By Audrey Macklin

Enlisting states of origin or transit to prevent exit from their own territory has become a tool of extraterritorial migration control for industrialised liberal democratic states. This article first explores the practical erosion of the right to leave any country since the demise of communism, focusing on arrangements between EU member states and select African states of origin or transit. I then document the legitimating function performed by the anti-smuggling and search and rescue regimes in effacing the human right to leave. I conclude by situating exit restrictions in a wider European project of promoting, building and supporting border infrastructure in the name of development and capacity building in select African countries. This permits reflection on what the contemporary use of exit restrictions signifies for the equation of border control and sovereignty.

International Migration, June 2025

By Ruth Vollmer, Clara Schmitz-Pranghe

This article analyses the interactions between inequalities and reintegration assistance, looking at the examples of Serbia and Kosovo. It proposes an approach for examining the reintegration assistance practices of frontline providers by (a) viewing them through the lens of street-level bureaucracy acting mainly on behalf of the returning state and (b) as locally situated agents within the networks of their own distributive relations and embodying their own social positioning. Street-level implementers play an active role in shaping outreach, effectiveness, and sustainability of reintegration assistance, not always in the intended ways. This article traces their navigation of institutional, organisational, and relational contexts, internalised social norms, and perceptions of social divisions, as well as the micro-dynamics of asymmetrical interactions during service delivery. It finds that strategies applied by street-level assistance providers have ambivalent but rather minor effects on pre-existing inequalities. Even though they often naturalise prevalent social divisions, the interactions and allocation of assistance are determined more by their practical experiences, availability and type of support, as well as general programme design and working conditions. The inability to bridge the mismatch between available support and needs can even endorse inequality-normalising perceptions.

International MigrationVolume 63, Issue 4

August 2025

By Anita Ramsak and  Eyueil Abate  

Ethiopia is a country of origin and transit, with migration primarily occurring around three main routes: (a) Eastern route through Djibouti towards Saudi Arabia; (b) Southern route through Kenya towards South Africa; and (c) Northern route through Libya towards Europe. In 2022, the number of unaccompanied children who migrated via the Eastern route doubled in comparison to 2021, and unaccompanied children made up 38 per cent of all children on the move from Ethiopia in 2022. En route, children may face protection risks including arbitrary arrest and detention, human trafficking for the purposes of labour or sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, extortion and denial of access to basic needs. Broad structural factors, such as conflict, drought and poverty are driving children and adults to migrate despite the protection risks. To understand the current knowledge gaps in the nexus between migration and child protection, as well as propose improvements, this study relies on primary and secondary data analysis. With a particular focus on exploring linkages between child migration and trafficking in children in Ethiopia, the report concludes with the institutional and legal landscape for children on the move and highlights key policy gaps in protecting children on the move across Ethiopia.Geneva, SWIT:  International Organization for Migration. 2023, 94p.

By Michael K. Dzordzormenyoh

This study examines the determinants of public attitudes towards immigrants in Africa, using the contact hypothesis as its framework. This study evaluated how neighbourhood violence affects the acceptance of immigrants using three distinct sample groups: a full sample, a group with no foreign exposure and a group with foreign exposure. This study draws on data from 28 African countries, encompassing 28,685 respondents. Binary logistic regression analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between the independent variables and public acceptance of immigrants. The results indicate that concerns about neighbourhood violence significantly predicted negative attitudes towards immigrants in both the full sample and the group without foreign exposure but not in the sample with foreign exposure. Higher levels of education, especially post-secondary education, were found to be strong predictors of more favourable attitudes towards immigrants across all samples. Notable regional variations were observed, with the western, southern, and northern areas generally exhibiting more negative attitudes. The nation's current economic state negatively influenced attitudes in the full and no-foreign-exposure groups, whereas individual financial circumstances had a positive impact. Border control consistently emerged as a negative predictor across the samples, whereas immigration enforcement demonstrated a positive relationship in certain models. These findings offer crucial insights into the multifaceted elements that shape the public opinion of immigrants in African nations and have substantial theoretical and practical implications. This study contributes to the broader literature on public attitudes towards immigrants and the contact hypothesis from an African perspective

International Migration, Volume63, Issue 4, 

August 2025

By Charis E. Kubrin

The main objective of the project is to improve understanding of the immigration-crime relationship by addressing several important areas of inquiry. These areas of inquiry represent key omissions in the literature that merit attention. For example, next to no research has examined the robustness of the immigration-crime relationship across a substantially large and diverse range of neighborhoods across the U.S., which reflect different immigration contexts and histories. At the same time, with few exceptions, research largely lumps all immigrants together and neglects important differences across groups, whether by immigrant status or demographic or socio-economic background. Finally, little is known about how the immigration-crime relationship may be context dependent, and how immigration-related policies and practices may condition the immigration-crime relationship. Using data from a variety of sources over many years (2000-2016), we conduct a series of analyses that refine and advance our understanding of the immigration-crime relationship. These analyses address a variety of research questions including: How robust is the immigration-crime relationship? What are the appropriate ways to capture varied effects of immigrant groups on neighborhood crime rates? Does citizenship status matter? How do levels of assimilation impact how immigration and crime are associated? Which immigrant groups have crime reducing effects in neighborhoods? Which have crime enhancing effects? Another set of analyses consider the extent to which the broader city-context of reception as well as immigration-related policies and practices condition the immigration-crime relationship. These analyses address research questions including: Which city-level characteristics matter most for impacting the neighborhood immigration-crime relationship? How does immigration enforcement condition the relationship between immigration and crime? Do “sanctuary cities” attract crime-prone immigrants, reducing public safety overall? To achieve these goals and begin to answer these research questions, we collected, cleaned and merged data from many sources including crime data from police departments, public use Census and American Community Survey data, restricted data from the Census Data Center at UC Irvine, historical business data from Reference USA, and TRACFed data, among others. After considerable effort, we collected data for a sample of 415 cities in 2020 with at least 10,000 population, a sample of 480 cities in 2010, a sample of 168 cities in 2000, a subset of 310 cities with longitudinal data in 2010 and 2018, and a subset of 139 cities with longitudinal data in 2000 and 2010. No comparable neighborhood crime data set that covers such a large and diverse range of contexts currently exists.  (continued)    

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2025. 45p.

By Chris van der Borgh and Wim Savenije

This paper analyses a government-facilitated truce, begun in 2012, between El Salvador’s three principal street gangs. Using field theory and securitisation theory, it maps the evolution of the truce, distinguishing between the three related processes of making the deal, keeping the truce, and resisting it. It analyses the complex and intriguing political processes in which various actors, such as gang leaders, government officials and international organisations, interacted with each other and made deals about the use and visibility of violence and ways of diminishing, preventing or hiding it.  

  Journal of Latin American Studies (2019), 51, 905–928 doi:1

By Luc Leboeuf

The article addresses the consequences of the externalisation of EU border policies on the legal and institutional dynamics that govern those policies. Drawing on the analysis of legal and policy documents and interviews, which were conducted with expert public servants among EU institutions and in one EU member state (Belgium), the article argues that EU border policies are increasingly governed by ‘regimes of invisibility’—which mainly involve expert public servants who cooperate with their counterparts in informal settings and through informal agreements. The article shows how the emergence of those ‘regimes of invisibility’ is deeply connected with the mainstreaming of migration through all components of the EU foreign policy. This leads to broader use of the tools from the foreign policy toolbox, which often rely on informal forms of cooperation, as well as to greater involvement of institutional actors beyond officials within interior ministries, such as diplomats. The article further makes an initial attempt to unpack these ‘regimes of invisibility’ by showing their underlying institutional tensions and dynamics. Therefore, it discusses how public servants, with different institutional background and knowledge, conflict and cooperate in shaping EU relations with third countries in the field.

International Migration, Volume 63, Issue 5Sep 2025

By RADJENOVIC, Anja

Issues at stake: • Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is mandated to support EU Member States in managing external borders, combating cross-border crime, and managing migration, through joint operations, surveillance and data analysis. The agency also cooperates with non-EU countries through status agreements and working arrangements, and plays a key role in organising and executing migrants' returns. • The European Commission is considering a revised mandate in 2026 for Frontex to address growing geopolitical, security and migration challenges. Reforms are driven by hybrid threats, the implementation of the new pact on migration and asylum, and demands for swifter returns of individuals ineligible for asylum. • There is broad support among Member States for more flexible, informal arrangements with third countries. While Member States oppose a radical overhaul of Frontex's mandate, they prioritise operational efficiency, particularly in returns and border management, and stress maximising the current mandate's potential before considering major changes. Member States also back a new legal basis for Frontex to support returns from non-EU countries to other non-EU countries. • The European Parliament's discharge procedure has been a critical tool in scrutinising Frontex, particularly amid allegations of fundamental rights violations and pushbacks at the EU's external borders. Parliament has repeatedly warned that oversight has not kept pace with the expansion of Frontex's mandate.

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service,   2026. 8p.

By BLAAKMAN , Steven

Europe is one of the world's primary destinations for international migrants. In 2024, the region hosted approximately 94 million migrants, the highest number of any region in the world. The biggest share enter via legal means. The EU is experiencing skills shortages, which is partly because of its ageing population, and migrants could play a role in helping to plug them. The EU shares competence on migration and asylum policies with its Member States; EU legislation plays a significant role in managing legal migration, although its impact varies by type of migration. Nonetheless, data consistently show that most EU legal migration tools are under-used. Blue Cards, an EU initiative to attract highly skilled workers, account for only a fraction of permits issued for employment reasons and few EU countries make significant use of them, which would suggest more work is needed to make them an attractive option. Similarly, the Single Permit, which is a combined work and residency permit, is mostly used by just a handful of EU countries. In recent years, the EU has also launched new initiatives with non-EU countries such as Talent Partnerships and a Talent Pool, but it is too early to say anything about their impact. There is also a directive for seasonal workers, but again only a few EU countries make much use of it. The EU plays an important role when it comes to asylum by setting common standards, clarifying which EU country is responsible for processing an application, and encouraging solidarity. The European Commission has proposed a Return Regulation to make it easer and faster to return non-EU citizens who were unsuccessful in their bid to obtain asylum. It includes the possibility to create return hubs in non-EU countries, which many Member States are interested in. Temporary protection was used for the first time to help Ukrainians after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service, 2026. 12p.

By Juan Cuéllar Torres, Sr. , Tracey Horan, and Adam Isacson

One year ago, on March 21, 2025, hundreds of experienced employees overseeing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) abruptly learned that the Trump administration was firing them. The Department’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), and Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman (CISOMB), if not abolished, were to be shrunk to their “absolutely irreducible minimum.” The “Reductions in Force” came at the same time that the new administration was launching a “mass deportation” campaign, supercharging often aggressive arrests, detentions, and repatriations while dramatically increasing the capacities of the Department’s border and migration law enforcement agencies, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Border Patrol, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This report focuses mainly on the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties office and the Detention Ombudsman’s office, which most frequently oversaw the law enforcement agencies. A year later, including contract personnel, the first has seen its staff cut by 80 percent and the second by 96 percent. Litigation to undo the cuts continues in federal court. 

Even before the Trump administration took an axe to them, these offices were far too small and under-resourced to oversee a Department with about 240,000 employees. They lacked the authority to initiate investigations and to make their recommendations stick. As the Kino Border Initiative found during years of submitting abuse complaints on behalf of migrants arriving at its Nogales, Sonora shelter, a lack of transparency was a chronic problem. But since the agencies’ near-total dismantling on March 21, the experience has been far worse. Many complaint investigations have been halted. No new recommendations have been issued. The ability to submit new complaints—through web forms in English—has been truncated. Investigations now stop if the complainant is no longer in ICE custody. Case updates are almost impossible to obtain after receiving a sparse form email. In Nogales, over the past year, the Kino Border Initiative has experienced months of radio silence from offices that were more communicative in the past, followed by a wave of case-closure notices offering no indication that complaints were meaningfully investigated or that any recommendations resulted. 

This deep reduction in oversight could not come at a worse time, as regular front-page revelations of abuse and rights violations committed by DHS agencies, from the streets of Minneapolis to the cells of the U.S. detention network, make urgently clear. These times call for more oversight, more accountability, more transparency, and more embedding of democratic, rights-respecting values throughout the Department. This report, from two organizations with decades of combined experience monitoring human rights at the U.S.-Mexico border, contains a series of recommendations to guide a restoration of internal oversight capacity at DHS. While the March 2025 reductions in force must be reversed immediately, the Department can go further. Assisted by new authorities and appropriations from Congress, it can take a series of common-sense steps to uphold the dignity of victims, make repeated abuses less likely, and instill a culture that recognizes that respect for civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, and detainees’ rights is a necessary element of success in securing the homeland—never an obstacle. 

Kino Border Initiative (Nogales, Arizona/Sonora) and the Washington Office on Latin America (Washington, DC) 

2026. 30p.

By Ana Pottratz Acosta

A hallmark of the first Trump Administration was its pervasive attacks against immigrant communities. While President Trump often touts his efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement to secure the southern border, other policies aimed at limiting legal immigration to the U.S. through administrative action had a far greater impact on U.S. immigration policy during his first term. One such action, the promulgation of regulations setting forth more subjective standards to determine if an immigrant was subject to the public charge grounds of inadmissibility, led to the denial of many family-based permanent residence applications that were otherwise approvable under existing law.

In this Article, the Author will examine means tested benefit enrollment data for Minnesota immigrant households to see if this data supports existence of a chilling effect through decreased immigrant household enrollment in these programs following publication of the public charge regulations. Additionally, while several previous studies using survey data support existence of a public charge chilling effect, this Article will build on this previous work by analyzing primary enrollment data provided directly by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (MN-DHS), the agency administering these programs.

 (September 01, 2024).

Epistemic Oppression 

By Lark Mulligan

he police murdered Alton Sterling on camera.2 They also murdered Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald, and many others; the videos of their deaths garnered millions of views.3 Information about some horrors of the criminal legal system is spreading widely, yet White mainstream media outlets frequently dismiss, erase, or demonize Black, Indegenous, and People of Color (“BIPOC”) communities who protest and organize to demand justice through the abolition of or radical changes to the policing and prison systems.4 In response to these racist atrocities and within the broader context of criminal legal reform, activists and academics frequently craft ethical arguments such as: “Solitary confinement is immoral because it inflicts psychological and physical torture” or “Incarceration is unethical because prisons are inherently violent places.”5 Many ethical arguments centeron the racist injustices and harm that affronts human dignity and agency caused by prisons and police.6 Others critique the racist and retributive ethics of “law and order” rhetoric.7 Each argument is well-supported by accessible data that can be found in numerous studies, books, articles, and media.8 However, people often erroneously dismiss these data-driven, logical, ethical reasonings as factually inaccurate, or many respond with a deeply racist ethical-legal rationale, for example: “While there may be abuses in prisons, some people need to be put in solitary or prison and deserve it because [insert classical legal rationales for punishment: deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, etc.].”9 Ethical and legal arguments are severely limited, however, when they lack an epistemological interrogation into the power structures that determine what qualifies as “knowledge” within the ethical-social conversation. This article demonstrates why anti-prison activists’ ethical arguments generally do not receive the due credibility and weight they deserve unless they pair critical liberatory epistemic practices with material, institutional, and social transformations. Abolitionists claiming to fight the confines of carceral epistemologies cannot merely sit back and point out the already-existing logical contradictions in the criminal legal system—it is not enough. ..continued 

St. Mary’s Law Review on Race & Social Justice , v. 27(2) 2025.

By Jonathon J. Booth

This Article places the birth and growth of the Atlanta police in context by exploring the full scope of Atlanta’s criminal legal system during the four decades after the end of slavery. To do so, it analyzes the connections Atlantans made between race and crime, the adjudication and punishment of minor offenses, and the variety of Black protests against the criminal legal system. This Article is based, in part, on a variety of archival sources, including decades of arrest and prosecution data that, for the first time, allow for a quantitative assessment of the impact of the new system of policing on Atlanta’s residents.

This Article breaks new ground in four ways. First, it demonstrates that rather than simply maintaining the social relations of slavery, Atlanta’s police force responded to the challenges of freedom: it was designed to maintain White supremacy in an urban space in which residents, theoretically, had equal rights. Second, it shows that White citizens’ beliefs about the causes of crime and the connections between race and crime, which I call “lay criminology,” influenced policing strategies. Third, it adds a new layer to our understanding of the history of order-maintenance policing by showing that mass criminalization for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct began soon after emancipation. This type of policing caused a variety of harms to the city’s Black residents, forcing thousands each year to pay fines or labor for weeks on the chain gang. Fourth, it shows that the complaints of biased and brutal policing that animate contemporary police reform activism have been present for a century and a half. In the decades after emancipation, Atlanta’s Black residents, across class lines, protested the racist criminal legal system and police abuses, while envisioning a more equitable city where improved social conditions would reduce crime.

University of Colorado Law Review Volume 96 Issue 1 Article 1 2025

Delphine Brisson-Burns

Abstract

Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence proscribes criminalization based on “status.” Based on United States Supreme Court case law, for the purposes of this paper, “status” is understood to mean an “ongoing state of being.” This paper argues that race is “status” and thus criminalizing people of color based on race violates the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment. Further, in the United States, racial “status” is criminalized both directly and indirectly. Racial “status” is criminalized directly by police officers’ frequent use of racial profiling to build criminal cases against people of color. On the other hand, racial status is criminalized indirectly when police officers interpret conduct that is inextricably tied to racial “status” as inherently criminal. Finally, this paper argues that recriminalization of “felons” is an unconstitutional criminalization of “status,” disproportionately harming communities of color.

Recommended Citation

Delphine Brisson-Burns, Criminalizing Race: How Direct And Indirect Criminalization Of Racial “Status” Constitutes Cruel And Unusual Punishment, 21 UC Law SF Race & Econ. Just. L.J. 71 (2024).

By Leila N. Sadat

This Article presents a comprehensive overview of the development, challenges, and future prospects of creating and ultimately negotiating a global treaty for crimes against humanity. It honors pioneers in the field and acknowledges the contributions of various individuals and entities to the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative the author established in 2007. It traces the historical context of atrocities such as slavery and the slave trade, linking them to the modern concept of crimes against humanity. The Article reviews the evolution of international criminal law, particularly under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), emphasizing the necessity of a new treaty to fill gaps left by existing frameworks. Highlighting contemporary examples like the Syrian Civil War, it underscores the preventive power of prosecuting crimes against humanity as a move towards preventing the commission of atrocity cascades, before the descent into armed conflict and genocide. The Article describes the multi-decade effort to draft and promote a new treaty, including significant milestones, such as the adoption of the International Law Commission’s (ILC) 2019 Draft Articles, and the protracted and ultimately successful advocacy within the UN General Assembly’s Sixth (Legal) Committee to achieve a consensus resolution in 2022 that allows the process to move forward. The 2024 adoption of GA Resolution 79/122, which authorizes convening a United Nations Diplomatic Conference for crafting a comprehensive legal instrument, was a critical achievement, setting the stage for negotiations over the next several years. The Article reflects upon the enduring struggle for justice and the imperative to adopt, ratify, and enforce a new treaty, drawing historical parallels with the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. It concludes with a call for continued dedication to ending impunity for crimes against humanity globally.

Washington University Global Studies Law Review, 2025, Vol 25, Issue 2, p302

By Philip Mendes

The paper describes the emergence of antisemitism as a defining characteristic of significant sectors of Australia’s self-described ‘progressive’ institutions. It argues that antisemitism is rife in institutions such as universities, schools, the arts, trade unions, human rights and civil liberties bodies and the media – and predominant among younger Australians.

The paper documents a systematic pattern of hostility toward Jews going far beyond legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy. It presents case studies of pro-racist groups and activities, and of a bystander approach. The paper outlines three steps towards a best practice anti-racist response of zero tolerance.

A combination of universal and targeted education among other strategies are needed to prevent antisemitism becoming embedded longer-term within key sections of Australian society. The paper identifies mandatory education is badly needed both within all secondary schools – public, private and faith-based – and universities to directly counter antisemitic arguments that are prevalent and currently uncontested.

Australian policymakers attempting to combat manifestations of antisemitic intolerance will need to take a long-term approach given the ingrained nature of the racist and illiberal views within sections of academia and the wider community.

Key findings

The levels of antisemitic incidents in Australia are unprecedented, reaching a high in 2024 rising sharply after the October 7 massacre of innocent Jews in southern Israel in 2023.

Incidents range from systemic vilification in universities and trade unions, to extreme acts of violence.

There is a major generational divide between older Australians who are less likely to hold antisemitic views, and younger Australians aged 18 to 24 years who are more likely to hold negative views concerning Zionism, Israel and Jews generally.

Key recommendations

Exclude antisemites from Australia's immigration admission processes.

Prevent hate speech.

Interventions within educational institutions to stop young Australians absorbing racist ideas.

Centre for Independent Studies, 2026. 30p.

by Lord Hugh Charles Clifford. (Author), Graeme R. Newman (Introduction)

In a world still grappling with the echoes of systemic inequality, Christianity Versus Slavery (1841) emerges not merely as a historical relic, but as a prescient manifesto on human dignity and the moral imperatives of justice. This collection—comprising the fiery oratory of George Thompson, the strategic appeals of Lord Clifford to the Catholics of Ireland, and the authoritative weight of centuries of Papal Briefs—challenges the modern reader to confront the persistent "complicated interests" and "rotten politics" that continue to shape global structures of exploitation. At its heart, the work champions the "Scriptural doctrine of equality," asserting that the "innate dignity of man" is an immutable truth that transcends "complexion" or state borders. This 19th-century insistence that "God has made of one blood the varied tribes of man" serves as a foundational precursor to our modern concept of universal human rights.
The book’s relevance to the modern era is perhaps most striking in its sophisticated analysis of the intersection between global exploitation and domestic economic health. Lord Clifford’s address highlights how the "ruinous, than unchristian and inhuman traffic" of slavery in the colonies was inextricably linked to the "general distress" and "awful distress" of the manufacturing interests and the "starving workman" at home. This early critique of an "equally wicked and foolish policy" that prioritized "sordid lucre" over justice prefigures modern debates regarding ethical supply chains, globalized labor rights, and the hidden human costs of consumer goods. By linking the oppression of India and Ireland to the struggle for abolition, the text invites a contemporary audience to view justice as an indivisible, global pursuit.
Furthermore, the work offers a timeless strategy for social change through the "regeneration of public sentiment". In an age often dominated by digital echo chambers and a "venal press," the book’s emphasis on the "power of truth" and "moral power" as weapons "mightier than armies" remains a potent call to action. It warns that the struggle for justice is "slow and progressive," requiring a "struggle continued through a series of years" against "deep-seated prejudices" and "long-cherished pride". Ultimately, Christianity Versus Slavery serves as a rigorous moral compass, reminding the modern era that the "spiritual nature and affinity of the races" is the only legitimate basis for a sane and just civilization.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 101p.

Edited by Stephen Pierce Duggan. Introduction by Graeme R. Newman

A Landmark Vision of International Order at the Dawn of the Modern World

Published in 1919 at the very moment when the post–First World War settlement was taking shape, The League of Nations: The Principle and the Practice, edited by Stephen Pierce Duggan, is one of the most authoritative and illuminating contemporary statements of the ideas that sought to prevent another global catastrophe. Written as the Covenant of the League of Nations moved toward ratification, this volume captures the urgency, optimism, and hard-headed realism of thinkers grappling with the central political question of the twentieth century: how can peace be made durable in a world of sovereign states?

Bringing together leading scholars, jurists, historians, and policy practitioners, the book moves beyond slogans to examine how an international organization must actually function. It explains not only the moral and historical foundations of the League idea, but also its practical machinery—arbitration, sanctions, international administration, and continuous cooperation across borders. Readers are guided through the institutional logic of collective security, the limits of national sovereignty, and the challenges posed by armaments, small nations, and postwar reconstruction.

Distinctive for its clarity and documentary richness, the volume includes key historical texts and the full Covenant of the League itself, allowing readers to engage directly with the constitutional framework of early international governance. Written in accessible but rigorous prose, it was intended for educated citizens as well as specialists—an informed guide for public debate at a decisive historical moment.

Today, The League of Nations: The Principle and the Practice stands as an indispensable primary source for understanding the intellectual foundations of modern global governance. It reveals how the ambitions and anxieties of 1919 shaped later institutions, including the United Nations, and it remains strikingly relevant in an era once again marked by questions of collective security, international law, and global cooperation. For historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and readers interested in the origins of the contemporary international order, this book is both a historical document and a continuing challenge to think seriously about how peace is organized.

The Atlantic Monthly Press. BOSTON. 1919. Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. p.253.

By The Right Hon. Viscount Bryce

When Essays and Addresses in War Time appeared in December 1918, the Great War had not yet fully settled into memory. The armistice was scarcely a month old; the dead lay uncounted; the maps of Europe were still provisional, and new nations were appearing almost daily. It was into this unsettled moral and political landscape that Viscount James Bryce (1838–1922) published this set of reflections — part justification, part analysis, and part moral plea — for what he regarded as one of civilization’s defining struggles.

Bryce was no ordinary commentator. Historian, jurist, diplomat, and moral philosopher, he had served as British ambassador to the United States (1907–1913) and was known across Europe and America as one of the most lucid defenders of democratic government. His monumental works — The Holy Roman Empire (1864) and The American Commonwealth (1888) — had already secured his international reputation. Yet Essays and Addresses in War Time reveals another dimension: a statesman confronting the collapse of Enlightenment ideals under the strain of modern total war, and seeking to explain to neutral nations why the conflict could not be reduced to a mere clash of power or empire, but must be seen as a moral contest over the principles of civilization itself.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 156p.

By Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, published in 1722, is a powerful and evocative account of the Great Plague that devastated London in 1665. Though written decades after the event, the narrative is presented as the firsthand observations of “H.F.,” a saddler living in the city, and blends historical fact with fictional storytelling. Defoe, who was a child during the outbreak, drew upon official records, personal testimonies, and his own journalistic instincts to reconstruct the atmosphere of a city under siege by disease.

The plague of 1665 was the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in England, killing an estimated 100,000 people—nearly a quarter of London’s population at the time. It was part of the Second Pandemic, a series of plague outbreaks that began with the Black Death in the 14th century and continued into the 18th. The disease spread rapidly through crowded urban areas, exacerbated by poor sanitation, limited medical knowledge, and ineffective containment measures. The government imposed quarantines, marked infected houses with red crosses, and employed “watchmen” to enforce isolation, while mass graves and plague pits became grim symbols of the crisis.

Defoe’s narrative captures the fear, confusion, and moral dilemmas faced by Londoners during this time. He details the breakdown of social order, the flight of the wealthy, the suffering of the poor, and the varied responses of clergy, physicians, and common citizens. The book is not only a historical document but also a reflection on human behavior in the face of catastrophe. Its themes of resilience, public health, and social responsibility remain strikingly relevant, offering timeless insights into how societies confront pandemics.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2025. 202p.