Abstract
David Gil was the recipient of the Justice Studies Association's 2008 Noam Chomsky Award. In his acceptance comments at George Mason University on 6 June, Gil spoke about the experiential and conceptual bases of his commitment to social justice and non-violence, which began when he fled Austria as a teenager following the German occupation in 1938. He also spoke about the importance of the concept of universal human needs when addressing any issue of social and restorative justice. Of course, in social situations in which these needs cannot be met, Gil noted, we are confronted with social-structural violence.