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19 Aug S.S. and Others v. Italy: The Danger of All or Nothing Framing
...issues. These commentators, including Moreno-Lax, Mann, Riemer, Harb, and Spijkerboer, were all responding to the long-awaited decision in S.S. and others v. Italy. A case factually about a search and rescue operation that left several dead and others at risk of torture. Legally, the case is about accountability for these violent events, a determination that begins with an inquiry into jurisdiction. The applicants fled Libya in a rubber dinghy. Thirty-three nautical miles north of Tripoli the dinghy began to sink, and a distress call was made to the Maritime Rescue...
21 May Delivering the ICC Vision Through Deeds not Words: An Interview with Karim Khan QC
have to live your values, and then build your culture. As I said in my letter to the Search Committee for the Prosecutor, there should be no better place to work than the ICC. That is the ultimate destination.” Khan’s reference to the Search Committee prompts me to ask him about one particular comment they made following his interview, namely that Khan was “a charismatic and articulate communicator who is well aware of his achievements.” “I don’t think it was a compliment,” he says, laughing. “They clearly thought I was arrogant...16 Jul Transfers and Deliveries
...“the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.” The meaning of the term transfer was unclear to the drafters, as the official commentary itself admits. The International Committee for the Red Cross commentary does explain that the intent of the provision was to prevent population movements that “worsened the economic situation of the native population and endangered their separate existence as a race.” Neither applies to the Palestinians in West Bank, whose prosperity grew at unprecedented rates since 1967, and...
13 Feb Counting the Cost of Climate Change: Hits, Misses and the Future of Environmental Compensation After the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion
...for environmental or climate damage. In the short term, we need more inter-disciplinary studies to carve out bespoke approaches for particularly climate-induced harms, which can—in the longer term—be taken up by courts and tribunals. Conclusion The Court has articulated several key principles that will guide future climate litigation—the ‘hits’ as we have outlined above. Notably, the Court rejected the position held by many states that the diffuse nature of climate change absolves emitting states of responsibility, affirming that compensation for climate-related damage is indeed possible. Equally significant is the Court’s...26 Jul Russia’s Population Collapse
Rather than comment on the refreshingly tough realism or seriously imprudent bear-baiting of Vice-President Biden’s recent remarks on Russia (“Russia will bend to the US“), or whether there is an important and dangerous gap between short-term and long-term in the collapse of an imperial nuclear power even if the long-run claim is true, etc., let me instead offer a background source on Russian demography. (You should consult Chris’s new Chicago Journal of International Law article for discussion of Russian foreign policy and the so-called ‘near abroad’ – Biden’s remarks raised...11 Mar Dealing with Iran: A Primer on the President’s Options for a Nuclear Agreement
Without weighing in on the merits of any deal with Iran on nuclear matters, I’ll express some frustration over the rhetoric used in the current firestorm between the White House, 47 Senators (plus Governors Perry and Jindal), Iran’s Foreign Minister, and the 4th Estate on what kind of deal the United States might conclude with Iran and the so-called P5+1 (the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany). There seems to be a great deal of confusion and conflation of issues in terms of the legal logistics of concluding any deal....06 Sep The G-20 Meetings, Summarized
politically helpful to say that Sarkozy and Merkel had brought about a cap on greedy banker salaries. For the US and Britain, the issue of banker compensation is not absolute compensation as such, it is the structure of incentives vis a vis risk, and long term risk versus short term compensation. That is almost certainly the predominant view among financial regulation experts in the US, at least, and the predominant view among the Obama senior economics team. On capital standards for financial institutions, more agreement was reached in principle because...
17 Mar Legally Defining Ecocide: Implications for Addressing Environmental Racism and Prioritizing Human Health in International Law
...of fifty in 2019, proposed an amendment to the Rome Statute with the following definition of ecocide: “Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished”. This definition has evolved and one explicit meaning for the term does not exist—hence the necessity of the new panel. The term ecocide, for many, will quickly conjure up shocking images of...22 Jan Guest Post: Ghodoosi–Comprehensive Solution to an Agreement: How the New Iran Deal Is Framed Under Iranian Law?
...Resolutions on the Iran Nuclear Program and will create tit-for-tat commitments on both sides. Whether the agreements reached thus far create binding obligations under international law is beyond the scope of this piece and requires further details on the recent –yet unpublished – implementation agreement. However, the drafters of the agreement of Nov. 24th deftly avoided the term “agreement” and instead employed the term “comprehensive solution”. This choice of term might have been to avoid the formalities of treaty law internationally but also domestically vis-à-vis Iran. Naming might make a...29 Jan Elongated Imminence and Operational Realities
window of opportunity to strike operational members of groups that are actively engaged in planning and executing attacks against Americans. And he has acknowledged that this position requires a broader reading of the term “imminence” than is found in typical situations. But is this truly unrecognizable “imminence”? First of all it must be recognized that, like the term “proportionality”, “imminence” is an important term in two different areas of international law, and it carries different meanings in these different contexts. Imminence is at the core of the jus ad bellum...