Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
24 Feb Self-Execution Beyond Treaties
enforce federal statutes against state officers via 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in cases in which the underlying statute wasn’t itself clearly meant to be privately enforced; and the Court’s comparable scaling back of implied constitutional remedies against federal officers under Bivens is no less well-entrenched. I open with this point because, the more I read International Law at Home: Enforcing Treaties in U.S. Courts, the more convinced I become that we might draw fairly comprehensive (and perhaps alarming) parallels between the Supreme Court’s evolving approach to domestic enforcement of treaty...
02 Nov Between Elitist Conversations and Local Clusters: How Should we Address English-centrism in International Law?
that, after all, the warnings of political scientist Karl Deutsch may have been right: “Power means not having to listen!”. The importance of the relationship between language and international law cannot be overstated, not least because of the discipline’s universalistic pretence. The choice of language significantly determines the way in which international law is made, interpreted, and applied, what knowledge is produced by scholars, and the participants of the conversation. As Anthea Roberts accounts for in her ground-breaking book Is International Law International?, international law has not remained alien from...11 Jun Guest Post: Suffering Victims and Collective Crimes: The Limits of International Criminal Law
Chamber chose to approach this from an international law perspective, linking this with the principle of non-intervention, which, it recalls, is a customary law rule established by the ICJ in the Nicaragua case. The Judges consider that “while these provisions of customary law govern conduct between States, the Trial Chamber considers that the violation of this principle by a Head of State individually engaging in criminal conduct can be taken into account as an aggravating factor” (§27). This is the first time I see this in a judgment of an...
09 Apr Symposium on Dominic Ongwen Case: From Participation to Reparations – Representing Victims in the Dominic Ongwen Case
Michael Gibbs Wessells, Professor Seggane Moses Musisi) and emphasized by the LRVs. This acknowledgment extends to individuals who, while not direct victims of the crimes, are offspring of the direct victims and may suffer transgenerational harm. This progressive stance underscores the relevance of the Ongwen case and sets a significant precedent for reparations eligibility. However, the Chamber ought to have taken a more proactive approach and deliberately considered individualised reparations for specific categories of victims consistent with the victims’ views. This approach would align with the goal of addressing the...12 Mar Why The US Declaration on AP I Will Not Prevent the Admission of Hearsay
his behalf,” has the administration inadvertently (or intentionally) invoked the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, thereby potentially gutting the relaxed rules on the admission of hearsay available to both sides in military commissions? … I believe that this will result in substantial pretrial, trial, and appellate litigation. The idea that Article 75(4)(g) prohibits hearsay is incorrect. Although the provision bears a superficial resemblance to the Sixth Amendment, it was in fact carefully drafted to accommodate both the common law and civil law approaches to evidence. Here is the ICRC’s...
03 Jun Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law in South Sudan: Possible Actions by Kenya and Uganda
[The author is a Lecturer in International Humanitarian Law at Egerton University.] Introduction Contemporary armed conflicts in Africa and elsewhere continue to pose significant challenges for the legal protection of life, limb, livelihood and property of the individuals and communities caught up in those situations. Most of the unlawful conduct that typifies recent armed conflicts in Africa – including intentionally directing attacks at civilians and civilian objects, use of rape as a weapon of war, recruitment and use of child soldiers, forced marriages and wanton destruction of cultural property –...
22 May Curb Your Enthusiasm (Not Your Emissions): Analysis of the ECtHR Rulings on State Responsibility for Climate Change
control over individuals on such territory (Chriagov and others v. Armenia, Cyprus v. Turkey, Manitaras and Others v. Tukey, etc). Duarte Agostinho challenged this approach by arguing that, given the diffuse trans-boundary nature of climate change, control over the source of emissions should be the decisive factor regarding jurisdiction. The ECtHR did acknowledge the causal relationship between GHG emissions on the territory of a State, and their adverse impact on the human rights of people abroad. However, it found these were insufficient grounds for expanding its established approach to extraterritorial...
07 Apr The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics (Part II)
these international efforts to hold the Taliban accountable could generate greater international recognition and precedent for gender apartheid. In conclusion, the criminalization of gender apartheid will fill the current accountability vacuum under international law that leaves many victim-survivors without any remedy or reparation for the totality of harms committed against them. It will ensure a gender-inclusive approach that better reflects the realities in contexts such as the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In addition to strengthening the normative framework of international law, recognition of the crime against humanity of gender apartheid would also...
19 Apr Syrian Victims Alter the Justice Landscape
...a humanitarian approach to the issue, similar in some ways to the framework of the Committee on Missing Persons of Cyprus, rather than naming and shaming perpetrators. The fact that victim’s associations independently designed such a framework following a phase-based approach to the right to the truth represents the clearest proof of the innovative and advanced contributions victims’ associations are bringing to the Syrian (transitional) justice landscape. Beyond Criminal Justice: Tangible and Cumulative Forms of Justice Most justice efforts implemented within the Syrian context until now have focused on criminal...