Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
08 Feb East Timor Spurns an International Court
East Timor announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement with Indonesia to set up a Commission of Truth and Friendship to investigate human rights abuses and crimes committed during Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor. While somewhat controversial among human rights groups who sought a Rwanda or Yugoslav-style ad hoc tribunal, the East Timorese foreign minister explained that: We believe that the best form of justice for the victims is that the truth be acknowledged and that the perpetrators — whether as individuals or collectively — acknowledge their responsibility...28 Jul Weekend Roundup: July 21 – 27, 2012
...also puzzled by a statement of the OTP that the ICC does not have jurisdiction because Rwanda is not a party even though the alleged aiding and abetting took place in the DRC, which is a party. Duncan Hollis argued that the Aurora shootings are unlikely to change US positions during negotiations of the Arms Trade Treaty. In a guest post, Solon Solomon wrote about the dynamic interpretation of the law of occupation. A second guest post, by Annie Gell, discussed the practical lessons to be learned from the recently...17 Jan New Book Project on the Nuremberg Military Tribunals
scholarly attention to the NMT is both perplexing and unfortunate, because the Tribunals’ judgments have played a critical role in the development of international criminal law. Most often, their jurisprudence was very progressive: holding that aggressive war does not require actual armed conflict (Ministries); insisting that international humanitarian law limits military necessity “even if it results in the loss of a battle or even a war” (Hostage); delinking crimes against humanity from war crimes and crimes against peace (Einsatzgruppen) and recognizing genocide as a crime against humanity (Justice); developing the...03 Jul Permissible Ruse or Perfidy — the Colombian Hostage Rescue
...conspiracies) in violation of the laws of war [10 U.S.C. § 950v(b)(15), (16)]. Therefore, it may in fact be a rule of CIL under the MCA as well. I raised the complexities of the related issues of perfidy and "unlawful combatant" status in my article regarding Hamdan's military commissions case at J Int Criminal Justice 2008 6: 371-383 (May issue). The definition of perfidy in both AP I and the MCA, as discussed below, relies on 'protection under rules of international law.' These international rules do not discuss "protections" owed...
24 Feb What Images Can Tell Us About International Law
[Tania Ixchel Atilano, born in Mexico City, has a Juris Doctor from the Humboldt University of Berlin. Her research interests lie in the fields of history of international humanitarian law, international criminal law and criminal law. The author kindly thanks Professor Vivianne Weng for her invaluable feedback and comments.] Due to copyright issues, the images discussed have not been reproduced here. A link to view them has been provided within the text. Following the spirit and enthusiasm of starting a new year, I take as inspiration the text by Daniel Ricardo Quiroga...
19 Dec A World in Upheaval, International Law Out of Frame
[Nikolas M. Rajkovic is Chair of International Law at Tilburg University, and Senior Faculty at the Institute for Global Law and Policy of Harvard Law School. He is the author of Off the Map: A Critical Geography of International Law (forthcoming CUP, 2026) and co-editor of The Power of Legality (CUP, 2016).] International law today confronts a landscape that increasingly resists its inherited bearings. Heat domes and geoengineering schemes, Russia’s occupation of eastern Ukraine, Gaza’s devastation, shadow tankers and drone frontiers, climate-driven territorial claims in the Arctic, cyber-attacks on critical...
18 Mar The jus cogens Nature of the Prohibition of Genocide in Sudan v. UAE: A New Case, the Same Old Omission
norm of international law, according to the rules of international responsibility. The logical conclusion is that the legal consequences entailed by it are those enshrined in Article 41 ARSIWA, namely: the duty of cooperation, the duties of non-recognition and not render aid or assistance, and the “other further consequences that a [serious breach] may entail under international law” (Article 41(3)). It is true that the existence a regime of aggravated responsibility in international law remains as a contested topic in the legal debate, but at least the consequences enshrined in...01 Dec When Pacifists Become Hostages
...the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people.” This perspective seems to conflate but for with proximate causation. Third, they do not want ransom payment or armed intervention to rescue them. According to this report, CPT “policies state that ransoms will not be paid for workers taken hostage [and] … its members … do not use armed protection in Iraq, are prepared to die for peace and would eschew the use of violence to...13 May Pre-Order Polakow-Suransky’s New Book on Israel and South Africa
...and Golda Meir vocally opposed apartheid and built alliances with black leaders in newly independent African nations. South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II. But after Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed: they exchanged billions of dollars’ worth of extremely sensitive material, including nuclear technology, boosting Israel’s sagging economy...24 Jun Pax Sinica? China Beats U.S. in European Popularity Contest
...image and that the European public is not thrilled about the idea of China becoming a military rival to the U.S. Moreover, it also reflects the effectiveness of China’s diplomatic and PR machine. But the bottom line: China is not a liberal or democratic country. It is currently imprisoning a lot more people indefinitely in its laogai camps than the U.S. could hope to squeeze into Guantanamo. It has missiles pointed at Taiwan and continues to maintain a quasi-military occupation of Tibet. Oh yeah, they have the death penalty and...