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14 Jul A Response to Olivier De Schutter by Katharina Pistor
...the heightened contest for arable land globally to ensure food safety or biofuel for different peoples. Most of these transactions are transnational in scope; and they tend to pair relatively poor countries on the sell side with affluent investors or countries on the buy side. The major challenge these transactions pose is the impact they have on the people in the seller countries. There is little doubt that at least in the short term the people in countries on the buy side benefit from these transactions. It is their food...23 Jan The FARC Dissidents Are Not Who We Think: Two Years into Colombia’s Peace Agreement, What Went Wrong and What Is to Be Done?
concentrated herbicide on crops may produce higher short-term results in terms of hectares eradicated, but destroying local livelihoods without providing an alternative may only push desperate and angry populations to join armed groups—or, as locals say happened in Briceño when it was fumigated off and on from 2008 to 2011, simply replant their coca or try to save it by chopping off the tops or treating the affected areas with one of several household remedies. While it is unreasonable to expect a half-century armed conflict to be ended in two...14 Sep Guest Post: The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative and Recent Developments towards a Treaty
[Leila Nadya Sadat is the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow at Washington University School of Law and the Director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. Douglas J. Pivnichny is the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute Fellow at Washington University School of Law and a masters candidate in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.] Last month, the International Law Commission moved the topic of crimes against humanity from its long-term to its active agenda and...22 Jan Events and Announcements: 22 January 2023
...(LMU) is seeking to appoint Junior Fellows with a research topic focusing on economy or human rights or religion/secularity in contemporary European history. Applications with other research topics, connected to the overall agenda of the KFG, are welcome. Future Calls for Junior Fellowships will be following every term. The Centre is seeking two Junior Fellows for the summer term (April – September 2023), with a preferred starting date on 1 April or 1 May 2023, and two Junior Fellows for the winter term (October 2023 – March 2024), with a...13 Nov Bond and the Vienna Rules on Treaty Interpretation
...the treaty in their context and in the light of its object and purpose.” Because the terms of the treaty were ambiguous and could lead to manifestly absurd and unreasonable results, the Court also applied supplementary means of interpretation, including the negotiating history and a federalism presumption. The ordinary meaning of the term “chemical weapon” was central to the Court’s analysis. “[A]s a matter of natural meaning, an educated user of English would not describe Bond’s crime as involving a ‘chemical weapon.’” The natural meaning of that term accounts for...
05 Feb The Ethnic Cleansing-Genocide Nexus
[Ben Gerstein (JD, BA) is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sarajevo Institute for the Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law] What is the difference between pursuing the violent ethnic homogenization of a territory and the physical destruction of the group living on that land? And further, when does ethnic cleansing reach the threshold of genocide? Examining the jurisprudence of both the ICTY and ICJ, and applying it to the ongoing campaigns of wanton violence in Gaza and Myanmar, this post aims to offer critical points of...22 Jun Sotomayor on Treaties and Foreign Law
agreement having legal effect under the law of [the child’s country of habitual residence].” Hague Convention, art. 3, 51 Fed. Reg. at 10,498. In this way, the Convention plainly favors “a flexible interpretation of the terms used, which allows the greatest possible number of cases to be brought into consideration.” Pérez-Vera Report, para. 67. Consequently, in determining whether the rights arising under a ne exeat clause constitute “rights of custody” under the Convention, I discern an intent of inclusion rather than exclusion, so as to effectuate the drafters’ goal of...
24 Sep Too Little, Too Late? On the Meaning and Consequences of the Recognition of the State of Palestine
...Palestine (UNSCOP) unanimously determined that “the peoples of Palestine are sufficiently advanced to govern themselves independently”, and that political “independence shall be granted in Palestine at the earliest practicable date”. Nevertheless, on 29 November 1947 the then western dominated General Assembly, driven with a desire to resolve its own self-described “Jewish question” in the aftermath of the Holocaust, voted to partition Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State. This was done in the most iniquitous terms and in flagrant violation of the self-determination right of the majority Palestinian...15 Mar Does the U.S. Really Need The Law of the Sea Treaty to Make Claims in the Arctic?
...Zone and deal with other regional and national claims to extended territorial and functional jurisdiction that stretch the intent of the LOS Convention as a non-party and outsider. This would require an increased commitment to the contentious Freedom of Navigation Program and would engender situations in which the US must choose between our long term interest in demonstrating our interpretation of our navigational freedoms and resource management authorities and our near-term interests of partnerships with allies on matters of terrorism, trade, and bi-lateral relationships. The need to protect long term...
21 Nov Suspension of the United States From the United Nations: Procedure, Limits and Feasibility
the right to self-determination. Importantly, the obligation to cooperate is upon other States and in line with the UN Charter and international law. In Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, the ICJ concluded that the right to self-determination is an obligation erga omnes and directed “all member States to co-operate with the United Nations to end the breach in question.” The ILC commentary on Article 41 of the Articles on State Responsibility (concerning consequences of breach of a peremptory norm) recommends that this could be...