More than once in the last year or so my posts have made mention of Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law & Policy written by Washington & Lee Law Professor Mark A. Drumbl and published in April 2012 by Oxford University Press. I’m pleased to say that my review of this superb book is just out. An excerpt:

‘Reimagining Child Soldiers first reviews both the combat roles children have played over the centuries—teenaged Joan of Arc makes an appearance—and the global efforts in the last quarter century to put an end to child soldiering. Drumbl juxtaposes the longstanding fact of children’s participation in conflict, a practice that “endemically persists”, with contemporary contentions that even young people who do not carry weapons qualify as “soldiers,” and that all such child soldiers are “vulnerable victims bereft of agency”. The book proceeds to counter those contentions ….’

The review appears at 107 American Journal of International Law 724-27 (2013). A pdf of this review, and all my writings, may be accessed at my publications page.