Jakob v. H. Holtermann

News:

April 28, 2010 Vilvorde, Copenhagen. Invited to speak on the methodological differences between philosophy and legal science at a seminar on methodological issues in rights research arranged by JurForsk, the Danish Research Training Programme of Legal Science.
March 12, 2010 (Syrlig) kommentar i Weekendavisen til Politikens forunderlige beslutning om at undskylde overfor ganske mange efterkommere efter Mohammed. I indlægget dvæler jeg ved en tilsyneladende upåagtet detalje i undskyldningen.
March 5-6, 2010 Attending the annual meeting of the Danish Philosophical Society at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University. Besides giving a talk on Alf Ross ("Scandinavian Neo-Realism?") I organised and chaired the parallel sessions in legal philosophy.
February 1, 2010 First day at the Centre for Studies in Legal Culture at the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen. Embarking on a three year postdoc position financed in part by the Carlsberg Research Foundation and in part by the Faculty of Law. Besides teaching philosophy of law I will be conducting research in the fields of legal epistemology, modern legal realism and (a little) restorative justice.
January 31, 2010 Last day at Roskilde University. Saying goodbye to wonderful students, colleagues and friends at the Department for Philosophy and Science Studies and at the Humanities Basic Studies.
December 17, 2009 A good day! I received a generous postdoc research grant from the Carlsberg Foundation. On February 1, 2010 I embark on the two-year research project "Legal Epistemology - a Philosophical Investigation".
November 19, 2009 I forbindelse med udstillingen "Iraq - the Borrowed Kettle" på udstillingsstedet Goloss, holder jeg oplægget "Sådan lyver man om krige", hvori jeg med filmklip fra Anders Fogh Rasmussens og Per Stig Møllers krigstaler redegør for regeringens succesrige manøvrer i kølvandet på de fraværende masseødelæggelsesvåben i Irak.
November 16, 2009 After successfully defending my thesis I now hold a PhD-degree in philosophy. My heartfelt thanks to all participants – thanks to the evaluation committee for doing a brilliant job posing intelligent questions; and thanks to the audience, friends and family, students and colleagues for hanging in there and making my day.
November 16, 2009 I defend my thesis, "Everything you always wanted to know about restorative justice* (*but were afraid to ask)", for the PhD-degree in philosophy. The defence will be held from 13:00 to 16:00 in the auditorium in building 46 at Roskilde University. After the defence there will be a reception in building P6. The thesis can be found at: http://retsfilosofi.dk/restorative.pdf. All interested are welcome.
November 1, 2009 I warmly recommend everybody with an interest in the intersection between mass atrocities, resentment and criminal justice ethics to take a close look at Danish philosophers brilliant and thought-provoking book Resentment's Virtue : Jean Améry and the Refusal to Forgive.
October 21, 2009 Alle interesserede inviteres til at deltage i semesterets første arrangement i seminarrækken Retsfilosofi. Fra kl. 13:00-14:30 får vi besøg af adjunkt, Christian Axboe Nielsen, Afd. for sydøsteuropastudier Aarhus Universitet, der giver oplægget: "Erkendelsesinteresse og Internationale Straffedomstole: Epistemologiske og praktiske overvejelser".
August 17-18, 2009 I give a two-day seminar on philosophy of science at the Royal Danish Defence College. Participants attending the seminar will be both Army, Navy and Air Force.
August 11, 2009 My article "A 'Slice of Cheese'—a Deterrence-Based Argument for the International Criminal Court" is now out Online First in Human Rights Review. See here. A draft version is available here.
August 3, 2009 Er middelsvært imponeret over hvad man faktisk kan få for sine licenspenge. Denne Orientering-udsendelse af Sara Dybris McQuaid om baggrunden for restorative justice i Nordirland og koldhovede analyse af fordele og ulemper ved arrangementet kan på det varmeste anbefales.
July 29, 2009 Today I handed in my PhD-thesis on the philosophy of restorative justice. I humbly believe that the thesis has roughly the potential of Dr. Reuben's classic study from '69, so I named it: Everything you always wanted to know about restorative justice* (*but were afraid to ask). It is available for download and browsing at:http://retsfilosofi.dk/restorative.pdf
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June 10, 2009 My article "A 'Slice of Cheese' - A Deterrence-based Argument for the International Criminal Court" has been accepted for publication in peer-reviewed international journal Human Rights Review. It will soon be available through Springer's "OnlineFirst", and subsequently in a completed issue of Human Rights Review. Till then, a penultimate draft (with an old title) is available here. When it becomes published, the full citation to the published version of the article is given under Publications. Users are kindly requested to use the published citation, and to reference the page numbers in the published version of the article.
Maj 26, 2009 Kl. 20:00-20:30 gæster jeg Tankens magt på DK4 for at tale om Machiavelli, Anders Fogh Rasmussen og Irak-krigen. Udsendelsen genudsendes flittigt i løbet af de følgende to uger. Tankens magt er et program der tager den filosofiske temperatur på et dagsaktuelt tema eller problem. Vært i studiet er professor Vincent F. Hendricks. Øvrige gæster i denne programrække tæller bl.a. Søren Ulrik Thomsen, Rune Lykkeberg og Frederik Stjernfelt.
Marts 26, 2009 I dagens Debatten på DR2 diskuterede man afgående statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussens eftermæle, bl.a. i forbindelse med Irakkrigen. Sherin Khankan citerede i den forbindelse "Jakob Holtermanns glimrende kronik i Weekendavisen". Se også evt. min Youtuobe-video med Foghs glemte tale (jf. også nedenfor om det åbne samråd i Forsvarsudvalget d. 29. oktober '08).
March 4, 2009: The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, President of Sudan, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. As was to be expected, the warrant of arrest occasioned immediate international criticism. Western commentators and diplomats hastily joined in with China, the OIC and Bashir himself in denouncing this move as rigid justice-fetishism unscrupulously jeopardising fragile peace and stability in the region. I believe, however, that the warrant of arrest as well as the ICC generally can be justified on fairly prosaic and prudential grounds – although I readily concede that the disturbing situation admits of no easy answers. In my latest paper (which is currently undergoing peer-review), I try to show why.
Februar 26, 2009: Justitsminister Brian Mikkelsen fremsætter forslag om at gøre den danske forsøgsordning med konfliktråd permanent og udvide den til hele landet. Ifølge det længe ventede lovforslag skal konfliktråd kun fungere som et supplement og ikke som et alternativ til straf. Det mener jeg som udgangspunkt er en fornuftig og velafbalanceret løsning. Evt. bør man på sigt overveje at tilbyde konfliktråd som alternativ til straf inden for mindre, afgrænsede områder, fx i forbindelse med ungdomskriminalitet og ved betingede frihedsstraffe. Uanset de sympatiske intentioner ved og uafviseligt positive konsekvenser af konfliktråd og såkaldt genoprettende ret (restorative justice) vil en mere omfattende udbredelse efter min bedste overbevisning åbne for misbrug og i sidste ende føre til en underminering af retsstaten. I min nyligt publicerede artikel, "Outlining the shadow of the axe", argumenterer jeg uddybende for dette synspunkt.
January 11, 2009: My article "Outlining the Shadow of the Axe - On Restorative Justice and the Use of Trial and Punishment" is out Online First at "Criminal Law and Philosophy". See here.
December 1, 2008: Synes der er fantastisk god grund til at se dagens DR2 Premiere - særligt ca. 19:30 inde i udsendelsen hvor jeg har hjulpet med et par klip. Og så undrer jeg mig i mit stille sind over at det skulle blive et filmprogram der efter 5½ år endte med at vise det klip der dokumenterer at statsministeren har løjet om begrundelsen for Irak-krigen. Well, hvorfor skulle journalister nu også rende rundt og grave den slags frem. De har vel andet at se til.
November 25, 2008: Respecting religious feelings - a wonderfully self-defeating imperative...
November 17, 2008: My paper "Outlining the shadow of the axe - On restorative justice and the use of trial and punishment" has been accepted for publication in peer reviewed journal Criminal Law and Philosophy (Editors-in-Chief: R.A. Duff; D.N. Husak).

November 19, 2008 kl. 13:00-14:30 i P6, Roskilde Universitetscenter: Jeg holder foredraget: "Den internationale straffedomstol - hvorfor det måske alligevel kunne blive en god ide" i seminarrækken retsfilosofi.

November 1, 2008: Filosofiafdelingens nestor, professor Stig Andur Pedersen har gentagne gange beklaget at en stadig større del af hans arbejdstid går med HK-arbejde. Men det er der ingen grund til Andur. For vi er alle en del af løsningen...

Oktober 29, 2008: Irak-krigen 7.0. Overværede oppositionen løbe storm mod AFR under Åbent samråd om begrundelsen for Irak-krigen. Søvndal tilbød statsministeren linket til min Youtube-video (triumf!) og både Lykketoft og Søvndal citerede de passager af Foghs tale jeg her fremhæver, og som jeg havde sendt dem aftenen i forvejen. Men derudover løb angrebet ud i sandet. Dels på grund af oppositionens snakkelyst, dels på grund af samrådsstrukturen der gav statsministerens foretrukne teknik med ikke at svare på direkte spørgsmål optimale arbejdsvilkår. Tænker at Danmark bør lave congressional investigative hearings efter amerikansk forbillede i stedet. Og at oppositionen skal prøve at holde sig til et, max to korte præcise spørgsmål der om ikke andet kan gøre det krystalklart når der ikke bliver svaret.

September 27-29, 2008: Irak-krigen, 6.0. For en kort bemærkning så det ud til at det faktisk skulle lykkes at finde en enkelt anstændig borgerlig politiker. Det skulle det selvfølgelig ikke. Men sagens genopblussen var alligevel interessant, fordi den bekræftede vigtigheden for regeringen af at fastholde løgnen om at masseødelæggelsesvåben ikke var en del af begrundelse for Irak-krigen. Se min Weekendavisen-kronik her

September 26, 2008: Is punishment really a question about communicating societal censure to perpetrators? Paul Newman in memoriam

September 11-13, 2008: Members of the Research Group for the Ethics of Punishment participate in The Tenth Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, California University, Berkeley. Pictures from the trip, see here

September 12, 2008: Letter to the editor on recent debate on how (and how not) to punish, published in Danish newspaper Weekendavisen. See here

August 31, 2008: Holtermann og Guldborg Hansen (ed.): Out of the Arm Chair - Filosoffer fra RUC i felten, 1. januar 2007 - 15. august 2008