Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
06 Aug Azerbaijan v. Armenia before the European Court of Human Rights: The Protection of Property Rights in Occupied Territories
...Georgia (para 145-222), however, it fell short of comprehensively assessing Russia’s formal and informal occupation policies. In this context, the Court needs a new perspective and framework to deal with the protection of property rights under military occupation. In this author’s view, the Court should treat massive and systematic property rights violations under military occupation differently from other cases. According to the International Red Cross, transformative and prolonged occupation policy, aside from administering a foreign territory, intends to ‘overhaul the institutional and political structure of the occupied territory, often to...
03 Apr Symposium on Military AI and the Law of Armed Conflict: Bridging the Legal Gap Between Principles and Standards in Military AI – Assessing Australia’s ‘System of Control’ Approach
...‘system of control’ is proposed to operate with respect to the adoption and use of MAI, this post will also consider legal challenges and some key risks and benefits of adopting such an approach. It ultimately concludes that this system has utility in furthering the conceptual approach to the meaningful human control of AWS, albeit with need for further refinement. What is the ‘System of Control’? The system of control offers a methodology to operationalise legal concepts and ensure levels of human control as mandated by law. Separate considerations regarding...
25 Jul Three Aspects of the Relationship Between IHL and the Convention in Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea)
a forum for the resolution of general international law questions. Hence it adopts this ‘reader’s approach’ of applying IHL with the caveat that its fundamental implicit assumption that Crimea is occupied should be relegated to the legal value of obiter dictum when it comes to the ‘the issues pertaining to Crimea’s status under international law’ (para 919). This approach can be translated as a relinquishment of authority to other international courts (ICC and ICJ) or other international institutions such as the UN (para 918). The Court’s approach, which applies IHL...09 Jan Is the EU Adopting a Double-Standards Approach toward Israel and the Palestinian Territories? (Part 2)
[Lorenzo Kamel, Ph.D., is a Research Fellow at Bologna University’s History Department and a Visiting Fellow (2013/2014) at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.] My previous post analyzed the EU’s approach towards Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara. This post will focus on the Palestinian Territories and the EU’s approach towards Israel’s policies in the area. The Palestinian Territories represent a “sui generis case” among most of the “occupations” currently in place in different parts of the world. Not only in consideration of how long this occupation has been prolonged,...
30 Apr Beyond Territoriality: Symposium on Jurisdictional “Hooks” for (Extraterritorial) Human Rights Obligations – Why We Need a Firm Justificatory Basis for Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations and How We Could Get There
question in concrete cases. And Why Does It Matter? From an abstract point of view, the problem of extraterritorial human rights obligations illustrates how societal transformations—be it increased mobility, globalization, or new technologies—challenge traditional frameworks, paradigms, and concepts of law. In addressing these challenges, an interdisciplinary approach is needed, which allows a comprehensive perspective on the approach law takes. The aim must be to substantiate, from an ethical perspective, universal obligations in the framework of positive law. The questions behind the extraterritorial applicability are not new ones—the distinction between ‘insiders’...
23 Jan Symposium: Internationalized Armed Conflicts—Four Concluding Thoughts
my opening post and in more detail in the book itself, once a conflict has been internationalized, it becomes subject to the law of IAC (pp. 24–28). Hence, if a person in such a conflict were to fall outside of the scope of that body of law, the law of NIAC would not provide them with a “safety net” to fall on because this latter set of rules would not apply at all. For all these reasons, I remain of the view that the allegiance-based approach is an essential safeguard...05 May Jus Post Bellum Symposium: Jus Post Bellum–The Value of an Interpretive Conception
[James Gallen is a Lecturer in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University.] Jus Post Bellum: Mapping the Normative Foundations provides an important assessment of the potential of international law to shape post-conflict societies in a space of competing and fragmented debates. I agree with Eric de Brabandere’s contribution to this symposium that if jus post bellum is to add real value, it must demonstrate an advantage beyond existing approaches in areas such as peace-building or transitional justice. However, I am more optimistic that distinctive value can...
12 Jul Reparations for War in Ukraine: A Harm-Based Approach
chronic pain or disability. A Harm-based Approach A harm-based approach would have three advantages over crime/violation specific approaches: eligibility; recognition; and avoidance or mitigation of secondary victimisation. With regards to eligibility, a crime or violation approach would make reparations too restrictive and arbitrarily excluded victims who have suffered similar harms, only their perpetrators’ intent or circumstances differed. We can see this through four examples. First a farmer in a tractor working on his land triggers an anti-tank mine and has his legs blown off. In this instance it may be...
16 May Not a Leg to Stand on: Assessing the European Court of Human Rights’ Divergent Approach to Standing in the KlimaSeniorinnen and Cannavacciuolo Cases
applicants, who no longer need to prove a direct causal link between their individual circumstances and local pollution (Cannavacciuolo, paras. 390-392). Harm can be circumscribed to a specific group of municipalities that have endured the State’s neglectful waste disposal practices for decades. Every individual living in these ‘specially affected’ municipalities is granted automatic ‘victim status’ and no longer needs to prove any specific ailments caused by the pollution. The appeal to such clear-cut approaches is undeniable, and consistent with the Court’s case-law (Cordella, paras. 100-109). For once, a formalistic approach...
04 Feb ICC and Palestine Symposium: Mind the Gap– The ‘Palestine Situation’ before the ICC
does not transfer sovereignty under international law The second issue to consider is whether the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, established with the events of 1967 and continuing to the present day can corroborate Israeli claims to those parts. This can be answered conclusively by drawing on International Humanitarian Law as encapsulated in a maxim attributed to Oppenheim: ‘there is not an atom of sovereignty in the authority of the occupying power’. Based on this assessment, even a protracted, transformative occupation, which conceals the...