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08 Jul The Sum of Four Fears: African States and the International Criminal Court in Retrospect–Part II
Max du Plessis is Senior Counsel in South Africa, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, an Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers and an Honorary Research Fellow, University of KwaZulu-Natal. Christopher Gevers is a Lecturer in the School of Law at University of KwaZulu-Natal. In our first post, we identified how the legitimate and longstanding concerns of African states regarding the ICC have been simply ignored or problematically dismissed. We continue with that theme by focusing on the final two concerns...08 Jul The Distance Between Human Rights and the EU: the Libyan Migration Crisis
...by Amnesty International. Many people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean, and roughly 53 people who might have shared the same fate, are alive today thanks to the brave actions of Carola Rackete, the captain of Sea Watch 3, a search and rescue vessel registered in the Netherlands. Her subsequent arrest has generated much discussion about Maritime Law, human trafficking, the Italian interpretation of the laws governing their territorial waters, and the duty of European states to share the burden of incoming migrants. But amidst all of this, let’s...
11 Aug Options for a Peace Settlement for Ukraine: Option Paper XIV – Transitional Justice in a Settlement to End the Conflict between Ukraine and Russia
...or authoritarian regime. This process may include judicial and non-judicial mechanisms and involves not only legal aspects but also political, sociological, economic, and ethical aspects, although here it will be analysed from a legal perspective. The term “atrocities” is used in a broad sense to include serious human rights violations such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, enforced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings and conflict-related sexual violence crimes. In Ukraine, there are many efforts at the domestic and international levels to focus on accountability for atrocities crimes and the need...
10 Feb Symposium on Fairness, Equality, and Diversity in Open Source Investigations: Out in the Open: Fair Trial Rights and Open Source Evidence at the ICC
...other organisations, including those who collect, process, and prepare open source evidence for presentation. An example of this is the digital platform created by SITU Research for the Mali cases, which was made specifically for the OTP. In order for the Defence to counter a digital evidence platform of this kind (or most other digital open source evidence), they would likely need adequate training to increase their own technological literacy, and/or hire experts to assess the evidence, which are both expensive endeavours in terms of time and cost. Due to...11 Dec The negotiations that would not die
...states and least developed countries (LDCs) saw these formulations as insufficiently strong, since they arguably might be satisfied by COP decisions. The Durban Platform finessed this question with the formulation, “protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force.” (The phrases “protocol” and “another legal instrument” are the terms used in the Berlin Mandate, which launched the Kyoto Protocol negotiations,” and the term “agreed outcome” is from the Bali Plan of Action, but now modified by the phrase “with legal force.”) Time frame for the negotiations — China reportedly...
01 Dec The Nexus of Nuclear Security and Pertinent Armed Conflicts: A Reflection of International Law Applicability in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
Japanese troops, Chinese authorities blew up dams on the Yellow River in 1938. Later, similar attacks were carried out during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Over the years attacks of nuclear facilities and high risk military operations have been launched that threatened the nuclear security regime with the 7 June 1981 attack, when Israel bombed the French-made OSIRAK research reactor of 40 MW capacity located at the research Centre Tuwaitha near Baghdad.16 and first Gulf War of 1981 the United States Air Force attacked this same nuclear installation. Increased geopolitical...23 Mar LJIL Symposium: Names, Labels, and Roses
...the prime mover behind the JCE doctrine, and it covered all members of the collective endeavor, regardless of their level of contribution. Eventually, the doctrine was modified to require a heightened contribution requirement, and eventually the leadership level defendants were “de-linked” from the foot soldiers and placed in separate JCEs. But the important point is that the original JCE doctrine included everyone from an architect of the crime (mastermind or hintermann) as well as the foot soldiers or what the later ICTY cases often referred to as the Relevant Physical...
23 Oct Research Services of German Bundestag Rejects Turkey’s Syria Invasion: Illegal, but Who Cares?
research services’ opinion takes a clear stance here by stating that “it is now generally accepted that self-defense is not only confined to actions against states but also covers actions against actors with a “consolidated territorial basis”. Not coincidentally, the same term was used by Germany’s constitutional court in its decision on the legality of Germany’s participation in the fight against the so-called Islamic State in Syria issued about a month earlier. Using yet another term of German academic origin, such entities (another example would be Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon prior to...
30 Nov South China Sea and the Conundrum of China’s Annual Fishing Bans
[Janhavi Pande is a Researcher at the South East Asia Research Programme, Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies, India.] INTRODUCTION In May this year, China imposed its annual three-month fishing ban in the South China Sea (SCS). The ban, introduced in 1999, extends to all coastal states whose fishermen tread China’s claimed Exclusive Economic Zone, lying above the 12 degrees North parallel. Both Vietnam and the Philippines have protested the ban with the United States also having voiced its support of the Philippines government, pointing out that the ban was...27 Nov Radical Islam and the Egyptian Elections
...come December 1, when the Muslim Brotherhood will field candidates to fill 49 of 136 seats. The Bush Administration hopes that the hallmark of its second term will be the spread of democracy in the Middle East. Experts speak of “the Bush Administration’s unprecedented willingness to publicly criticize oppressive actions … by friendly governments” in the Middle East. The American-sponsored Greater Middle East Initiative is a call for the G-8 to promote democracy in the region by committing to free elections, sponsoring parliamentary exchange and training, increasing women’s participation in...