Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
02 Apr Is Judicial Determination of Territorial Jurisdiction in the Palestine Situation Unprecedented?
depart from this international practice of the UN and other international judicial bodies. Therefore, the Court was right not to exclude any parts of OPT. Such exclusion could have been considered an encouragement to the Israeli occupation policies of annexation, settlement and unlawful excessive use of force against the Palestinian civilians. In addition, such ruling could have been discriminatory against the Palestinian People and inconsistent with Article 21(3) of the Statute, which stipulates that: “The application and interpretation of [the Court’s applicable law] must be consistent with internationally recognized human...
21 Jun Unwilling or Unable? The International Community’s Failure to Hold Israel Accountable for the Ongoing Apartheid in Occupied Palestine
[ Ahmed Abofoul is a Research Assistant at Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law and a Guest lecturer of Public International Law at Al-Azhar University – Gaza. He worked as a Research Assistant to Dr. Robert Heinsch and Dr. Giulia Pinzauti in submitting their amicus curiae observations in the Situation in the State of Palestine to the Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court] Introduction: The Palestinian people have been facing injustices and denial of their basic human rights since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the prolonged...
16 Feb On Being Disappointed at Judge Julia Sebutinde’s Dissent
...response following Hamas’ massacre on 7 October. The submission has also brought about reflections on active allyship against the decades-old Israeli occupation of Palestine—something not to take lightly in the face of the longstanding call to have decolonisation as a concrete act rather than a metaphor or a mere workshop title. From what follows, the position of the Court on 26 January was particularly under scrutiny. Beyond a mere ‘international lawyerly’ issue, it seemed to represent a significant opportunity for the Court to demonstrate an international institution’s capabilities (and possible...
09 Jan At World’s End: Palestine, the ICJ, and a New Dawn in International Law
...ended. *** The Palestinian struggle against Israeli settler-colonialism produced a final casualty: international law. Like other legal systems, international law’s core feature is ‘sanctioned regularity.’ Although international lawyers aspire to instil in the framework ideals such as freedom, justice, fairness, and humanity (sic), order is the driving force. A sense of regularity and predictability fosters confidence and compliance, the organised consent Antonio Gramsci theorised. What order did states commit to through international law? All violence as a means is either lawmaking or law preserving. Walter Benjamin’s quip highlights the symbiotic...
26 Apr The ICJ and the ECtHR’s Provisional Measures in the “Lachin Corridor” in Azerbaijan: Can Armenia Use the Civilian Passage for Military Purposes?
provisional measures should be seen in a broader context of ongoing Azerbaijan-Armenia reciprocal claims before the ICJ and the ECtHR under the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The parties allege various violations of international law and human rights law, including military occupation, ethnic cleansing, property rights, security of persons, etc., arising from Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region and adjacent districts from 1991-2020. Provisional Measures ECtHR On 21 December 2022, the ECtHR adopted its provisional measure...16 Jul The Man Who Would Be King, Daddy’s Little Princess, and their Territorial Claim
...might not apply to, for example offshore islets. (p. 689, Sec. 251, note 2). Bir Tawil is habitable terrain, so settlement is probably required. Thus the issues of who is claiming the territory by occupation and the problem of settlement are two very significant problems for Heaton’s claim. (As well as potential domestic law issues, like a U.S. citizen trying to found a kingdom.) Perhaps obtaining recognition from Egypt, Sudan, and other countries would resolve any technical deficiencies. But while recognition is a political decision, it takes place within a...
17 Apr Symposium on Confronting Colonial Objects: Returning Colonial Objects – The Role of Transitional Justice and Alternative Dispute Resolution
of ADR mechanisms with strategies grounded on the interplay between international cultural heritage law, human rights law and transitional justice. First, claimants should endeavour to persuade holding institutions to settle colonial-era restitution claims by involving not only cultural heritage experts, but also transitional justice specialists. The aim is to ensure that parties consciously pursue the goals of transitional justice – and not unwittingly as in past settlements. Second, States and communities should advocate for the development, application and ‘hardening’ of principles guiding the conduct of all parties entangled in disputes...04 Mar In Memory of Edward R. Cummings
David Kaye, a State Department lawyer who is on leave as director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at Whittier Law School, wrote to tell me that Edward R. Cummings, a long-time lawyer at the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser has passed away. Ed was not the type of guy who is often mentioned on blogs. He wasn’t an academic celebrity. He wasn’t a bomb-thrower. He was a quite simply a great lawyer. George Washington University Law School, his alma mater, has posted an obit and...10 Nov Guest Post: Is the Execution of Collaborators a War Crime under the Rome Statute? (Part II)
party to the conflict”. The Pre-Trial Chamber in Lubanga applied the Tadić approach to nationality, albeit in the context of interpreting “national armed forces” in the context of recruiting child soldiers, rather than protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict concurred with prevailing international opinion that Gaza remains occupied territory and that the laws of occupation, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, continue to apply. But Palestinians detained by the authorities in Gaza would generally not be considered as protected persons under...23 Sep A Reply to Goodman Re: War/Not War with Al-Qaeda
Ryan has a fascinating but problematic post today at Just Security in which he takes international-law scholars to task for opportunistically flip-flopping on whether the US is involved in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda. Here is the crux of his argument, taken from the post’s introductory paragraph: Those arguments have been inconsistent with regard to one fundamental legal question: whether the US is, as a matter of law, in an armed conflict. In fact, a pattern has emerged over the years: opposition to different actions has alternated between arguing that...