The ANZSIL GSIL Interest Group warmly welcomes registrations to attend a Work in Progress seminar. These seminars are an opportunity for academics to present current works and receive feedback from the GSIL community.
Date: Thursday 27 August 2PM-3PM (AEST)/4PM-5PM (NZST)
Place: Online (via Zoom)
Presenter: Charlotte Carney (University of Technology Sydney)
Discussant: Adrienne Ringin (La Trobe University)
Title: Logics of Universality and Particularity: Exploring Discourses of Gender and “Forced Marriage” at Hybrid Courts
Abstract:
Amidst increasing disillusionment with ad-hoc tribunals, and permanent courts, hybrid courts have (re) emerged as a pathway for “justice”. Hybrid courts mix national and international processes, practices and personnel. Their potential lies in this mixedness. Yet, hybridity has a long history in institutional and cultural theorizations. Some post-colonial theorizations view hybridity as emancipatory due to how it disturbs colonial discourses which demand absolutes, and fixedness to justify dispossession. Instead, hybridity captures a complexity beyond these colonial, hegemonic imaginings. However, these emancipatory theorizations have been complicated when hybridity presents within institutional formations. Rather, hybrid mechanisms, outside of ICL, have been critiqued for continuing, rather than disturbing, colonial relations of power. Developing these examinations, I further interrogate the concept of hybridity within ICL, examining the discourses emerging from two hybrid courts: the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC); and the Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL). Specifically, I focus on discourses of “forced marriage” due to the centrality of this act at both hybrid courts under analysis. I found that their discourses around “forced marriage” were organised according to two exclusionary logics: logics of universality and particularity. These logics then constituted a broader colonial logic that organised the discourses of “forced marriage” at both courts. In surfacing these logics, I show the persistence of harmful discourses of “forced marriage” at these hybrid courts which negates their emancipatory potential. Instead, these discourses have implications for the (re) engagement with hybrid courts, calling into question the ideas they sustain around “forced marriage”, and ultimately, “justice”.
Bio: Charlotte Carney (she/her) is a final year PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, completing her PhD in the discipline of Government and International Relations. She has research interests in international criminal law (ICL), and justice. Her research draws on anti-colonial and anti-carceral thought to critique the gendered, racialised and colonial operations of ICL. Specifically, Charlotte’s dissertation discursively interrogates hybrid courts, using post structural discourse analysis to examine the logics that organise these institutions.
Registration
Please register using this link.
The paper will be sent to all registered participants on Thursday 20 August 2026. As this is a work in progress, no publication or dissemination beyond this release is authorised. Please respect the work of the author.
The zoom link will be sent to all participants on Wednesday 26 August 2026.
To get in contact with the event organisers, please email gsilig@anzsil.org
