Acceso usuarios
Jean Allain
One would expect no less from this study of contemporary forms of slavery by Emmanuel Decaux than that it identifies the fundamental puzzle at the heart of legal issues surrounding human exploitation, namely, that: there is a permanent contradiction between the successive attempts focused on �slavery in all its forms� as well as �the practices and institutions similar to� � which are at the heart of international instruments, and the programmes of action of international organisations and non-governmental organisations �; and the criminal law approach which requires a precise definition to incriminate; either domestically, in the name of the determinacy of the crimes and of the penalty, or internationally to allow for criminal cooperation. 1 It is to this fundamental paradox that Decaux devoted his attention during his lectures at The Hague Academy of International Law in 2008. These lectures were published in The Collected Courses of the Hague Academy series and were also reproduced as part of a pocketbook series. 2 The beauty of considering studies written in another language is to liberate oneself from assumptions � the given starting and end points of argument, and the continuity of well established discourses. If nothing else, surveying works in other languages opens the possibility of new revelations and discoveries � even for the most seasoned expert in an area � which come from narratives forged, in this case, in Paris, as opposed to a London or a Washington. With this in mind, Les formes contemporaines de l�esclavage does not disappoint.
More so than in a monograph, the chapters of a study emanating from the Hague Academy stand alone, as each originates in a public lecture and thus must stand on its own merits. In seeking to work beyond the fundamental contradiction related to issues of human exploitation, the approach which �
