Search: extraterritorial sanctions
04 Oct Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, October 4, 2012
Blog reports on the four new judges at the European Court of Human Rights, representing Bosnia, Croatia, Moldova and Russia. The UN is likely to hold a debate in November about the status of Palestine and whether to upgrade its current observer entity status to observer state status. In Tehran, Iranian police have clashed with protestors upset with the fall of the rial more than 40% in a week due to Western sanctions. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that these sanctions could be eased quickly with atomic cooperation....15 Aug The Revised Draft of a Treaty on Business and Human Rights: A Big Leap Forward
...welcome addition to the draft treaty because a series of offences catalogued as crimes under international law or for which international law requires criminalization require separate treatment in the treaty, given their serious character and gravity. However, it also raises questions because it would have some overlap with article 6.1 that mandates a comprehensive legal liability system, presumably also including civil, administrative and criminal. The text of article 6.7 is not clearly linked to a clause providing for sanctions or penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences (which appears...
08 Aug Symposium on Unbroken Bond: Tracing the Ties Between African and Palestinian Anti-Colonial Struggles – Wale ni sisi: Na sisi ni wale: (Re)viewing the Palestinian Struggle from an African Anti-colonial and Anti-imperialist Lens
...‘‘savages’,’ and even international law. It must be pointed out that the UK, and the US, the core of Israel defence in international platforms, were the last supporters of Apartheid South Africa, a support they gave despite stiff opposition from African countries. Incidentally, it was during those years that the West purported to impose sanctions on countries that were accused of tolerating or undertaking ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, or violations of international law. Western sanctions, that were construed in terms of human rights protection, thus became tools of enforcing...
08 Mar Revisiting Crimea and the Utility of International Law
...a useful role in standard setting and, when those standards are not adhered to, in imposing sanctions or counter measures. Whether those sanctions and counter measures are effective for the use of force is reflective of political will rather than a deficiency in the law. During its annexation of Crimea, Russia attempted to use international law to shield its actions from scrutiny and avoid consequences for breaching the prohibition on the use of force. Rather than marking a failure of the law, the Crimean situation highlighted that even though international...26 Sep Iran’s Nuclear Program and International Law: From Confrontation to Accord
...and consideration of the JCPOA itself. Essentially, Chapter 7 of the book (also publicly accessible here on my SSRN page) is a full chapter-length review and analysis of the legal implications of the JCPOA, on issues including Iran’s safeguards obligations, and the economic sanctions levied against Iran by the U.N. Security Council and by the U.S. and E.U. acting unilaterally. The book thus follows the Iran case study through the period of confrontation between Iran and the West from 2002 through July 2015, setting this confrontation in its historical and...23 Aug Ruth Wedgwood on the Lockerbie Release, and the Politics of Security Council Resolutions
...policy began with the Bush Administration’s [Bush Sr.] decision in 1991-92 to judicialize the Pan Am 103 matter rather than to use force, in effect treating this Libyan act of terror like a domestic murder case, rather than the political-military attack that it was. Ruth remarks in her article that the Lockerbie trial chamber was organized under pressure of Security Council resolutions (SC Resolution 731 (1992) deploring Libya’s lack of cooperation with investigators, and SC Resolution 748 (1992) imposing sanctions on Libya): In response to the bombing, the Americans mobilized...20 Nov Judging the “Power” of International Law
...and liberal internationalists alike have appealed selectively to historical events and ideas as well as to legal decisions and standards to construct their case for the weakness and irrelevance (non-existence?) versus strength and importance of the international legal system in international affairs. One example is regularly countered by another. Mary Ellen claims that the existence of sanctions alone shows that actors who matter take international rules seriously. I suspect that Jack and Eric would retort that sanctions are yet another justification that the powerful clothe in some-time principle to further...19 Sep New Review Essay on SSRN
...and (3) it is not clear why it should never be acceptable to tolerate a “great evil” in the name of peace. The essay then discusses two basic problems with his proposals for horizontal pluralization, focusing on his support for non-punitive collective sanctions: (1) in order to avoid being retributively unjust, collective sanctions would have to be imposed using the same liberal-legalist procedures that paralyze international criminal trials; and (2) only retributively unjust collective sanctions could effectively deter mass atrocity. As always, comments are welcome and would be most appreciated....16 Jan Happy Birthday OJ!
...current concern, whether on academic topics close to my heart like Jus Post Bellum or newsworthy international law developments, including a post here on the relationship between sanctions and the 2013 deal with Iran, a post here on Bashir’s interest in coming to the 2013 General Assembly, and the East China Sea dispute available here. Each type of blogging brings its own rewards, and puts one in contact with different networks of academics, practitioners, journalists, and observers, from around the world. Blogging has also prompted me to follow subjects I’m...26 Jan Self-Interest and Compliance
...either had to seek changes to the tax code or face sanctions through the WTO system. The President (and Congress) chose to change the tax code. The cost of non-compliance—trade sanctions with potentially significant economic effects—outweighed the cost of compliance—some companies being upset. These are the “hard cases” when it comes to compliance with international law because the mode of reasoning and decision-making is not primarily legal, but political (or diplomatic). In this form of decision making, the question of compliance is driven by an analysis of power: which is...