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14 Dec Drug Boats, Drone Strikes and the Dangers of Avoiding Mirrors
diverged sharply from this internal narrative. For years, the public heard that drone strikes caused minimal civilian harm and that each operation underwent some of the most stringent review processes in the history of warfare (evidenced here through one of Johnson’s own public speeches in 2012). Yet as independent investigators and journalists gained access to communities in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, their findings repeatedly contradicted official claims. The most credible documentation often came not from the U.S. government but from NGOs, local researchers, and reporters who traveled to strike sites,...
11 Nov Symposium on Erin Pobjie’s Prohibited Force: Toward a Higher Level of Analytical Clarity – An Introductory Reflection on Erin Pobjie’s ‘Prohibited Force’
...take this opportunity to repeat here what I have stated in my foreword to the book: In my humble view, the central contribution of this elegantly written study consists of the suggestion to treat the term ‘use of force’ as a type rather than a concept and to identify a basket of elements which, while not having all to be present must be weighed and balanced to determine whether the threshold for the definition is met. It is by no means a weakness, but it rather testifies to the author’s...30 Oct German Constitutional Court Issues Temporary Injunction on Bailout
...as acting (in its several holdings, not just this one) for the long-term interest of the EU and the eurozone itself. Forcing the European system to adhere to its most basic rules, rather than relying on ad hoc kick-the-can-down-the-road discretionary deals. The court, on this view, is acting in the interests of the whole of Europe as a long term enterprise, on the theory that governance cannot be simply whatever discretionary deal is worked out for that moment. Constitutional rule cannot be as discretionary as that. There are probably others....07 Feb Chinese SOE Investment: An Economic Statecraft
...economic juggernaut has been fueled by an opening of markets, globalization and booming free trade which has provided immense financial benefit to Chinese companies. The free market open rules trading system “led to the establishment of China as a major global exporter. As China’s economy has boomed, China has looked increasingly abroad for investment opportunities to both employ its cash hoard and provide long-term growth for its citizens. In China, many large companies are state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and are the most common form of entity that are involved investment. Chinese...
29 Nov ArcGIS & Hearsay: Challenges of Incorporating New Technologies into Existing Evidentiary Frameworks
challenges pertaining to the rules of evidence. In addition to creating authentication and relevancy issues for courts to contend with, a particularly complicated evidentiary rule to adapt to the inclusion of this information at trial is hearsay. The term ‘hearsay’ refers to an out-of-court statement offered at trial to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Such statements are generally inadmissible—barring a series of convoluted exceptions that vary by judicial system. This determination is rooted in the policy interest of preserving truth at trial, as out-of-court statements do not allow...15 Feb How to Authorize War
...a military campaign". Speaking purely in terms of what would be "ideal", I think your first suggestion is the better one: repeal the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs or explicitly state in the new AUMF that it, in some way, supersedes them. Begin, as much as possible, with a clean(ish) slate laying out new contraints on the use of military force in all U.S. operations. This won't entirely solve the problem presented by muddled realities on the ground, but I think it will represent a better solution (in terms of the...
15 Jul Symposium on PMSCs: When Surveillance Goes Private
...contains obligations for both public and private actors. Beyond these regulatory frameworks, research can help raise awareness of the kinds of actors and technologies that should be overseen. Papers like Understanding Private Surveillance Providers and Technologies andthe Global Surveillance Industry Report shed light on the sector’s complexity and fast evolving landscape. The Surveillance Watch highlights the growth of private surveillance providers that operate with little accountability. These companies may not be formally labelled as PMSCs, but the types of services that they provide should determine whether they fall within the...
01 Jul Murdering Women, Killing Childhood: Conflating Women and Girl Victims of Ciudad Juárez’s Feminicidios
...expendable.” Despite local and international condemnation, Juárez’s feminicidios — a term coined to describe the particular brutality inflicted on these women and girls, which stem from misogyny and structural inequalities and occurs within a broader context of impunity and state implication — have actually increased over time, as much as 137% between 2015 and 2021. A number of causes have contributed to this phenomenon, including sociopolitical instability caused by the power vacuum that followed from the murder of long-standing Juárez cartel leader Rafael Aguilar Guajardo in 1993, the rise of...
05 Jul The Statehood of Palestine and Its Effect on the Exercise of ICC Jurisdiction
...of certainty” that it is permitted to exercise jurisdiction before doing so: see here (para. 24). As the determination of jurisdiction “is of a legal nature” rather than“whether a given fact can or cannot be properly established”, the threshold of a “degree of certainty” is separate and distinct from evidential standards of proof. The Court either has jurisdiction or it does not. Collective recognition and self-determination neither determine Palestine’s Statehood nor the scope of her territorial claim The General Assembly cannot recognise Palestine as a “State” with a constitutive, definitive,...