moses Leff and Maud S Mandel (eds.) Colonialism and the Jews, Fathom Vol. 17 (2017) at: http://fathomjournal.org/book-review-colonialism-and-the-jews/
- Book Review: John Ehrenberg and Yoav Peled (eds.) Israel and Palestine: Alternative Perspectives for Statehood, Fathom Vol. 16 (2017) at: http://fathomjournal.org/book-review-israel-and-palestine-alternative-perspectives-on-statehood/
- Before the Next Gaza War Pluto Press Blog August 18 2014.
- Two-States after Gaza: Time to Compel the Parties? Democratiya, Vol. 16 (Spring-Summer 2009) at: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/wp-content/files_mf/1389827037d16Symposium.pdf
- Palestine: the pursuit of justice (interview with Rosemary Bechler) openDemocracy, January 28, 2008.
- Book Review: Gina Clayton, Textbook on Immigration and Asylum Law, Times Higher Educational Supplement, February 10, 2006.
- Book Review: C.G. Weeramantry, Universalising International Law, Melbourne Journal of International Law, Vol.5, No. 2 (2004), 513-518.
- Book Review: Robert Winder, Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, Times Higher Education Supplement, December 24/31, 2004.
- Book Review: Sami Zubaida, Law and Power in the Islamic World, Modern Law Review, Vol. 67, N0.5 (2004), 879-881.
- Book Review: Dallal Stevens, UK Asylum Law and Policy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Times Higher Education Supplement, May 28 2004.
- The Israeli Wall, Palestine and the International Court of Justice, Student Law Review, Vol. 42 (2004), 48-50.
- Guantanamo Bay Prisoners: The Third Geneva Convention and the “War on Terror.” Student Law Review. Vol. 41 (2004), 44-45.
- Book Review: Frederic M. Goadby and Moses Doukhan, The Land Law of Palestine, Palestine Yearbook of International Law Vol.11 (2003), 399-401.
- Occupying Iraq – Regime Change and International Law, Student Law Review, Vol. 40 (2003), 44-45.
- Book Review: Javaid Rehman, International Human Rights: A Practical Approach; Rhona K. Smith, Textbook on International Human Rights, Times Higher Educational Supplement, May 30, 2003.
- For a World at War – An International Criminal Court, Student Law Review, Vol. 39 (2003), 44-45.
- In the Name of the Law? Socialist Lawyer, Vol. 35 (Spring 2003), 14-15.
- The United Nations and the use of force: unilateralism and the international rule of law, Student Law Review, Vol. 38 (2003), 50-51.
- Book Review: Basia Spalek (ed.) Islam, Crime and Criminal Justice, British Society of Criminology Newsletter, No. 48, March 2003, 17.
- Iraq: A Threat to International Peace and Security? Student Law Review, Vol. 37 (2002) 49-50.
- The Middle East Crisis: International law and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Student Law Review, Vol. 36 (2002), 50-52.
- Terrorism: Has Law Had a Good War? Student Law Review, Vol. 35 (2002), 50-51.
- Book Review: Lawrence Rosen, The Justice of Islam, Journal of Law and Society Vol.28, No.4 (2001), 628-632.
- International Law at Ground Zero, Student Law Review, Vol. 34 (2001), 52.
- Book Review: Keith Ansell Pearson, Benita Parry and Judith Squires, Cultural Readings of Imperialism: Edward Said and the Gravity of History, Socialist History Journal, Issue 14 (1999), 68-70.
- Book Review: Paul J.I. M. de Waart, Dynamics of Self-Determination in Palestine, Islamic Law and Society Vol. 2, No 3 (1995), 362-363.
Books
- (eds) Injustice and Memory and Faith in Human Rights with Kalilopi Chainoglou, Barry Collins and Michael Phillips (London and New York: Routledge, 2018). ISBN 9781472462329. Paperback edition 2019, ISBN 9780367267049.
- (ed.) with Barry Collins, Iraq and Human Rights, International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, Vol. 5, No 3 (2011). ISSN17512867
- Partitioning Palestine: Legal Fundamentalism in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (London and New York: Pluto Press, 2010). Paperback: ISBN 978 0 7453 2323 7; hardback: ISBN 978 0 7453 2324 4.
- (ed.) with Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Tracking the Postcolonial in Law, Griffith Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2003) ISSN 1038-3441.
- (ed.) Law after Ground Zero (London, Sydney, Portland: GlassHouse Press, 2002, reprinted with amendments, 2004) ISBN 978 1 904 385 028; Hardback issue, Law after Ground Zero (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), ISBN 798-1-138-16013-2
Most recent research
- Communists for the Jewish State: British Communists and the Daily Worker in 1948, Fathom. Issue 24 (September 2020), at: https://fathomjournal.org/communists-for-the-jewish-state-british-communists-and-the-daily-worker-in-1948/
- A Radical Law School? in Michael Rustin and Gavin Poynter (eds.) Building a Radical University: The History of the University of East London (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2020), 243-265, at: https://lwbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2021/01/Building-a-Radical-University-a98sx8.pdf
- Israeli Elections: Mansour Abbas emerges as possible first Arab kingmaker in nation’s history, The Conversation, March 30, 2021, at: https://theconversation.com/israeli-election-mansour-abbas-emerges-as-possible-first-arab-kingmaker-in-nations-history-158155
Essays
- Communists for the Jewish State: British Communists and the Daily Worker in 1948, Fathom. Issue 24 (September 2020), at: https://fathomjournal.org/communists-for-the-jewish-state-british-communists-and-the-daily-worker-in-1948/.
- A Radical Law School? in Michael Rustin and Gavin Poynter (eds.) Building a Radical University: The History of the University of East London (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2020), 243-265.
- Colonialism, Israel Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2019), 33-44.
- Islamic Memory and the ISIS ‘Caliphate,’ in (eds.) Kalliopi Chainoglou, Barry Collins, Michael Phillips, John Strawson (eds.) Injustice and Memory: Faith in Human Rights (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 28-42.
- (with Kalliopi Chainoglou, Barry Collins and Michael Phillips), Introduction, in Kalliopi Chainoglou. Barry Collins, Michael Phillips (eds.), Injustice, Memory and Faith in Human Rights (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 1-8.
- (with Mertkan Hamit) Vasrosha: a memorial to conflict, in Kallipoi Chainoglou, Barry Collins. Michael Phillips and John Strawson (eds.), Injustice, Memory and Faith in Human Rights (London and New York: Routledge, 2018), 209-214.
- One-State is a Trap for Two Peoples in Palestine and Israel, Fathom, Vol. 12 (2016), at: http://fathomjournal.org/perry-andersons-house-of-zion-a-symposium-john-strawson/ (reprinted in Solidarity, No. 521 (October 16, 2019).
- Translating the Hedaya: The Colonial Foundations of Islamic Law, in John McLaren and Shuannah Dorest (eds.) Legal Histories of the British Empire: Laws, Engagements, Legacies (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2014), 157-170.
- Islamic Law after the Arab Spring: The Challenges of Islamism and Modernity in Robert P Barnidge (ed.) The Liberal Way of Law (Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate 2013), 259-278.
- State-Sponsored Riot: Tales of Revolt and Crime in Egypt 2011, in Daniel Briggs (ed.) The English Riots of 2011: The Summer of Discontent (Hook: Waterside Press, 2012), 329-345.
- (with Barry Collins) Iraq and Human Rights, International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3 (2011), 311-318.
- Provoking International Law: War and Regime Change in Iraq, in Sundhya Pahuja, Fleur Johns, and Richard Joyce (eds.) Events - The Force of International Law (Routledge-Cavendish, 2011), 246-259.
- Britain’s Democratic Vision for Iraq: Strategy or Contingency? International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies Vol. 2, No 3 (2008), 351-374.
- Islam and the Politics of Terrorism: Aspects of the British Experience, in Miriam Gani and Penelope Mathew (eds.) Fresh Perspectives on the War on Terror (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2008), 9-26.
- British (and International) Legal Foundations for the Israeli Wall: International Law and Multi-Colonialism, Palestine Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 13 (2007), 1-26.
- Conjuring Palestine: The Jurisdiction of Dispossession in Shaun McVeigh (ed.) Jurisprudence of Jurisdiction (Abingdon and New York: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007), 84-101.
- On the Trail of the Palestinian State, in Jacqueline S Ismael and William W Haddad (eds.) Barriers to Reconciliation: Case Studies from Iraq and the Palestine-Israeli Conflict (Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: University Press of America 2007), 195-227.
- Zionism and Apartheid: the analogy in the politics of international law, Engage Journal No 2, (May 2006)at: https://engageonline.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/the-analogy-in-the-politics-of-international-law-john-strawson-engage-journal-issue-2-may-2006-zionism-and-apartheid/.
- Two Peoples, One State? review essay, Virginia Tilley, The One State Solution: A Breakthrough for the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock, Democratiya, Issue, 4, March-May 2006, 34-48.
- The International Community’s legal responses to Apartheid South Africa and the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, Avocats sans Frontieres, December 2005.
- Revisiting Islamic Law: Marginal Notes from Colonial History, Griffith Law Review Vol. 12, No.2 (2003), 362-383.
- (with Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne) Tracks and Traces of the Law, Griffith Law Review, Vol.12, No.2 (2003), 157-165.
- Holy War: in the Media: Images of Jihad, in Steven Chermak, Frankie Y. Bailey and Michelle Brown (eds.) Media Representations of September 11 (Westport CT. and London: Praeger, 2003), 17-28.
- Islamic Law and the English Press in John Strawson (ed.) Law after Ground Zero (London, Sydney, Portland Or: Glasshouse Press, 2002), 205-214.
- (with Kim van der Borght) Cuba and the Axis of Evil: An Old Outlaw in the New Order in John Strawson (ed.) Law after Ground Zero (London, Sydney, Portland Or: Glasshouse Press, 2002), 59-70.
- In the Name of the Law, in John Strawson (ed.) Law after Ground Zero (London, Sydney, and Portland Or: GlassHouse Press, 2002), xi-xxii.
- Reflections on Edward Said and the Legal Narratives of Palestine: Israeli Settlements and Palestinian Self-Determination, Penn State International Law Review, Vol. 20, No 2 (2002), 363-384.
- “Mandate Ways: Self-Determination in Palestine and the ‘Existing Non-Jewish Communities,’” in Sanford R. Silverburg (Ed.) Palestine and International Law: Essays on Politics and Economics (Jefferson N.C and London: McFarland, 2002), 251-270.
- “Orientalism and Legal Education in the Middle East: Reading Frederic Goadby’s Introduction to the Study of Law,” Legal Studies Vol. 21 No. 4 (2001), 664-678.
- “Britain’s Shadows: Post-colonialism and Palestine” in Tareq Y. Ismael (Ed.) The International Relations of the Middle East in the 21st Century (Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate, 2000), 203-225.
- “Islamic Law and English Texts” in Eve Darian-Smith and Peter Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Laws of the Postcolonial (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 109-126.
- “Legal Story Telling After Diana and Dodi: The Disappeared of the Postcolonial” in Mehmet Tahiroglu, Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline S. Ismael (Eds.) Globalization in World Affairs: Socio-Economic and Political Dimensions (Gazimagusa: Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 1999), 311-328.
- “Palestine’s Basic Law: Constituting New Identities Through Liberating Legal Culture,” Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Journal, Vol. 20, No.3 (1998), 411-432. [reprinted in Denise Ferreira da Silva and Mark Harris (eds.) Postcolonialism and the Law, Vol.3 (London and New York; Routledge, 2018). Chapter 28]
- “Netanyahu’s Oslo: Peace in the Slow Lane,” Soundings, Issue 8 (1998). 49-60. At: http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/soundings/08_49.pdf
- “A Western Question to the Middle East: Is There a Human Rights Discourse in Islam?” Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1997), 31-58.
- “Encountering Islamic Law,” School of Law Research Publications: University of East London, New Series No. 1 (1996) [41 pages] simultaneously published electronically by UEL, and subsequently by the International Islamic University.
- “Islamic Law and English Texts,” Law and Critique Vol. V, No. 1 (1995), 21-38. [reprinted in Denise Ferreira da Silva and Mark Harris (eds.) Postcolonialism and the Law, Vol 2, (London and New York; Routledge, 2018), chapter 41].
- The Kuwait Crisis: Self-Determination, Self-Defence and the New Global Order, University of East London: School of Law Research Papers, No 4 (1992), 1-17.
Opinion Pieces
- Does Israel have a legitimate claim of sovereignty over the West Bank? The Jewish Chronicle, July 23, 2020. At: https://www.thejc.com/news/features/does-israel-have-a-legitimate-claim-of-sovereignty-over-the-west-bank-1.502142
- Never Not East London: Thoughts on the Lockdown, University of East London, July 12, 2020, at: https://uel.ac.uk/still-open/stay-connected/never-not-east-london/john-strawson
- Jeremy Corbyn and Hamas no longer friends but still brothers, Jewish News, August 22, 2018 at: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jeremy-corbyn-and-hamas-no-longer-friends-but-still-brothers/
- I support the Palestinians – and I left Labour this week over anti-Semitism, Jewish News, July 19, 2018, at: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-support-the-palestinians-and-i-left-labour-this-week-over-anti-semitism/
- Can Blair Prise Open his Window of Opportunity in the Middle East? Yorkshire Post, July 24, 2007
- The World Can Turn Gaza Crisis into and Opportunity, Yorkshire Post, June 20, 2007.
- Kidnapping Casts Shadow over Peace in Palestine, Yorkshire Post, April 18, 2007
- Call Time on ‘Iraqi Adventure,’ East London Enquirer, November 16, 2006
- Why I am Against the AUT Boycott of Israeli Universities, Engage, May 2005.
Modules Taught
- International Law: Problems and Process (Mental Wealth) - LA7040
- War and Human Rights - LA7013
- International Criminal Law - LA7010
External roles
- Advisory Editor of the journal Fathom
Publications
The last four years of publications can be viewed below.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications