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

as a bulwark against U.S. power. This means that THERE IS NO SUBSTANTIVE VALUE, really, in the effort to assert "international law." It's the rule of law, at best, for the sake of the rule of law, and at worst, to prevent the U.S. to win a just war. And sadly, it is a pathetic attempt by us, international law professors, to convince others that international law is still relevant. But if President Bush is right (as I think he is, regardless of blunders, etc.) that we are at war...

...the notion of 'domestic law'. The dominant view prior to these developments was that international treaties are superior to all domestic law including the Constitution (and I agree with this view), but the new interpretation is different in that it distinguishes the Constitution and all other law for the purposes of hierarchy. Jordan, I believe the force of law lies in part in its discursive potential. Justinas After justifying Crimea's occupation and annexation within two nights (?) Russia's CC has nothing to do with the law nor its discursive potential....

circumvent national tax laws, governments are thus themselves increasingly engaging in extraterritorialisation, international cooperation, and privatisation in order to distance the exercise of power from the state itself and their obligations under international refugee and human rights law. The response of refugee and human rights law In light of the above, more critical or pessimistic refugee lawyers may be tempted to conclude that international refugee law is either obsolete or so inherently fungible and open to contestation that states are able to justify and validate just about any policy in...

which the occupation arose also ends the occupation itself. As discussed, Israeli belligerent occupation of the Palestinian territories arose in the context of its IACs with Egypt and Jordan, which came to an end through peace agreements concluded in 1979 and 1994, respectively. Under a traditional conception of belligerent occupation, therefore, Israel’s de jure occupation of the Palestinian territories should have terminated alongside those agreements. The critical implication is that if no events since 1967 changed the status of the Palestinian territories as subject to de jure Israeli occupation, the...

force. The law is not the problem, its absence is. The solution: more law. With this framing, the narrative of indifference fulfills a series of important functions. It eases the cognitive dissonances between the war and lawyer’s identities. It legitimizes international law, absconds from its failures, and sustains promises of order and progress through law. III. Verdebout’s intervention partakes in a broader push within the international legal discipline to come to terms with international law’s track-record and its progressive potential. It does so in a way that is not overwhelmed...

law exclude criminal responsibility and lead to acquittal. The elements of the Rome Statute's grounds for excluding criminal responsibility also seem quite similar to the elements of domestic criminal law excuses such as insanity, intoxication, and duress. In light of the similarities between the treatment of individuals in domestic criminal law and international criminal law, international law should consider recognizing excuses for states as well as to individuals. el roam Thanks Arthur for your comment . With all due respect , it is wrong to observe similarity between individual criminality...

true, this would undermine the third account of U.S. exceptionalism I am offering – that the United States is exceptional, by contrast with Europe, because the views of the latter have come to be law. More fundamentally, this account of international law, if accepted, nullifies the entire category of exceptionalist conduct – at least among great states. If international law consists of no more than what the great powers agree on, thus, no great power could ever be “exceptionalist” in its approach to international law. I might ultimately be convinced...

and that international law limits are rarely in play given often stricter domestic limitations, the assertion that international law imposes no limits whatsoever is a minority position. As Professor Alex Mills explains: “Although some international lawyers have questioned the need for a separate category of ‘adjudicative jurisdiction,’ few if any would maintain that adjudicative jurisdiction is unregulated in international law.” The point is not to argue whether the Fourth Restatement is normatively right, but to suggest that the Fourth Restatement does not reflect settled international law, and not international law...

Guzman and Pauwelyn). On almost every topic in international law—from the practical import of customary law to the repayment of “odious debt” to the laws of war—the economic perspective offers important insights into how international law actually works. At last there’s one book to introduce the basic concepts and illustrate their utility. Law students and academics, alike, will welcome Eric Posner and Alan Sykes’ Economic Foundations of International Law. This new book will likely gain most of its readership in law schools, but for scholars the book’s greatest value may...

a “law”?; and 2) what is the best way to enforce that law? Under Hart’s approach, the assumption is that all laws must be enforced in some way because the very nature of “law” is that it must be enforced. Unfortunately numerous courts and commentators have twisted Holmes’ idea to produce the opposite result. They think that courts should simply bypass step one, proceed directly to step two, and ask whether the relevant law explicitly requires judicial enforcement. Under this approach, if the law does not explicitly require judicial enforcement,...

To have your event or announcement featured in next week’s post, please send a link and a brief description (1-2 paragraphs) to ojeventsandannouncements@gmail.com. Calls for Papers ASIL International Criminal Law Interest Group Works-in-Progress Conference: The ASIL International Criminal Law Interest Group will be holding its annual Works-in-Progress Conference in person on May 30, 2025, at Boston University School of Law. Submissions at various stages of development on any topic related to international criminal law broadly construed (including transnational criminal law) are welcome. We also welcome indications of interest from those...

the Mission of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, Ambassador Shekou M. Touray; and Professor Joseph E. Schwartzberg of the University of Minnesota. The panel’s moderator will be Professor Jose Alvarez of Columbia University Law School. On Friday and Saturday, the conference’s venue shifts to Fordham University School of Law, 140 West 62nd Street in New York City. The conference schedule includes thirty-three panels, traversing a wide spectrum of contemporary international law, including international criminal law, human rights law, international environmental law, international economic law, commercial law, and trade law....