In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: {search_term_string}

06 Nov

...concentrations (e.g., 450 parts per million) and/or long-term emission reductions (e.g., emission reductions of 50% by 2050) . • Mid-term emission reduction targets for developed countries, expressed either as an absolute number (e.g., reductions of 20% by 2020) or as a range (e.g., 16-23%). • Policies and measures by major developing countries such as China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa. • Financial commitments/pledges by Western countries to assist mitigation and adaptation actions by developing countries. • Decisions addressing adaptation, technology transfer, REDD (reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradation),...
06.11.09 | |

02 Apr

...In examining the meaning of a statute, its text must be the starting point. See INS v. Phinpathya, 464 U.S. 183, 189 (1984). Section 2340 makes plain that the infliction of pain or suffering per se, whether it is physical or mental, is insufficient to amount to torture. Instead, the pain or suffering must be “severe.” The statute does not, however, define the term “severe.” “In the absence of such a definition, we construe a statutory term in accordance with its ordinary or natural meaning.” FDIC v. Meyer, 510 U.S....
02.04.08 | |

25 Aug

The success of a UN Secretary General is largely dependent on two things: (1) the charisma and personal drive of the office holder; and (2) his (to date, they have all been men) ability to lead and work well with the Secretariat. On both dimensions, recent evidence suggests Ban Ki-moon appears to be in real trouble. Unless he turns things around, he is beginning to look like a one-term SG. First, Jacob Heilbrunn’s scathing personal critique, “Nowhere Man,” in the July-August issue of Foreign Policy: Ban’s flaws were obvious dating...
25.08.09 | |

05 Dec

...defeat but a psychological victory. The enemy was superficially a non-state actor whose "black pajamas" did not constitute a recognized military uniform. They bombed civilian targets and killed local officials who cooperated with the central government. We did not call them terrorists at the time because the term was not popular. Today, as the title of the original post points out, it is common to use to the term for pirates and any other bad guy with a weapon. If Tet happened today, it would probably be called a terrorist...
05.12.08 | |

22 Jun

...Congressional authorization. even if there is no authorization why would that be inconsistent with international law? after reading the weird argument by oconnell, and your response im starting to give obama more credit. BCF The reference to Charming Betsy is wide of the mark. The The issue is whether a term of art, such as hostilities, which is undefined in the text of the statute carries its accepted meaning as a term of art. The answer is yes. "[W]here Congress borrows terms of art in which are accumulated the legal...
22.06.11 | |

28 Jul

Erik Sapin Response... We've come across a similar dynamic in Peru in terms of CSR, where the centralized strength of the Fujimori regime has given way to the problems of developing effective government infrastructure in rural regions far from the capitol. Peru has adopted a series of laws to address the problem of Decentralization, which in our research has been largely influenced by mining projects. In a nutshell, the mines located in rural areas pay taxes to the central government, which is then unable to redistribute those taxes to appease...
28.07.09 | |

09 Nov

...the mission nonetheless. Presidents have done as much before (as in President Clinton’s decision to use force in the Balkans), accepting whatever domestic and international law consequences that might follow. Particularly where, as here, the consequences are likely to be modest, this bad option seems less worse than the call-it-lawful alternative. We do some violence to the law in the short term, but avoid the greater violence probably done in the long term by implausible interpretation – a record that now stands as evidence of state practice and opinio juris....
09.11.15 | |

23 Jan

...someone is entitled to POW status. That isn't what the CSRTs are doing. At best, they're supposed to determine whether someone was an enemy combatant. There's no room for a Taliban fighter to say, "Yes I was, but I met the requirements of Article 4, so I should be treated as a POW." That's what the president's determination has foreclosed. Even apart from the legal objections, does anyone argue that this casual reinterpretation of the Geneva Conventions makes sense from a policy point of view? Cassandra AnneJ, clarifying my admitted...
23.01.07 | |

01 Jul

...Nazi invasion of Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia, with the American invasion of Iraq.” What I find particularly interesting, however, is Lozowick’s contention that — as quoted above — “[t]here was no Nazi invasion of the Sudetenland, no invasion of Slovakia, hardly one of Austria and even less of Bohemia.” I don’t know how the history books describe the Nazis’ actions toward Austria and Czechoslovakia; perhaps they avoid the term “invasion” because the invaded countries didn’t resist. I do know, however, that the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (1) held that those...
01.07.10 | |

02 May

...or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties." 6 U. S. T., at 3318 (Art. 2, ¶1). High Contracting Parties (signatories) also must abide by all terms of the Conventions vis-À-vis one another even if one party to the conflict is a nonsignatory "Power," and must so abide vis-À-vis the nonsignatory if "the latter accepts and applies" those terms. Ibid. (Art. 2, ¶3). Common Article 3, by contrast, affords some minimal protection, falling short of full protection under the Conventions,...
02.05.07 | |

18 Nov

...of Natural Law is empty of operative force rests upon the view that since the term 'law' must be defined in terms of physical sanctions enforceable within the polity, consequently, the dependence of Natural Law upon theological, transcendental, or non-physical sanctions deprives the concept of the status of 'law.' But even positive law, though backed by coercive authority, relies for its effective and continuing operation upon a large measure of conformity, upon social sanctions, public opinion, and the internalization of externally determined obligations [Brian Tamanaha, if I'm not mistaken, has...
18.11.08 | |

03 Nov

At least the war criminal lost: The basic facts are undisputed: on 15 April 2004 Ilario Pantano, then a second lieutenant with the US marines, stopped and detained two Iraqi men in a car near Falluja. The Iraqis were unarmed and the car found to be empty of weapons. Pantano ordered the two men to search the car for a second time and then, with no other US soldiers in view, unloaded a magazine of his M16A4 automatic rifle into them, before reloading and blasting a second magazine at them...
03.11.10 | |