Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
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...
02 Jun Options for a Peace Settlement in Ukraine: Option Paper VI – Prisoners of War and Other Detainees in the Peace Process for Ukraine
...the potential benefits of individual redress resulting from a successful individual application at the ECtHR will be offset by the length of the ECtHR procedures, incoherent case-law and a partial handling of needs. Three conclusions frame any negotiations between Ukraine and the RF concerning PoWs and other detainees. First, whereas international law provides for the repatriation, release and transfer of detained persons, it does not provide for detainee exchanges or swaps. Nor does international law prohibit detainee exchanges or swaps, leaving ample space for negotiations. Second, irrespective of the applicable...
07 May On the Refusal to Call a Spade a Spade
[Nimer Sultany is a Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London and the Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law.] In a recent lecture at the Imperial War Museums, the prominent lawyer and author Philippe Sands makes several problematic and surprising claims concerning South Africa v. Israel, the genocide case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Sands, who represents Palestine in the ICJ case on the legality of the occupation, claims in this lecture that he no longer thinks that genocide is a useful concept anymore....07 Oct 15 Years Later: A History of the Forever War and the Laws of War (Part 1 of 2)
...these years, the laws of war received extensive study by jurists and soldiers alike. Established by the “men of 1873” [http://www.cambridge.org/jo/academic/subjects/law/public-international-law/gentle-civilizer-nations-rise-and-fall-international-law-18701960] following an initiative supported by Lieber, the Institut de Droit International promoted the development of the laws of war. Numerous publications in various languages were published on this topic. Exemplary of this growing interest in the laws of war were the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907: the majority of their provisions do not affect the field of peacemaking – aggressive war was still considered lawful, but rather with...
23 May Development as Domination: Settler Tourism in Western Sahara and the Commodification of Occupied Territories in Trumpist International Law
law, but its deliberate normalisation. This profit-oriented repurposing of land usurpation is embedded within broader strategies to entrench occupation, alter demographic realities, and establish “facts on the ground” aimed at securing acquiescence of illegal territorial claims, in direct defiance of peremptory norms of international law and the rights of Indigenous or occupied populations. As critical legal scholars have long argued, these are not anomalies but rather expressions of international law’s foundational complicity with empire, extraction, racialized dispossession and appropriation, a system of “civitas civitati lupus” (to paraphrase Hobbes’ celebre phrase...03 Apr So How is China Reacting to the Philippines Arbitration Submission? Not Very Well
...latter’s illegal occupation of some of China’s islands and reefs in the South China Sea. At the heart of the matter are the disputes between the two sides on the sovereignty over islands and reefs, and delimitation of maritime boundaries. Yet disputes such as these have already been excluded from arbitration procedures through a declaration made by China in 2006 pursuant to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). In this context, China’s rejection of the Philippines’ submission for arbitration is solidly based on international law, and...
17 Oct A Visible College, 2.0: Israel, Hamas, and the International Legal Community
Debate and disagreement are also vital parts of international lawyering; one’s success as a lawyer often depends on their ability to construct a legal argument to justify the acts or omissions of their clients. Yet the international legal community’s responses to the events of the past week give rise to some important questions about our discipline. I pose three of these below. I. Is There any Law Beyond Politics? The past week has highlighted, first and foremost, the law’s susceptibility to politicisation. World leaders have unsurprisingly thrown international legal terminology...
23 Jul Uncertain Commitments: The US-Ukraine Rare Minerals Agreement and the Limits of Treaty Law
consent, validity, and state responsibility. At stake is not simply whether the treaty meets formal requirements under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, but whether international law should recognize as legitimate a resource agreement signed during a constitutional crisis and under military occupation, especially when the state in question may not survive the war in its current form. In October 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced a strategic ‘Victory Plan’ to the Verkhovna Rada, prioritizing the development of Ukraine’s mineral resources (uranium, titanium, and lithium) through partnerships with the...