Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
07 Mar Co-Opting Universal Jurisdiction? A Gendered Critique of the Prosecutorial Strategy of the German Federal Public Prosecutor in Response to the Return of Female ISIL Members: Part II
...those that support the aims of the organization from within, and did not “just” participate in daily life by looking after their families and potentially pursuing an ordinary occupation. Interestingly, Sibel H., lived in the same area occupied by ISIL as Mine K. and Peter Frank, the Head of the Office of Federal Public Prosecutor, remarked that investigations against Sibel H. have no yet been concluded, suggesting that another arrest warrant may be sought from the Federal Supreme Court in the future on the basis of Section 9 (1) CCAIL....16 Dec “If Palestine is a State”: the Two-State Solution and Palestine’s Position in the Westphalian Myth
...and inescapable unit of analysis in international law is the sovereign Westphalian nation-state. In this mythos, a system of European states, ravaged by religious wars, gathered in Westphalia, the “holy birthing place” of international law, to produce treaties that “above all set out to protect states’ independence from intervention by outsiders”. This key idea of nascent religious tolerance (“cuius regio, eius religio”, or roughly, “to each kingdom, its own religion”) therefore fundamentally changed the world leading to what we know as the Westphalian Tradition in international law: each state protects...08 May Can the Arab League “Sue” Israel in the ICJ?
Here is an interesting but ultimately futile act: Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo on Thursday decided to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice against the Israeli occupation government for its drive to Judaize Jerusalem. A diplomatic source at the Arab League said that the ministers had three issues on their agenda; dangers engulfing Jerusalem, discussion of the report by the committee commissioned to investigate Israeli war crimes during the war on Gaza and to reach a common Arab stand towards the latest developments in the Arab-Israeli...29 Nov New Island, New Nation?
...State (this is not to repeat the old but erroneous statement that a ship is a 'perambulating province' of its flag State), but this is clearly not true of a new island. And if there is no territorial jurisdiction, there might be no jurisdiction at all, if, say, the offender's State of nationality does not claim jurisdiction on the basis of active personality in its domestic law (English law springs to mind), and there is no other title of jurisdiction. A fascinating post, indeed. Non liquet In my constant effort...
08 Mar Debunking the Role of International Law in the Ukrainian Conflict
steps to align its domestic law and framework with international criminal law standards (including the adoption of Bill 2689 (which still needs Presidential approval), and the creation of a War Crimes Unit and investigative unit), has already seen some conflict-related crimes convictions, and can, in principle and depending on how the conflict develops, continue its investigations and prosecutions. International law may not itself deter Putin from continuing his invasion in Ukraine, but the international community (with the support of the Ukrainian government) is harnessing international law to respond to the...
16 Dec Gaza, Genocide, and the UN General Assembly (Part 2)
law (jus cogens) Mr. Dire Tladi (73rd session of the International Law Commission (2022) (2022 ILC Report) suggests that action pursuant to a UNGA resolution on genocide is collective, but that states still must comply with law on countermeasures. Conclusion 19 recognises an obligation on all states to bring to an end ‘serious breaches’ of international law. A ‘serious’ breach of a jus cogens norm is one that involves a ‘gross or systemic failure by the responsible state to fulfil that obligation’. The 2022 ILC Report provides (p. 72): international law...
25 Oct Framing Critique, on Celluloid and Paper
...“noble savages” in the Americas. As Anghie recalls, international law’s traditional approaches “characterize Vitoria as extending and applying existing juridical doctrines developed in Europe to determine the legal status of the Indians.” Thus, through colonialism, international law allegedly created a common language for Western and non-Western communities to speak to each other. As stated in the 2012 (!!) edition of Ian Brownlie’s Principles, international law “travelled with the colonizers to the Americas, to Asia, to Africa and eventually to Oceania.” In this story, the system “gradually came to incorporate other...
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...