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Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation

30 Aug

...The question though is, what exactly is the flaw in the Obama policy? Is it not being tough enough on Sudan? Or is it being too tough? Kristof can’t seem to decide. His complaint seems to be that Obama is unengaged. (This seems to be a common complaint about Obama, and I think it is unfair. I am not an Obama supporter, but he does have a lot on this plate right now). In any event, I think we can all agree that the goal here is to prevent the...
30.08.10 | |

15 Apr

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 60 people in an attack on a village in northeast Nigeria, while a separate attack killed eight people at a teacher training college. Nigeria will mount a massive security operation to protect a World Economic Forum on Africa planned in Abuja next month, following the bomb attack by suspected Islamist militants on the capital’s outskirts on Monday. A militia leader accused of kidnap, rape and cannibalism has surrendered alongside...
15.04.14 | |

08 Jan

...still have his Georgia H.O.P.E. scholarship if the United States doesn't successfully have him returned. There are some dishonest people in the US Office of Children's Issues who should be fired for their egregious abuse of power, efforts to obstruct law enforcement, and . . .. I would love to be interviewed regarding this matter and to provide documentation on the Sweeney-Villa: Abduction in Fiuggi Case. There is no excuse for creating a Fake Hague and for telling law enforcement not to follow the constitutional law of the land. Nor...
08.01.07 | |

19 Mar

country—Tajikistan—provides for less involvement by a part of the legislature in treaty-making than in domestic lawmaking and makes the results of that process automatically a part of domestic law. To explain how the United States came to have such a haphazard and unusual system for making international law, I trace the history of the two tracks of international lawmaking back to the Founding. The current system rests on rules and patterns of practice developed in response to specific contingent events—events that for the most part have little or no continuing...
19.03.08 | |

11 Mar

...consulate simply because I had the presence of mind to hire a lawyer and refuse to make a statement to the police. And if incarcerated, I would want them to make their statutorily required prison visits to me as well! John Corbett Peggy, In this case, it appears that the defendant chose not to hire an attorney. Given that fact, the question then seems to become whether the defendant's failure to demand an attorney can be seen as the functional equivalent of a waiver of his/her right to contact and...
11.03.08 | |

11 Aug

[Bart L. Smit Duijzentkunst recently received his PhD in international law from the University of Cambridge. He will be teaching international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in the 2015 fall semester.] When, in December 2013, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) opened its gates to thousands of civilians fleeing violence in the wake of an alleged coup, it also opened a new chapter on the UN’s commitment to the protection of civilians. Two decades earlier UN troops had received vague orders to...
11.08.15 | |

23 Jan

receive. That can’t plausibly be an outcome we seek. Perhaps most troubling in this line of argument, Mr. Bellinger asserts that the bargain the Geneva Conventions strike may be summarized as follows: “Ignore the laws of war, and you cannot seek the status given to lawful combatants.” Because the Taliban violated the law of war, they are not entitled to the protection of the law of war. This is something like a circular argument. The Taliban no doubt committed war crimes; accordingly they should be prosecuted for these violations under...
23.01.07 | |

22 May

...who have NEVER been afforded the protections or rights of Enemy Prisoners of War under the law of armed conflict, OR the right to contest their U.S. military-assigned status, who are being treated by the American judiciary as LEGITIMATELY-defined POWs or non-POW detainees with a lawfully-assigned status, despite their never having been able to dispute it in front of a "competent tribunal," as clearly required by international law. Even the belatedly-ongoing habeas hearings in the D.C. District are ignoring the violations of the law represented by the absence of Article...
22.05.10 | |

14 Jul

...lawyer’s job is to provide analysis to a client, in whose shoes the lawyer by definition does not him or herself stand. The client always has the ability to accept or reject the analysis. The idea that the existence of an alternative buyer is assumed is erroneous, and does not derive from the analysis, or anything contained in it. The suggestion made is not that the real estate transactional analysis is inaccurate, but that it is irrelevant. The suggestion is that consideration is not required, and that Israel should sell...
14.07.09 | |

08 Mar

so. Status-based immunity. Under international law, status-based immunity covers the current-holder of particular offices, generally limited to the so-called troika of head of state, head of government, and minister of foreign affairs. Conduct-based immunity. Under international law, conduct-based immunity covers officials not entitled to status-based immunity and to all former officials. (2) What?—i.e. what acts are covered by the particular immunity at issue? State immunity. Under international law, state immunity covers public acts (acta jure imperii) but not private acts (acta jure gestionis). Status-based immunity. Under international law, status-based immunity...
08.03.13 | |

22 Jan

or state). The U.S. has also had treaties with free cities and other entities, some of which had govts. Under the laws of war, it would be appropriate to recognize that there are two govts. presently in Syria, that a belligerncy occurs (which is also an international armed conflict to which all of the customary laws of war apply). Also, you seem to assume the every state that has recognized the entity that is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people has in no way, directly or impliedly, recognized that...
22.01.13 | |

23 Sep

...compared to now. I am wondering if when we are talking about ‘the prolonged implosion of governmental structures and the ensuring incapacity of the government to provide political goods to its internal and external constituencies’ we should speak in terms of levels of dysfunctionality of the state as opposed to failure. It focuses our attention on the functions that are not being met and the solutions to addressing those functional deficiencies. I sense with failed a "paternal' even "neo-colonialist" vision or weight to the words that is problematic. Best, Ben...
23.09.10 | |