Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
24 Oct Remedying UN Abuses by Forcing the Host State’s Hand: Current Case Calls for the Haitian Government to Trigger a Standing Claims Commission
[Frédéric Mégret is an Associate Professor of Law at McGill University Faculty of Law.] On the 26th September, a group of diligent Haitian lawyers headed by human rights defender Patrice Florvilus requested an emergency injunction (“en référé”) before the Tribunal de Première Instance de Port-au-Prince against the State of Haiti, that would compel it to trigger the creation of the standing claims commission, as anticipated by the Status of Forces Agreement in effect with the United Nations since the creation of MINUSTAH in 2004. The goal of triggering such a...
24 Feb Memorandum on the Common Heritage of Mankind and Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (Part I)
[Ríán Derrig is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute of the World Maritime University.Arnulf Becker Lorca is Research Professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School.] This two-part post is the text of a memorandum prepared for delegates in advance of the resumption of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond...
22 Dec Governance in the Grip of Debt
[Jason Beckett is an associate professor of law at the American University in Cairo] Introduction The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) recently released an analysis of Egypt’s proposed budget for 2025-6, titled, “Egypt in the Grip of Debt”. It is a gloomy read, documenting Egypt’s ongoing immiseration, but concludes with a strangely sentimental optimism. “After all, the state’s role is not to help profitable actors further increase their profits.” (EIPR, 26) This, I will argue, is fundamentally untrue. In a neocolonial world gripped by neoliberal ideology, the states’ role...08 Jun Three Quick Thoughts on Zivotofsky
...power as dicta. In a world that is ever more compressed and interdependent, it is essential the congressional role in foreign affairs be understood and respected. For it is Congress that makes laws, and in countless ways its laws will and should shape the Nation’s course. The Executive is not free from the ordinary controls and checks of Congress merely because foreign affairs are at issue. See, e.g., Medellín v. Texas, 552 U. S. 491, 523–532 (2008); Youngstown, 343 U. S., at 589; Little v. Barreme, 2 Cranch 170, 177–179...02 Nov The ICC, the Monetary Gold Principle and the Determination of the Territory of Palestine
[Álvaro Rueda Rodríguez-Vila is a graduate in law (Bachelor, UNED) and in human rights (LL.M., Maastricht University).] In an article published on June 16, 2020, Dapo Akande argued that, assuming that Palestine is a state, the Monetary Gold principle is applicable to the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) in the situation of Palestine as to the determination of the Palestine territory because of the territorial dispute between Palestine and Israel. In his words “A judicial determination by the ICC as to whether particular territory in dispute falls under...01 May NY State Court Rejects DSK’s Immunity Claim
is limited under an annex to that agreement by the Bretton Woods Agreement and IMF Articles, which specifically limit immunity only to official acts. DSK is not entitled to this official acts/functional immunity (as Chimene Keitner argued earlier here), since he was not carrying out official duties during his visit to the Sofitel. The judge did not shy from the customary international law question here, i.e.,DSK’s argument that the Specialized Agency agreement has ripened to a customary norm through which absolute immunity is extended to all international agency heads. Citing...
16 Jul Symposium on PMSCs: AI Broke the Code – The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers and Emerging Technologies
attempt to impose normative order on a chaotic sector. Its seventy provisions addressed the conduct of personnel, the use of force and firearms, detention practices, incident reporting, and internal grievance procedures—grounding much of its orders in the language of both human rights law and humanitarian law. But the ICoC was more than a checklist of operational safeguards. It marked an attempt to reassert law’s relevance in a space where contractual relationships had long displaced public obligations. Cedric Ryngaert once described the Code as an experiment in “the re-entry of the...
13 Aug Emerging Voices: Regrouping for Justice–Could Regional Inter-Governmental Organisations Save International Criminal Justice?
international crimes at the regional level. Additionally, this is a cosmopolitan and secular universalist challenge to classical assumptions of states as the sole subjects and drivers of international law, and an argument for international law as the ‘law of humanity’. This is not an ‘appropriate forum’ argument nor an endorsement of regional mechanisms over global ones. Rather, my argument is that there exists a significant and largely untapped potential in RIGOs to take a direct and active lead in accountability for international crimes at the regional level, and that there...
07 Dec COVID-19 and Africa Symposium: “Jurislimitation” In Litigation In the Context of COVID-19, the New Normal?
...executive during times of crisis and emergency? Or should judges play a greater role in protecting human rights in context of the social and economic devastation wrought by COVID-19? These questions are of importance both in countries experiencing significant COVID-19 transmission rates and those who have not yet experienced the brunt of the pandemic. As former Liberian President has suggested, “Coronavirus anywhere is a threat to people everywhere”. International law and the right to effective remedies International law places obligations on States to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. The...