Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
13 Sep The Legality of a U.S. Space Force
[Adam Irish is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at California State University, Chico.] President Donald Trump’s pronouncements that the United States needs to develop a “Space Force” were initially met with derision by national security establishment. In a letter to lawmakers, Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, wrote that he did not “wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations.” However, three Space Policy Directives, one speech by the Vice President, and one report by the Department of Defense...
19 Feb Moving Towards a Settlement of the Conflict in Ukraine
[Marc Weller is Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies in the University of Cambridge] The Cambridge Initiative on Peace Settlements, in cooperation with Opinio Juris, offered a proposal for ending the war in Ukraine as soon as the conflict broke out, along with detailed contributions on individual aspects of a possible settlement from our international team of experts. This contribution introduces the text of a framework for a draft settlement in view of more recent developments. Movement towards a Settlement The original idea was to show that a...25 Jan Is the UN Becoming More Like the Pentagon?
...Republican-controlled Congress appears disinclined to look to closely at how US taxpayers money has been spent in a war effort it heartily supported. In order for criticism of UN practices to be taken seriously, the US needs to set the best example for the international community. The UN needs better oversight; so, apparently, does the US government. It all puts me in mind of a memorable, cynical quote from the movie Syriana (which, though a flawed film, has an interesting take on Washington lawyers) about the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act:...
13 Feb Options for a Peace Settlement for Ukraine: Option Paper XVIII – Energy
are received and then allocated. Alternative options, such as local taxation, would not appear to be appropriate (Bruch et al, 962). Finally, there is the question of the allocation of revenue from the sale of the resources. In some peace settlements, revenue is split according to a given formula: Aceh, for example, receives 70% of oil and gas revenues (Article 181 of Law No 11/2016 of Indonesia), while Bangsamoro receives an even split (Article XII(34) of the Law No 11054/2018 of the Philippines). It is not possible to speculate on...
10 Feb False Equivalences in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict – International Humanitarian and Criminal Law Perspectives
...other (non-occupied) cities in Azerbaijan. Second, from the perspective of international criminal law (ICL), the 1992 Khojaly massacre (recognised by some states as a genocide) of Azerbaijanis is frequently compared to the Sumgait pogroms which killed 26 Armenians, despite the latter atrocity having been fully addressed under domestic law in the absence of state complicity. In the light of further territorial claims made by the Armenian government on Georgia and Turkey, filling in these gaps is key. IHL distinctions in occupied and non-occupied territories The applicability of IHL rules necessarily...13 Nov Small Sovereign Archipelago Seeks New, Elevated Homeland
recognized various ways for states to acquire territorial sovereignty: conquest, discovery, occupation, accretion, cession, or prescription. Of these, the Maldives’ adherence to the UN Charter (not to mention international law more generally) takes conquest off the table. Discovery alone or combined with occupation are still technically available options, but good luck finding terra nullius that you can claim as your own. And accretion–the expansion of existing land masses through geological changes–appears to be the opposite of what’s actually happening to the Maldives. That leaves prescription or cession as possibilities. Cession...10 Mar Events and Announcements: 10 March 2024
in different fields of international law, including from Global South(s) and empirical perspectives. This symposium on 15-16 July 2024 will bring together scholars and practitioners, from various fields of international law and through divergent theoretical and geographical perspectives. For more information, click here. From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law: 3-4 October, Lund, Sweden, organized by Dr Vladislava Stoyanova, Associate Professor, Lund University, Faculty of Law, and Dr David McGrogan, Associate Professor, Northumbria Law School. Positive obligations in human rights law appear to be relentlessly...
05 Sep Iran’s Threat of Retaliation
[Sava Janković is an Assistant Professor of International Law and Visiting Scholar at Durham Law School.] [Volker Roeben is a Full Professor of International Law and Dean of Durham Law School.] [Francis Grimal is a Reader in Public International Law at the University of Buckingham and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law.] Introduction Towards the end of August 2024, Iran vowed retaliation after the prominent Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran following his attendance at the inauguration of Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian,...
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...
02 Apr Putting the International Criminal Court’s Palestine Investigation into Context
...by the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, spurring a long controversy over prosecutorial discretion and judicial overview. Whether one agrees with the Prosecutor or the Chamber, the decision not to initiate an investigation into the Mavi Marmara case exemplifies the fragmented and piecemeal manner in which Israeli impunity has been approached to date. While welcoming the Prosecutor’s important decision to finally open an investigation into the Situation in Palestine in the face of immense political pressure, it is nonetheless crucial to recall the broader context within which the ICC operates, both...