Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
24 Oct On Law, Cake and Booby-Traps: A Reply to Dr Lucas Roorda
involved. First, if we are serious about subjecting warfare to legal assessment and accountability, we must apply the law with care. This may not sound like a profound insight, but the point is that without respecting the formal strictures of the law, including its technicalities, it is all too easy to take liberties and shortcuts that bend the rules out of shape. Invoking the language of the law then becomes yet another exercise in point-scoring, for whichever side, as we see on a daily basis. This is deeply corrosive. Second,...
21 May Transparency, Accountability and Legitimacy—Chatham House Report on Military Drones in Europe, Part II
to promote compliance with international humanitarian law through its relations with the rest of the world’ based on the obligations set forth in Article 3(5) of the Treaty on the European Union, which stipulates the values upon which the EU is founded (principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law). ’ The Chatham House paper outlines the many benefits of accountability to multiple stakeholders. The Sweet Spot: Legitimacy at the Intersection of Transparency, Accountability and the Rule of Law Many of the...
29 Nov Do AI Decision Support Systems ‘Support’ Humans in Military Decision-Making on the Use of Force?
...targeting decisions more efficient with the help of automated and AI technologies. One prominent illustration of this trend is the “Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team”, also called Project Maven. Launched in 2017, Project Maven aimed at analyzing substantial volumes of video footage collected by US drones via machine learning algorithms. Currently run by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), it now integrates various types of data presented in the Maven Smart System interface, which then highlights potential targets based on Maven’s data analysis and extrapolation. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are employing several...
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...03 Mar A Small (But Important!) Win for the OPCD
...OPCD, the Chamber has the power to order that they “be immediately retumed to the Defence, and all copies should be destroyed”25 since this “falls squarely within the Chamber’s powers under Article 57(3)(b) and (c) of the Statute” and “[t]he duty to return such documentation also inheres in Libya’s obligation to respect the functional immunity of the Defence as required by Article 48 of the Statute” . Libya, not surprisingly, opposed the request. Again as summarized by the Pre-Trial Chamber: 21. With regard to the OPCD request to retum and...01 Jun Events and Announcements: 1 June 2025
Young Scholars’ Workshop to be held at the University of Ottawa on 12 November 2025, where they will receive constructive feedback from senior scholars and practitioners. Authors will then submit their articles for consideration by the Canadian Yearbook of International Law. Subject to favourable peer-review, articles submitted as part of the symposium will appear in Volume 63 of the Yearbook in 2026. See here for more information. Seminar – Developments in the Law of State Immunity: The Research Group for Human Rights and International Law at UiT – The Arctic...
26 Sep How the Global Counterterrorism Forum Can Become More Human Rights Compliant (Part II)
[Zsófia Baumann is a Junior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, where she works on topics related to foreign terrorist fighters, counterterrorism and human rights and carries out research on the rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorist offenders.] Part I of this post outlined the main criticisms directed at the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) from the human rights community. It assessed the challenges the Forum faces in terms of its procedures of document creation, the alleged lack of human rights compliant approaches and accountability in its Framework Documents,...
17 Jul Symposium on PMSCs: Ukraine’s New Bill on PMSCs – A Possible Pandora’s Box for Operations Abroad?
[Darío Bürky Arellano holds an MA in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute] On 6 May 2025, a new bill was presented to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine: the “Draft Law on International Activities of Private Law Legal Entities in the Military and Security Spheres” (“Draft Law on PMSCs”). The proposal was referred to the parliament’s Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, and seeks to regulate the activities of private military and security companies (PMSCs), as well as to establish specific state requirements for providing these services both...04 Jun Thoughts on Samantar
employment prong under the non-commercial tort exception? Some lower court case law suggests that state law, not federal law, informs the question. Other case law looks to the law of the sovereign itself. Consequently, we end up in a situation where different sources of law inform the same inquiry, an unfortunate result. 3. What’s the authority for the federal common law? Most of you are familiar with the very good Seventh Circuit cases arising out of the Enahoro litigation that discuss this question. After Erie and maybe Sosa too, one...
16 Sep Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace Bends the Law to Dub Paramilitaries as State Officials: The Time For Critique is Now
...However, the Chamber failed to explain why in its decision. In a couple of footnotes (para. 148), the Chamber merely held that international humanitarian law (“IHL”) permits the incorporation of auxiliary forces into the military and that international tribunals have developed different tests “to determine whether certain private groups – some of a paramilitary nature – act under the state’s command and are, therefore, its organs.” The Chamber’s approach reveals a flawed understanding of the law. Firstly, article 4 of the III Geneva Convention may allow for the incorporation of...