In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation

01 Jun

...the ICCPR and other human rights treaties; application of human rights law even within armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law; ever stricter limitations on the legal scope of an armed conflict with respect to geography and theatre; and standards of “direct participation in hostilities” in armed conflict that, in combination with human rights law in armed conflict, make it legally very difficult to target individuals using standoff platforms. Obviously OJ readers have many views on these legal premises. My point here, instead, is that there is not much indication...
01.06.09 | |

01 Sep

...lawyers two days to prepare arguments on diplomatic immunity. The defense, which asked for an eight-day extension, contends that the officials should be shielded from prosecution because they were democratically elected by the Palestinians. Prosecutors counter that the suspects should not receive immunity because they are members of Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist group. Dweik was detained early this month after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) surrounded his home in the West Bank. About 30 Palestinian lawmakers, including a third of the Palestinian Authority's cabinet, have been captured since...
01.09.06 | |

07 May

...African apartheid: BDS. Far from deterring BDS or checking its impressive growth, this anti-BDS law may in fact backfire and give a strong boost to BDS around the world. Monitoring the Israeli establishment's habit of late of shooting itself in the foot, one cannot put it beyond them to pass this law irrespective of the above compelling pragmatic consideration. Israel and its lobbies are repeatedly saying that BDS, with its emphasis on the three basic Palestinian rights, "de-legitimizes" and seeks the "destruction" of Israel. Specifically, they refer to the second...
07.05.11 | |

01 Sep

...IMT received the prosecutors' indictment and announced that it would be tried in Nuremberg. This was a US preference to which the other nations agreed--Nuremberg was in the US military occupation zone of what had been Germany and the US wanted the first trial on its turf. At that time, the allied nations contemplated seriously the possibility that a next IMT trial would occur in Berlin (in the USSR occupation zone), or elsewhere. But of course the Nuremberg trial (1945-46) turned out to be the only international trial of Nazis....
01.09.11 | |

17 May

...assertion of power. Stay strong Goldstone - if Hamas and Isaeli leaders reject what you say, maybe you are speaking "la verite" and there is a French adage that "seule la verite blesse" (only the truth hurts- rough translation). Best, Ben Patrick O'Donnell I suppose, then, it’s rather sad irony that current Israeli military practices, political policies and legal strategies amount to apartheid (Neve Gordon prefers to speak of ‘ghettoization’: see his discussion of the ‘colonization’ and ‘separation’ principles in his book Israel's Occupation, 2008) in regard to the Occupied...
17.05.10 | |

17 Apr

...and international humanitarian law, that is, as those norms and that law have generally been understood in the international community. In other words, and for example, Israel cannot decide for itself which parts of the Fourth Geneva Convention it will choose to abide in its military rule over the Occupied Palestinian Territories ('disengagement' from Gaza has not ended that rule), as its selective use and "original" interpretation of international humanitarian law are contrary to both the letter and spirit of such law. Kevin Jon Heller Well said as usual, my...
17.04.10 | |

11 Jul

...weak and third world countries alone. International law, so it seems, is there to preserve the interest and the power of big powers against helpless nations. Take for example Israel, it is a country that violates international law by continuing its occupation of Palestinian lands, while declaring Jerusalem as its capital where international law clearly states that it is illegal to do so, and when it comes to the wall Israel is building on occupied territories, international law sided with the Palestinian argument and declared the wall as an illegal,...
11.07.08 | |

18 Jan

...at the Preliminary Peace Conference, crimes #s 10 (usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation), 14 (confiscation of property), 17 (imposition of collective penalties) -- if they have counterparts in Art. 8 of the Rome Statute. Yes, the OTP is able to investigate other matters proprio motu (Art. 15) -- including alleged violations by Palestinians of the laws of war, crimes against humanity, or genocide otherwise within Arts. 6-8 of the Stat, including planning, authorizations, complicity within or emanating from within the area. Jordan sorry, 41(1) should read 14(1) Clare Frances...
18.01.15 | |

13 Aug

[Kristin Hausler is an Associate Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law and Robert McCorquodale is the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. The views expressed here are those of the authors and not of BIICL.] On 30 July, a school operated by a UN agency in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, was shelled by the Israeli army, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 100.On 3 August, the Israeli army bombed another Gaza school run by the UN, this time...
13.08.14 | |

01 May

HC No. IV and the C.I.L. reflected therein apply to the West Bank occupation, GC IV, as treaty law, does not because of a technical argument re: the text of art. 2 -- a position that no other state, nor the ICCR, seem to accept. It is also important to recall the the IMT at Nuremberg applied that laws of war reflected in HC IV as C.I.L. without the participation clause-limitation regarding the treaty as such. By analogy, whether or not the Israeli claim about a technical limitation in common...
01.05.13 | |

01 Aug

...civilians controlled by both the Congolese military and rebel groups. According to the report: The stakes are high, and those benefiting from the illicit exploitation of resources will not be willing to give up these riches easily. As evidence by patterns of the last 12 years, it is in the interests of all sides in the conflict, as well as unscrupulous businessmen, to prolong the anarchy, as it delivers financial benefits without accountability. In an article recently published in the Fordham International Law Journal, I have called for the United...
01.08.09 | |

02 Aug

...not a lot of international law in the eastern Sierra Nevada. There is an important body of sovereign nation law, given that there are several Indian tribes and tribal lands up and down the Owens Valley, including the Paiute-Shoshone tribal lands in the center of Bishop. But one feels somewhat removed from the Law of Nations. However, I thought I would share one conversation with one of the rangers here in the national park. She remarked that the ranger services – national parks, national forest, etc. – had been watching...
02.08.10 | |