Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
25 Nov ICC Architecture Competition
...winners. The final design will be chosen in 2010 and the building should be completed by 2014. I would vote for the third-place design, because I appreciate its Eisenman/Gehry-like feel. The second-place design is boring and ugly and reminds me of the equally boring and ugly UN (sorry, Le Corbusier — at least you have the excuse that you designed the building in the late 40s). The first-place design is nice and seems very functional, but it’s much less interesting than the third-place one. Readers? Which one would you select?...
21 May Transparency, Accountability and Legitimacy—Chatham House Report on Military Drones in Europe, Part I
the role of these countries in unlawful drone strikes. Under Article 16 of the International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility, a state can be found internationally responsible for aiding or assisting another state in the commission of an internationally wrongful act if (a) it does so with knowledge of the circumstances of the internationally wrongful act; and (b) the act would be internationally wrongful if committed by that state (see further analysis here). Article 16 is an important additional obligation that attaches ancillary responsibility to those that aid or...
16 May COVID-19 devastates an educational system already in crisis
...de Profesores de Venezuela, indicated that that there are only half of many teachers needed in certain subjects, including mathematics, physics, biology, and English. Of equal concern is that the Ministry of Education has, instead of providing justified wage increases, seemingly sought to address the shortage of teachers by replacing them with unqualified personnel. International obligations on the right to education The poor state of the Venezuelan education system is evidence that Venezuela is failing in its obligation under international law and requirements of domestic law to ensure the right...08 Jul Foreign Official Immunity: Wuerth Responds to Bradley, Helfer, and Stewart
courts resolve them may have a significant impact on the development of international law and on U.S. foreign relations. In my view, there is an important role for the executive branch in some immunity cases. Deference is appropriate regarding the prerequisites for status-based immunity, the development of customary international law, some questions of fact and law on which the government has particular expertise, and perhaps even the outcome of individual cases under exceptional circumstances. Professor Stewart says that I afford “at best a very limited” role for the executive, but...
13 Feb When War Bets on Protest: Iran’s Civilians in a Double Bind
...deliver: seize facilities, confront coercive organs, and force collapse from within. That positioning pulls two legal regimes onto the same bodies on two different clocks. In real time, international humanitarian law (IHL) sorts people for targeting: civilians are protected unless—and only for such time as—they directly participate in hostilities, a rule reflected across treaty and customary law in both international and non-international armed conflict. Afterward, Iran’s late-September 2025 statute on intensifying punishment for espionage and “cooperation” with hostile states supplies an emergency-tuned attribution architecture that can convert ambiguity into a...07 Jul Foreign Officials Immunity: The Judicialization of Immunity Decisions?
...as the functionality of this procedure, in which the Department of State makes the decision and the court accepts it as binding. Locating the issue within the general framework of foreign relations law, she criticizes the linked assertions that the President has “lawmaking power” and that the Department of State can “control” determinations of foreign official immunity, arguing that the constitutional basis for such assertions is at best tenuous. Instead, she argues for the judicialization of immunity decisions, resting on federal common law, with at best a very limited role...07 Jul Foreign Officials Immunity: Implications for Human Rights Litigation
(CIL) confers immunity on foreign officials from lawsuits alleging human rights violations. Instead, the Justices instructed U.S. courts to determine the immunity of foreign officials under the “common law”—the legal regime that prevailed prior to the FSIA’s adoption. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s inattention to the international law backdrop to the Samantar case, I fully agree with Professor Wuerth that CIL is relevant to how U.S. courts should develop the common law of foreign official immunity. I also agree that a return to the pre-FSIA immunity regime should not be understood...
14 Feb Justice Prevails over Realpolitik at Koblenz: International Law offers a Rare Glimmer of Hope after a Decade of Disappointments for Syrians
[ Dr Caroline Sweeney is a lecturer in International Human Rights Law with a particular research interest in the intersection between international law and international politics in Syria. She has published on accountability for international crimes committed in Syria since 2011.] On 13 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany convicted Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian intelligence officer, of the crimes against humanity of killing, torture, severe deprivation of liberty, rape and sexual assault, in combination with 27 counts of murder, 25 counts of dangerous bodily injury, particularly...24 Dec Presidential Wiretapping – Not Such an Easy Legal Question
...enemies, than that is a plain violation and probably an impeachable offense. But there is nothing like that even alleged so far. The functional problem, though, is how to interpret and cabin the AUMF to keep it from being a blank check to the President. I agree this is a problem, although not an insurmountable one. Congress can obviously amend the AUMF or even withdraw it. It can amend the FISA to plainly prohibit the President’s activities here. I just don’t think Congress has spoken plainly here (whatever Tom Daschle...30 Dec Could the India-US Diplomatic Incident Be Resolved in the ICJ?
...sue the New York Police / State Dept. for illegal confinement, torture, negative publicity, aiding and abetting in illegal immigration to the USA; and misinterpretation of the law to harass an Indian diplomat. Other Things that India should do to the US for targeting Indian Diplomats - as this is now a TREND in USA. 1. Find US officials guilty of breaking laws in India and prosecute them - the way they prosecute Indians in USA for apparently breaking US laws. 2. Removal of security barriers is a FIRST step....