Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
24 Jul Guest Post: The Dynamic Law of Occupation: Two Recent Cases from the Middle East
a distinction between the de jure and de facto dynamic interpretation of the law of occupation lies in the needs and rights of the local occupied population. A balance between the interests of the occupying power and the rights of the local population, as the de facto dynamic interpretation of the law of occupation endorses, takes these rights into account. On the contrary, by negating the occupation status itself, the de jure law of occupation dynamic interpretation ends up ignoring the very presence of the occupied population, in essence the...08 Oct Eric Posner Rejects the “Unwilling or Unable” Test!
...is thoroughly discussed in important ATS scholarship; see Tom Lee's article in the Columbia Law Review and particularly Anthony Bellia & Brad Clark's article in Michigan Law Review. There is no doubt in my mind that natural law provided opinio juris for the "civilized nations" that developed international law as we know it today. Indeed, it is probably fair to say that customary law then involved the crystallization of the theorists' assertions regarding natural law rights and obligations through state practice, practice that often carried a sense of opinio juris...03 Oct Guest Post: The International Law Case for Democracy in Hong Kong
of the Drafting of the Basic Law 13(2001). On Xiao see Jimmy Cheung, Basic Law ‘Guardian’ Dies at 78, S. China Morning Post (H.K.), Jul. 16, 2004.) Nor does the text of the Basic Law support Qiang’s argument; the Preamble to the Basic Law states that it was enacted “to ensure the implementation of the basic policies of the [PRC] regarding Hong Kong.” The “basic policies” referred to could only be those set out in Article 3 of, and Annex I to, the Joint Declaration. Implications for the Electoral Reform...24 Nov A Super-Practical Question re Administrative Detention and Human Rights Law
...to the facile simplicity of try-or-release – starting with the question of where this simple mandate arises in human rights law except as what those who regard themselves as “owning” this body of law and its interpretation have concluded is the best on-going policy and assert it as law, a sort of blank check drawn upon the categorical imperative: I would be the last to deny the purity of ‘try-or-release’. So far as I could tell, no substantive part of the State Department’s rather reasonable, lawyerly critique showed up in...08 Apr Let’s Call Killing al-Awlaki What It Is — Murder
not apply. The first is that, if al-Awlaki were killed on the battlefield — i.e., during an armed conflict — US criminal law, including 18 USC 1119, would be displaced by international humanitarian law (IHL). That might be the case, for example, if an American CIA operative killed al-Awlaki in Afghanistan, which qualifies as an international armed conflict. Even in such a situation, however, IHL would protect a CIA operative only if he qualified as a lawful combatant. If he qualified as a lawful combatant, he would possess a combatant’s...
25 Feb The Nature and Implications of Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territory: Part II
and Syria in 1967, that issue determines whether Israel’s occupation could ever be deemed lawful, as that was the context in which the occupation first arose. If the onset of the occupation in 1967 was not a lawful measure of self-defense, then there is no situation in which the occupation could ever be deemed lawful under the jus ad bellum. By contrast, however, if the onset of the occupation was originally justified as part of a defensive response by Israel to Egyptian and Jordanian aggression, then the legality of the...
08 Aug The Trial Judgment in Yekatom and Ngaïssona: A Judgment of Many Firsts Built on Case Management (Part 1)
...is the first Chamber to deal with admissibility issues of Facebook evidence in such an extensive way. This flexibility extended towards the interpretation of substantive law, where the Chambers applied not only a broad reading especially of the law on the modes of liability but also a case-by-case approach that blurred the lines between questions of law and fact. Two case management aspects that may easily be overlooked exemplify how the TC V and staff must have gone the extra mile to handle this case: Despite the almost unfathomable amount...
08 May The Race Ceiling and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Resolution: What the UNGA Vote Reveals About International Law’s Epistemic Community
[Renée Ramona Robinson holds law degrees from Sciences Po, Queen Mary, and Harvard Law. She is a PhD researcher specializing in the paradoxes of international law at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, as well as a creator and lecturer of law modules at Sciences Po Paris.] In March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly voted to recognize the transatlantic slave trade as the greatest crime against humanity in recorded history. The resolution passed. One hundred and twenty-three states voted yes. Three voted no: the United States, Israel, and Argentina. Fifty-two abstained, a...
08 Dec Symposium in Remembrance of Judge Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade: “Above the Will Stands the Conscience” – Antônio Cançado Trindade’s Missionary Jurisprudence
figure of Latin American international law was his vision—his “weltanschauung”, as Andrea Bianchi once put it—of “a humanized international law”, based on the notion of “a new jus gentium”. Cançado Trindade was a jurist who saw international law, or law in general, as a collection of principles that should guide humankind towards peace and human fulfillment, a notion based on natural law and general principles, with jus cogens norms at the center of all debates on international legal obligations. Cançado Trindade’s view of international law was not state-centric, but centered...