Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
11 Jul The Systematic Destruction of Healthcare in Gaza
of May, the Indonesian Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital – which had been attacked and the former raided during Israel’s siege of North Gaza at the end of 2024 – were once again surrounded by Israeli troops; the remaining patients at Al-Awda Hospital were subsequently forced to evacuate, and the facility stopped operating, reportedly leaving no functional hospitals in the governorate. Furthermore, in early June, it was reported that Israeli military operations in the proximity of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were posing a threat to patients, staff, and its continued...
09 Feb When the Host Turns Hostile: Moving UN Headquarters to Save Multilateralism?
[Elodie Tranchez, PhD, is an international human rights lawyer and teaches public international law, including the law of treaties and the law of international organizations, at the University for Peace (UPEACE). Elvira Domínguez-Redondo is professor of law at Kingston University, specialising in international law, human rights and United Nations mechanisms.] On 4 January 2026, the United States adopted Executive Order 14199, withdrawing from a wide range of international organisations, including 31 United Nations agencies and entities. The decision affects international treaties that require formal withdrawal (e.g., United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change),...05 May The Elusive Foreign Compact
agreements free from congressional oversight or approval. At the same time, the Executive has come to police the constitutional propriety of U.S. state agreements with foreign governments. This essay focuses on the informational, functional and structural challenges of having the Executive act as a surrogate for Congress in overseeing state agreements abroad. First, executive oversight has done little to remedy a growing informational deficit on what agreements U.S. states are making with foreign governments. Second, even if the Executive knew what the states were doing, it lacks the functional capacity...
07 Feb Biometric Data, Data Protection Authorities, and Migrants: A Complex Nexus
prevent multiple applications for asylum. The possibility of accessing these data and requesting their correction if they are incorrect is expressly laid down in Article 29 EURODAC. The prospection of requesting their deletion if they have been unlawfully processed is also granted, but it is not specified when they are to be considered unlawful. Since personal data protection is always at stake, the authorities competent to ensure that the respective rights are guaranteed here are the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in the respective Member States, as enshrined in Article 30...
15 May Human Rights Treaty Body Review 2020 – Introducing the Integrated Treaty Body System as a More Ambitious Alternative
[Jan Lhotský is the head of the Czech Centre for Human Rights and Democracy . He also works as a lawyer at the Office of the Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsperson) and as a senior researcher at the Centre for International Law of the Institute of International Relations in Prague.] The universal system of monitoring human rights obligations – the UN treaty bodies based in Geneva – has been in need of reform for decades. There were several waves of reform proposals during those years, but each time only minor...16 Jun Function Over Form
...I had begun thinking of a more context-sensitive approach to the extraterritorial application of constitutional constraints and protections in terms of what I call “bounded functionality” (this is perhaps one version of the “something in between” that Roger evokes in his first post on Gerry Neuman’s typology of approaches to the territorial reach of the Constitution). I look forward to continued conversations about how these approaches can inform judicial reasoning. In his second post, Julian Ku criticizes the majority’s focus “practical and functional considerations” for its unpredictability. In his view,...