John Strawson

For the officer, see John Strawson (British Army officer).

John Strawson is an author and law professor at the University of East London School of Law, where he teaches International law and Middle East Studies. ^{[1] [2]} He specialises in the area of law and postcolonialism, with particular reference to the middle east, Islam and international law. ^[3]

His previous posts include visiting positions at Birzeit University (Palestine) and the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague Netherlands). ^[4]

One of the themes in the research undertaken by John Strawson is the encounter between western and Islamic law. ^[5]

He is Director of Law Postgraduate Programmes at the University of East London, and Director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict. ^[6] He is also a director of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. ^[7]

Views on Israel

According to Strawson, writing in 2006, the use of the term apartheid to describe Israel or Israeli policies has become commonplace in certain liberal and leftist circles. Strawson wrote that this label does not apply to Israel, and suggests that the use of the apartheid analogy is casual, unhistorical, and unhelpful. ^[2] In 2025, during the Gaza war, Strawson was among 509 signatories of an open letter which refuted accusations that Israel was committing genocide and criticised the International Association of Genocide Scholars for applying the term. ^[8]

Books

• Encountering Islamic law, by John Strawson, 2000
• Partitioning Palestine: Legal Fundamentalism in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Pluto Press, 2010. ISBN   978-0-7453-2324-4
• (ed.) Law after Ground Zero (London, Sydney, Portland Or: GlassHouse Press/Routledge-Cavendish 2002, reprinted with amendments, 2004) ISBN   978-1-904385-02-8
• (ed.) with Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne, 'Tracking the Postcolonial in Law', Griffith Law Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2003)

References

1. Jurisprudence of jurisdiction By Shaun McVeigh. Routledge, 2007. ISBN   978-1-84472-032-3 p. viii
2. Zionism and Apartheid: The Analogy in the Politics of International Law Archived 2010-07-06 at the Wayback Machine . Engage Journal, Issue 2 - May 2006
3. Palestine: the pursuit of justice, John Strawson and Rosemary Bechler, 2 March 2008. OpenDemocracy
4. , "John Strawson - Staff Bio". Archived from the original on 27 December 2010.
5. , "Encountering Islamic Law".
6. John Strawson Archived 2010-12-27 at the Wayback Machine , University of East London
7. "Our Board | ZF". Zionist Federation.
8. "Legal, Antisemitism, History, Holocaust, And Genocide Scholars, Former Prosecutors, And Other Authorities Including Descendants Of Survivors Call On International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) To Retract Resolution Accusing Israel Of Genocide Amid Clear Misapplication Of Law And History". Scholars for Truth about Genocide. 5 September 2025. Archived from the original on 8 September 2025.