Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
13 May Options for a Peace Settlement for Ukraine: Option Paper IV – Ukrainian Pathways to the European Union
[Jed Odermatt is Lecturer at the City Law School, City, University of London, where he is co-convenor of the International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) and member of the Institute for the Study of European Law (ISEL). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s alone.] The Russian Federation has demanded that Ukraine should renounce potential NATO membership. Early on in the conflict, it also demanded that Ukraine would need to declare that it will not join the EU. Indeed, the issue of EU membership is a sensitive one for the...15 Oct Response to Roger Alford’s The Nobel Effect: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates as International Norm Entrepreneurs
[Professor Gregory Gordon is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota School of Law. Anne Kjelling is Head Librarian at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.] We would like to thank Professor Roger Alford, the Virginia Journal of International Law and Opinio Juris for inviting us to participate in this online symposium. Professor Alford is to be congratulated on his insightful piece regarding the impact of the Nobel Peace Prize on the development of international law. The article analyzes 20th Century global norm formation through the revelatory filter of...31 Dec Case of the Month: Xenides-Arestis v. Turkey
My vote for the most important international law case in December is the ECHR’s decision in Xenides-Arestis v. Turkey. The decision is available here and the official press release is here. Arestis involved the deprivation of property rights as a result of the continuing division of Cyprus and the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Arestis is a Greek-Cypriot who lives in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus. She owns land, houses and a shop in northern Cyprus but has been prevented from living in her home or using her property since...30 May Gen. McChrystal’s Secret Yale Course (UPDATED)
...shaped their conduct? Have at least portions of the Yale faculty have been seduced by the “better war” myth — the notion that to win wars of occupation inside the Muslim World, the trick is to put the right general in charge and tweak the tactics of counterinsurgency with clever political science theories that win hearts and minds? I don’t know what I find more distressing: Yale’s willingness to offer such a course or students’ willingness to take it. I just hope that the course finds its Bradley Manning —...
24 Oct A Short History of the War Crime of Collective Punishment
...or through administrative measures, are prohibited.” International Criminal Law The idea that imposing collective punishment could be criminal under international law dates back to the 1919 Report Submitted to the Preliminary Conference of Versailles by the Commission on Responsibility of the Authors of the [First] War and on Enforcement of Penalties. The report includes “collective penalties” in its list of “violations of the laws and customs of war” that should incur individual criminal responsibility. The indictment at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (IMT) later alleged that “[t]he Germans pursued...17 Jul Aaron Zelinsky on the Israel-Hezbollah Swap
in Beirut . There are four aspects of this exchange which should trouble Secretary Ban. First, Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Goldwasser and Regev, and their subsequent incommunicado detention, violated the laws of war. U.N Resolution 1559 clearly delineates the international border between Israel and Lebanon , which was unlawfully breached in an act of aggression by Hezbollah. The use of the soldier’s bodies as bargaining chips further supports Hezbollah’s violation of international law. Second, Hezbollah’s demands for the release of Kuntar and his fellow terrorists in exchange for the bodies of...
11 Dec Western Sahara: Developing Natural Resources by Forward-Planning Foreign Investments Extra-Territorial Protection
[Danilo Ruggero Di Bella is a lawyer at Bottega Di Bella .] The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic or Western Sahara is one of the seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs) that remain yet to be decolonized, according to Chapter XI of the UN Charter. Originally, a Spanish protectorate who proclaimed its independence in 1976, Western Sahara has been recognized as a State by several countries. However, two third of its territory are under Morocco’s occupation, whereas in theory Spain can still be regarded as the “administering Power” mandated with a wide range...
15 Jan Symposium: A Commentary on Complex Conflict Situations
[Susan Breau is a Professor of Law and the Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Victoria.] Kubo Mačák’s book Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law represents an important contribution to international law scholarship. The comprehensive discussion of the conditions in which a non-international armed conflict (hereafter NIAC) may evolve into an international armed conflict (hereafter IAC) is particularly pertinent with the emergence in the late 20th and early 21st century of so many complex conflict situations such as Bosnia, the Great Lakes conflict, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria....10 Mar Mea Culpa Regarding Israel’s Attacks on Hezbollah in 2006
...Nicaragua) was that there was no right of self-defence against a non-state actor whose attacks were not in some way attributable to a state. As for Caroline, I'll simply repeat what the International Law Commission said in its ASR Commentary (p. 196): 'The Caroline incident of 1837, though frequently referred to as an instance of self-defence, really involved the plea of necessity at a time when the law concerning the use of force had a quite different basis than it now has.” Kevin Jon Heller Another good article discussing the...
04 Apr Equality and Non-Discrimination in International Arbitration: Recent Developments in the English Context
United Kingdom’s primary anti-discrimination law. While amendments designed to increase diversity in arbitration should be welcomed, the wording, function, and consequences of any anti-discrimination provision governing arbitral appointments merit careful consideration. Such an examination is particularly germane given the novelty of the proposed obligation, which would have no equivalent in other major arbitral jurisdictions (see, for instance, the UNCITRAL Model Law, Singapore Arbitration Act, Swedish Arbitration Act, and Chapter 12 of the Swiss Federal Act on Private International Law). This post explores some of those issues, both with a specific...