In association with the International Commission of Jurists

March 2014

02 Mar

Eric Posner on international law and Ukraine ("exhaustively", in his own description): The international law commentariat has been pretty quiet about the most important geopolitical event so far this year. Hello? Anyone want to offer an opinion? Let me fill in the silence: 1. Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine violates international law. 2. No one is going to do anything about it. International law...

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02 Mar

Saturday began with reports that Russia had seemingly used private security contractors to take control of the airport in Simferopol, Crimea. Then reports (like this one from CNN) of President Putin requesting from Russia’s Parliament an authorization to use military force in Ukraine because of “threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern...

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02 Mar

Calls for Papers The Center of Excellence “PluriCourts” at the University of Oslo, Faculty of Law, is organizing an international symposium on the Legitimate Role(s) of Human Rights Courts and Tribunals in Adjudicating Environmental Disputes in Oslo, 8 and 9 September 2014. Please send your abstract (word limit 500 words) to christina.voigt@jus.uio.no. Deadline is 1 May 2014. Notification of acceptance will...

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02 Mar

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa The World Bank has suspended a planned $90m loan to Uganda meant to strengthen its health care system after its president signed into law a bill prescribing harsh jail terms for homosexual offenses.  More than 200 migrants seeking to enter Europe have stormed over a fence into Spain's...

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01 Mar

This week on Opinio Juris,  we closely followed the situation in Ukraine. Julian argued that international law principles are unlikely to provide a solution for the crisis since it would require the US and Russia respectively to defend or reject principles they have rejected or defended in other crises. He also reassured Daily Mail readers that the Budapest Memorandum does not...

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27 Feb

In December 2013, the UN Secretary General launched a new Human Rights initiative called “Rights Up Front”.    Primarily a coordination tool for the UN Secretariat, the plan outlines six actions that can help the UN system meet its responsibilities regarding human rights: Action 1: Integrating human rights into the lifeblood of staff, so that they understand what the UN's mandates and...

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27 Feb

I'm getting more and more nervous about events in Ukraine, and particularly in the Crimea.  Things are spinning (almost) out of control, and it is worth noting that international legal principles are not helping lead toward a resolution. Instead of working out a negotiated transition, the new leaders of Ukraine have adopted a maximalist position by seizing power and then seeking...

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27 Feb

The European Parliament has just overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the use of armed drones. I'll leave it to others to do the hard work of analyzing the resolution, but I couldn't let this paragraph pass without a mention (emphasis mine): E. whereas drone strikes outside a declared war by a state on the territory of another state without the consent...

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27 Feb

Susanne Mueller, who works at Boston University's African Studies Center, has published a very interesting essay on the relationship between Kenya and the ICC. I want to bring it to our readers' attention, because it's published in the Journal of East African Studies, which many international-law folk may not normally read. Here is the abstract: Kenya's 2013 election was supremely important,...

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27 Feb

In a legal wrinkle to the ever-worsening Sino-Japanese relationship, the Chinese government has now publicly backed a lawsuit filed in Beijing courts against Japanese companies that used Chinese citizens as forced laborers during World War II. The lawsuit names Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and Mitsui Mining and Smelting as defendants and asks for compensation of 1 million yuan ($163,000) for each defendant...

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