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31 May The Obligation to Ensure Respect for IHL in the Peacekeeping Context – Progress, Lessons and Opportunities by Leanne Smith
in the field (p. 151). Mission POC strategies are based on three inter-dependent tiers of activity that are much broader than resorting to the use of force. These include short-term and long-term policies involving political, physical, and institution/capacity building contributions to protection. The ultimate aim of all branches of a peacekeeping mission is protection through political process; protection from imminent threat of physical violence; and creating a protective environment (p. 149). Continual efforts need to be made to focus on these strategies as opposed to more militarized options. A Case...
09 Oct Trump vs. International Law: Koh’s Blueprint for Ending America’s Wars and Avoiding Perpetual War
...be ISIS and mission specific; 2) include a sunset date that would require Congress to affirmatively vote on whether and under what terms to reauthorize the use of force as the conflict evolves; 3) repeal the outmoded predecessor AUMFs; 4) include more stringent transparency and reporting requirements; and 5) include some form of ex post review mechanism, judicial or otherwise, for evaluating lethal actions outside the Afghan theater. With these essential safeguards in mind, Koh then looks at two recent proposals in Congress: the Kaine-Corker AUMF and the Merkley AUMF....07 Mar Bomb Iran? Not Yet
...Iran continues to install new machines, its capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium will increase. In the near term, IAEA inspectors who are on the ground in Iran will be able to verify that Iran is not using the commercial-scale facility to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. The fear, though, is that Iran will produce low-enriched uranium (which is not useable for nuclear weapons) under the watchful eye of IAEA inspectors while it continues to install new machines. Then, once Iran has gained sufficient experience operating the enrichment plant, and installed a...26 Mar Daniel Bradlow on Reform of the IMF and the Developing World
...uncertain at best. Some of these reforms require either difficult political compromises or amendments to the IMF’s Articles of Agreement. It is therefore more realistic to hope that the G20 will launch a multi-stage reform process that is responsive to the key problems in the current governance arrangements and is based on a long-term vision of the IMF’s role in international financial governance. The three major problems in the international financial architecture The three key problems are coordination, scope, and legitimacy. Coordination Global financial governance currently involves a multiplicity of...
20 May Reducing the Grounds Upon Which the Use of Force is Legally Permissible
...is currently attached to these rules. Precise rules provide clarity in determining what conduct is lawful versus conduct that is unlawful. A caveat is that if attempts at making a rule precise results in overprecision, then the law may fall into the ‘trap of over-exhaustiveness’ (p. 91), meaning conduct not explicitly mentioned becomes legally permissible, even if it results in the same or similar outcomes as conduct that is unlawful according to that same rule. It is therefore crucial to strike a balance that avoids creating ambiguity regarding what conduct...
07 Mar Thou Shalt Not Distort the Language of International Law
...international law would have been formally more convincing. “Special Military Operation” Notably, President Putin has euphemistically referred to Russia’s attack as a “special military operation”. This concept does not exist under international humanitarian law (IHL). The proper terms would have been “war” or “international armed conflict” in the sense of Article 2 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. However, obviously, Putin could not use any of these terms, because the aggressive term “war” would not have been approved by his supporters, and the meaning of the technical legal phrase “international...
13 Jan Nations Should Boldly Redefine Development Approach
conditions for resilient and thriving societies. When people are free from discrimination, can access education and health care, and are shielded from exploitation, they are in a position to contribute to and benefit from economic systems. But the stark data of how far short the world is falling in realizing these rights underscore the failure of a development model that prioritizes short-term growth over long-term resilience, that inadequately measures the total cost of economic activity, and that skews incentives toward financial return instead of contributions to the sustainability of the...02 May Back to Military Commissions?
...toward using military commissions to prosecute some detainees, perhaps including those charged with coordinating the Sept. 11 attacks. “The more they look at it,” said one official, “the more commissions don’t look as bad as they did on Jan. 20.” My WCL colleague, Darrin Hutchinson, sums up one (unhappy) view of this from the left, here. But I want to skip over the charges of hypocrisy and walk-backs and address a longer term issue. Part of the idea of national security court has been the issues of evidence and all...
06 Dec Re-enchanting International Law is a Global South Project
[Professor Alanna O’Malley is Chair of Global Governance & Wealth at Erasmus University and an ERC Laureate with a research project entitled: ‘Challenging the liberal world order from within, the Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South.’ Her second book, Decolonising Global Order is forthcoming.] Among proclamations of the ‘crisis’ of multilateralism and the peril facing the rules-based international order, one note rings clear: international law is on the brink of a renaissance. On one hand, flagrant violations of basic principles such as the prohibition to use...19 Jan International Law as Behavior Symposium: Toward an Anthropology of International Law
which international norms penetrate domestic legal systems on the local level. Ethnographic research involves case-oriented study, including long-term fieldwork and in-depth interviews. In the context of studying international law, fieldwork is frequently multi-sited to allow researchers to analyze such phenomena as the transnational circulation of global norms and local settings where multiple legal orders intersect—or what scholars call “global legal pluralism.” By tracking the flow of laws, institutions, people, and ideas across locales and jurisdictions, multi-sited “deterritorialized” ethnography is a useful tool in the study of international law. Anthropological research...