[Kristen Boon is a Professor at Seton Hall Law School and a Visiting Academic at Global Affairs Canada. All views expressed are those of the author.] Kent Roach’s new book Remedies for Human Rights Violations: A Two-Track Approach to Supra-National and National Law celebrates the creativity of international law with regards to remedies. He writes: “a central theme of this book is that...
In this final contribution to the symposium, I will discuss compensation practices by national militaries and their link to accountability. It is perhaps not surprising that creative remedial responses to claims by individuals and other third parties against IOs have not emerged in the context of mass torts. The stakes are high, and there is a tendency to reign in precedent-setting gestures of good will. ...
In 2017, Seton Hall Law School hosted a symposium on UN Accountability. Two years ago, the conversation was largely about the Haiti cholera case against the UN , and other mass torts. A video of the event, including a powerful Keynote Speech by Philip Alston is available here. After the event, Prof. Fréderic Mégret and I, and a number of other speakers, decided to further...
I am delighted to announce the publication of a new AJIL unbound symposium on the Reputation of International Organizations. Responding to Kristina Daugirdas's excellent article in the American Journal of International Law on reputation and the consequences of recent sexual exploitation and abuse problems. Contributors from law and political science assess the effect of new technologies, immunities,...
Yesterday I participated in the launch of a new report at the International Peace Institute, entitled 'A Necessary Voice: Small States, International Law and the UN Security Council.' A link to the report and the webcast is available here. The conversation emphasized how the history of international law is replete with instances of how small states (defined as countries with...
I was delighted to comment on an important new report by Rosana Garciandia and Philippa Webb on State Responsibility for Modern Slavery at the UN on January 31. Contemporary forms of slavery continue to be a major challenge in the 21st century. International law prohibits slavery, human trafficking and forced labour, and states are generally committed to eliminating these human rights abuses....
Dear Readers: we are delighted to announce that we will be publishing Jutta Brunnée's keynote speech, entitled Challenging International Law: What's New? given at the Canadian Council on International Law's annual meeting in Ottawa on November 2, 2018. The speech will be divided into 3 posts, and comments in response will be offered by Christian Marxsen of the Max Planck Institute,...
The International Law Commission, a group of 34 independent experts, charged with codifying and progressively developing international law is currently (and exceptionally) meeting at the UN in New York. Amidst the substantive conversations on subsequent practice of treaties, customary international law, and jus cogens, there are two other themes that are coming up with some frequency. First, the lack of gender diversity...
On Thursday, May 10, the US Supreme Court will decide whether to grant cert in Budha Ismail Jam v. International Financial Corporation(IFC), a case involving environmental damage arising from a coal fired power plant in India. Two excellent blogs on the case written by Rishi Gulati in 2017 can be found here. The case turns on the interpretation of a US...
I am pleased to announce an upcoming experts workshop on UN Accountability on October 19 at Seton Hall Law School. This workshop will explore the liability of International Organizations for international wrongs, as well address direct, indirect or shared responsibility. It will offer a detailed examination of accountability, and what models of external and internal international dispute resolution currently exist, and...
[This post is part of an ongoing symposium on Professor Aeyal Gross’s book The Writing on the Wall: Rethinking the International Law of Occupation (CUP, 2017).] One of the interesting observations Aeyal makes in his important new book The Writing on the Wall, is that new forms of control are radically challenging the law of occupation. Traditionally, occupation has been understood as a...
Waiver of immunity is at the center of another cholera case against the UN, this time in the Eastern District of New York. In LaVenture et al v. United Nations, the plaintiffs argue that they have two distinct questions on waiver that distinguish this litigation from the recent decision upholding the UN's absolute immunity in Georges et al. The questions...