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23 Jul Scholasticide in Gaza: A Need for Recognition of Systematic Educational Destruction as Genocidal
...exposes a fundamental weakness of the current IHRL framework: its effectiveness diminishes when states are able to avoid accountability through legal interpretation without concrete repercussions. Israel’s position might reflect what Cohen terms ‘interpretive denial’–where through euphemisms and technical language and interpretation, an action’s meaning can be reframed and reclassified. In light of this, and given Israel’s apparent determination to avoid its human rights obligations regarding education, through interpretive denial, it might be left to third states to hold Israel accountable. Indeed, powerful states can shape international law by influencing other...13 Sep Forced Relationships: Prosecutorial Discretion as a Pathway to Survivor-Centric Justice
...expressly considering the survivors’ stance. In establishing the elements of the crime of other inhumane acts, the Appeals Chamber noted that being labelled a “forced wife” by perpetrators subjected survivors to mental trauma (para 193), but did not contemplate any long-term consequences of their judicial determination to the same effect. Along similar lines, the ICC found the “imposition, regardless of the will of the victim, of duties that are associated with marriage, as well as of a social status of the perpetrator’s ‘wife’” determinative (Ongwen CoC para 93), rather than...
08 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: The New Geometries of International Law – Deploying Self-Reflexive Inquiry to Re-Build the Discipline
...term. Furthermore, the Anatomy of Genocide engages a sense of sight when it vividly describes the plight of Palestinians, mentioning ‘near-constant carpet-bombing, along with draconian evacuation’ (para. 37) and ‘digging through the rubble, often with bare hands, searching for loved ones’ (para. 32). The Cartography of Genocide works with the senses of vision and touch (spatial awareness) by documenting and representing, in an interactive manner, the scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The unique feature of the project is its engagement with multiple datapoints to solidify evidentiary patterns that can...
01 Oct Open Letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres: Supporting the Call for a Global Study on the Crime of Apartheid and for its Inclusive Definition
...protected from discrimination, has defined them as social constructs. The understanding of these terms alone, however, is not at issue with apartheid’s legal definition. It is the understanding of protected “groups” under international criminal law that is at issue and will impact who is recognized as victims of apartheid. International criminal law prohibits persecution, apartheid and genocide against enumerated protected groups. The term “racial group” under international criminal law has been interpreted using an outdated definition that dates back to World War II. The jurisprudence and the travaux preparatoires for,...
01.10.24
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Kirby Anwar, Wendy Isaack, Artemis Akbary, Zahra Mousawy, Randa Siniora, Yifat Susskind and Maria Sjödin
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30 Apr Guest Post: Landmark Sovereign Debt Restructuring Award
...the term “loans,” others to “long term loans,” others to loans “connected to an investment”, whilst others exclude the term “loan” altogether. (para 292) Accordingly, the Tribunal underlined the importance of the principle of effective treaty interpretation as follows: The list of examples provided by the Slovakia-Greece BIT must, thus, be considered in the context of the treaty and be given some meaning together. Otherwise, if the interpretation stops by simply indicating that any asset is an investment, the examples will be unnecessary, redundant or useless. […] The Tribunal was...
05 May What Are the Limits on Lawfare?
...imperatives. If the use of law will further some tactical or strategic advantage in the short term, who is worrying about whether such use will do violence to the integrity of the legal system in the long term? Non-Benign Examples of Lawfare Unfortunately, there is no shortage of examples from the so-called “global war on terrorism” that illustrate this risk. Consider the decision to establish a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, on the theory that it could be operated in a “legal black hole.” This was lawfare in terms of...05 May Epilogue: Torturing Mr. Martens
...statement of the law evah, if such award existed. Not only is the brief’s use of the term ‘field preemption’ simply lovely in the context of international law, but its main point, that there are armed conflicts which fall outside the material scope of the Geneva Conventions, is absolutely incorrect. Why? Well, that is because the Geneva Conventions actually invented the legal concept and term ‘armed conflict.’ Before 1949 the law of war dealt only with, well, war, an armed struggle between two sovereign states, and it is only with...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 Aug Promoting Cultural Heritage to Strengthen Syrian National Identity and Overcome Ethnic and Religious Fragmentation
...hatreds. Although the Ba’athist regime under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad presented itself as a guardian of minority rights, its consolidation of power was rooted in sectarian patronage, most notably through the advancement of the Alawite minority within Syria’s military and intelligence institutions. This approach sowed long-term mistrust and division, fracturing national identity along ethnic and religious lines. The last 13 years of revolution and civil war, along with atrocities committed by both the regime and non-state armed groups, have deepened sectarian divisions and exposed the fragile nature of Syrian national...