Lieba Faier is Professor of Geography and Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Intimate Encounters: Filipina Women and the Remaking of Rural Japan.

• Abbreviations  ixPreface  xiAcknowledgments  xvIntroduction  11. A Global Solution  252. The Protocol’s Compromises  513. The Institutional Life of Suffering  754. “To Promote the Universal Values of Human Dignity,” a Roadmap  975. Banal Justice  1216. The Need to Know  1437. Funding Frustration  1638. Cruel Empowerment  185Conclusion. The Misperformance of the Trafficking Protocol, or the Less Things Change the More They Stay the Same  207Notes  217Bibliography  271Index  303

“A profound and vivid account of the afterlives of well-intended protocols and laws that are not able to resolve the very aspirations that embed their core mandates. By making plain the relationship between ‘do good aspirations,’ global political economy, inept legal tools, and the contradictions inherent in international justice, The Banality of Good offers new clarity on why human trafficking persists today. Truly a tour de force. A must-read!” - Kamari Maxine Clarke, author of (Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback) “This is a significant contribution to studies of international law and policy with a critical and on-the-ground granular approach to deepening our understanding of how anti-trafficking practices may be received and modified in local communities. Lieba Faier argues that contemporary models of global governance that propose universal solutions should include local thinking about trafficking. By training our eye on the nuances of human trafficking, Faier demonstrates, we would produce more layered understandings of the conditions that produce the violence in the first place and allow for the possibility of making material changes in the lives of victims.” - Arzoo Osanloo, author of (Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims' Rights in Iran)

Lieba Faier is Professor of Geography and Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Intimate Encounters: Filipina Women and the Remaking of Rural Japan.

• Abbreviations  ixPreface  xiAcknowledgments  xvIntroduction  11. A Global Solution  252. The Protocol’s Compromises  513. The Institutional Life of Suffering  754. “To Promote the Universal Values of Human Dignity,” a Roadmap  975. Banal Justice  1216. The Need to Know  1437. Funding Frustration  1638. Cruel Empowerment  185Conclusion. The Misperformance of the Trafficking Protocol, or the Less Things Change the More They Stay the Same  207Notes  217Bibliography  271Index  303

“A profound and vivid account of the afterlives of well-intended protocols and laws that are not able to resolve the very aspirations that embed their core mandates. By making plain the relationship between ‘do good aspirations,’ global political economy, inept legal tools, and the contradictions inherent in international justice, The Banality of Good offers new clarity on why human trafficking persists today. Truly a tour de force. A must-read!” - Kamari Maxine Clarke, author of (Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback) “This is a significant contribution to studies of international law and policy with a critical and on-the-ground granular approach to deepening our understanding of how anti-trafficking practices may be received and modified in local communities. Lieba Faier argues that contemporary models of global governance that propose universal solutions should include local thinking about trafficking. By training our eye on the nuances of human trafficking, Faier demonstrates, we would produce more layered understandings of the conditions that produce the violence in the first place and allow for the possibility of making material changes in the lives of victims.” - Arzoo Osanloo, author of (Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims' Rights in Iran)

Lieba Faier is Professor of Geography and Gender Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of Intimate Encounters: Filipina Women and the Remaking of Rural Japan.

• Abbreviations  ixPreface  xiAcknowledgments  xvIntroduction  11. A Global Solution  252. The Protocol’s Compromises  513. The Institutional Life of Suffering  754. “To Promote the Universal Values of Human Dignity,” a Roadmap  975. Banal Justice  1216. The Need to Know  1437. Funding Frustration  1638. Cruel Empowerment  185Conclusion. The Misperformance of the Trafficking Protocol, or the Less Things Change the More They Stay the Same  207Notes  217Bibliography  271Index  303

“A profound and vivid account of the afterlives of well-intended protocols and laws that are not able to resolve the very aspirations that embed their core mandates. By making plain the relationship between ‘do good aspirations,’ global political economy, inept legal tools, and the contradictions inherent in international justice, The Banality of Good offers new clarity on why human trafficking persists today. Truly a tour de force. A must-read!” - Kamari Maxine Clarke, author of (Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback) “This is a significant contribution to studies of international law and policy with a critical and on-the-ground granular approach to deepening our understanding of how anti-trafficking practices may be received and modified in local communities. Lieba Faier argues that contemporary models of global governance that propose universal solutions should include local thinking about trafficking. By training our eye on the nuances of human trafficking, Faier demonstrates, we would produce more layered understandings of the conditions that produce the violence in the first place and allow for the possibility of making material changes in the lives of victims.” - Arzoo Osanloo, author of (Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims' Rights in Iran)