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The spirit of the National Peace Accord: The past and future of conflict resolution in South Africa

This article was published in ACCORD: the African Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 9 No. 1, 2009).

The work is a condensed version of my research as a Rotary scholar in South Africa, the article examines the groundbreaking initiative called the National Peace Accord, which helped shepherd South Africa away form apartheid. It goes on to look at the government’s new attempt to incorporate traditional justice systems into the state.

One of the central challenges of conflict resolution is measurement: how do you measure the prevention of conflict? It is easier to measure a war than its absence. But for conflict resolution to have a purpose, you have to know when it’s working.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Click here to download the article from the African Journal on Conflict Resolution.

Click here to download an unedited copy of the article directly from my website.

Mountain Climbing and Apartheid (On Website)
Mountain Climbing and Apartheid (Download)

Apologizing in post-apartheid South Africa is not nearly as simple as it seems. This article documents the attempt by the Mountain Club of South Africa to apologize for its discriminatory policies during apartheid. There are a number of interviews with climbers and the apology is analyzed through the lens of the latest theories of reconciliation in countries suffering from mass trauma.

A Critical Legal Studies Primer

Karl Marx warned us that legal rights are not always to be trusted. His reasoning was simple: that legal rights often perpetuate systems of exploitation and bolster the status quo. But somehow, one hundred and fifty years later, we continue to believe in them.

This lengthy academic essay looks at the role of rights through the lens of the Critical Legal Studies movement. Writing in the 70s and 80s, these scholars found that the law diffuses power in surprising and often unpredictable ways – but rarely is a sinister force at work. Click here to download the full essay.

Refugees and Conflict Resolution in the Western Cape of South Africa

Published in Dialogue: the Journal of Global Majority (Vol. 1, No.1, 2007)

This article describes some of the issues confronting refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa. It specifically addresses violence against the refugee community, and suggests plausible solutions.

Click here to view
the article on Global Majority’s website.

Click here to download the article from my website in Microsoft Word format.

Immigrants and Harm Reduction Statutes in California

Published in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, Volume 19, Issue 3 (Spring 2005).

This article describes the effect of drug harm reduction statutes upon the immigrant community in California. Thankfully, the incongruencies that I identified in the Immigration and Naturalization Act — in which removal for a drug offense depended almost entirely on the state you were living in — has since been at least partially resolved by a Supreme Court decision.

Check out the citation on the journal page here. The article can be found on Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis.

Please contact me if you would like a copy of the article sent to you.

The Cycle of Life and Loss

Published in the poetry magazine Triplopia.com, Vol VII, Issue 3 (2007).

A brief article about the cycle of life, through the lens of Haruki Murakami and Michael Ende. The article was written to address the theme of ‘Structure’.

Click here for the article on Triplopia.

Click here to download the article in Microsoft Word format.