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

06 Mar

brief were mentioned by name in the oral argument. The Goldsmith brief was not primarily about extraterritoriality – it was much more about whether this was international law as such, or instead some kind of well-intentioned but nonetheless faux-international law committed to the hands of US courts. (I have sometimes referred to it here at Opinio Juris as the “law of the hegemon” which US district courts have been persuaded by ATS plaintiffs’ lawyers, mistakenly in my view, to regard as “international law.”) This then combines with a general worry...
06.03.12 | |

14 Jul

composed of international treaties, international customs, and general principles of law and judicial decisions can only be utilized as a subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law rather than as an actual source of law. However, the U.S. may again make use of the gap between the understanding shared by small group of legal experts and the general public’s misunderstanding of international law so as to label China’s non-recognition of the award as non-compliance with international law. In fact, neither the U.S. nor the Philippines has much credibility...
14.07.16 | |

28 Mar

international law in any case. The assassination ban does not include lawful acts of self-defense. Consider again the Koh speech on this topic. It too emphasizes that the ban is to be understood as not including lawful self-defense: [U]nder domestic law, the use of lawful weapons systems—consistent with the applicable laws of war—for precision targeting of specific high-level belligerent leaders when acting in self-defense or during an armed conflict is not unlawful, and hence does not constitute “assassination.” (Emphasis added.) This is one of several places in which the Koh...
28.03.10 | |

23 Aug

[Zinaida Miller is Professor of Law & International Affairs at Northeastern University.] In his wide-ranging exploration, Gerry Simpson demonstrates the fundamental tensions experienced within international law and by international lawyers as they simultaneously embrace and distance themselves from the individuals, sites, histories, modes of violence, and narratives at the center of their work. To approach international law through the sentimental, Simpson suggests, allows him to understand it not only through the lenses of literature, emotion, and sensibility but as a “life lived” by people with professional and personal preoccupations and...
23.08.23 | |

13 Aug

[Elizabeth Stubbins Bates is a PhD candidate in Law at SOAS, University of London.] States must disseminate international humanitarian law (IHL) as widely as possible, and integrate it into programmes of military instruction. These obligations exist in international and non-international armed conflict (with differences between treaty and customary international law for the latter) and are among the few IHL duties on states in peace-time. International humanitarian law typically applies only during armed conflict or belligerent occupation. This post tackles the assumption that simply disseminating or teaching IHL is sufficient to...
13.08.13 | |

08 Feb

the similarities and differences between Chinese and Russia claims about international law? Roberts contrasts the insularity of Russian educational and publication practices with the remarkably cosmopolitan approach of Chinese international lawyers, as indicated by both where they go to school and where (and in which language) they publish. Do these differences make a difference in what Russian and Chinese specialists say about international law? The recently published joint principles on the promotion of international law suggest substantial overlap in the Sino-Russo approach to big-picture issues in general international law. Some...
08.02.18 | |

21 Sep

in International Criminal Law: Peace and Justice, the International Criminal Court, Issues of Universal Jurisdiction Migration and Dislocation: Refugees, Migrant Workers, Internally Displaced Persons Armed Conflict, International Law, and Human Rights Asia, Regional Arrangements and Free Trade Agreements (including comparative studies of regionalism, regionalism and security arrangements) Transnational Litigation and Arbitration in Asia Intellectual Property and International Law The Effect of Treaties and Foreign Law in Domestic Courts in Asia The Contribution of Asian Judges and Jurists to International Law Asia and Third World Approaches to International Law International Law...
21.09.10 | |

09 May

the response” (p. 76) or breach their political authority in responding to international crises.  The Supremacy of Law  Whether the constitutional tradition of the United States recognizes the supremacy of international treaty law over domestic laws is a matter of intellectual contestation and legal dispute. Since the 1790s, the U.S. Supreme Court has relied upon and incorporated the international legal doctrine into domestic case law. The more recent “internationalist” turn of the Court, however, has generated political controversy and raised largely unsubstantiated fears over the irreversible diminution of U.S. sovereignty. ...
09.05.22 | |

02 Sep

Movement and its Nepalese roots which rarely finds mention, even in the Asian context. While the videos ignore our contribution to international law, the students come forth eagerly to uncover them. A major challenge when teaching international law is that students view law instrumentally and pragmatically, preferring to study more domestic law on account of their seemingly tangible impact. The hesitance of students towards the study of international law that Professor Antony Anghie speaks of is pervasive in Nepal as well. To show how international law takes the shape of...
02.09.20 | |

21 Nov

of Liam’s book that bears the title of the book is in fact a discussion of “law beyond the state”. Liam begins from the much neglected short chapter on international law in Hart’s The Concept of Law, where Hart actually uses international law as an example for the proposition that centralized enforcement and interpretation are not essential elements of a legal system. What is essential is a certain level of systemic integration and coherence, and here Liam faces head on the so-called “fragmentation” of international law. He writes: “At the...
21.11.14 | |

23 Nov

(As a note, the law developed by 18th-century Prize courts, perhaps the highest profile law of nations in 1789, often bears a much closer resemblance to the sort of transnational/international common law described in the prior post, than to a modern customary international law described by Oppenheim.) If international law has developed to include new forms of law, including area-specific common law, then these forms should be as relevant to the ATS as customary international law would be. More importantly, recognizing that the jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals represents a...
23.11.11 | |

22 Mar

drugs, pay your taxes on them.” No one, I think, would argue that crack taxes are valid only if the state is willing to decriminalise the sale of narcotics. But that is what Murray’s argument requires, if we apply it to domestic law — and I see no reason why why international and domestic law should differ in terms of the “regulation requires authorisation” rule. Even if there is a reason to treat international law and domestic law differently in terms of Murray’s rule, IHL itself both prohibits and regulates...
22.03.17 | |