Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

The contributions in the symposium this past week have brought up multiple issues and perspectives, pointing to challenges in the quest for justice and accountability for the Rohingya, and the role of international law. Rather than go over what has been highlighted already, here are a few reflections, linked to the international legal developments and the wider context. There is little doubt as to the need for justice and accountability for the atrocities committed against the Rohingya, and that there have been important international legal developments in the past year....

...Whack-A-Mole Without a Mallet?” In lieu of a response from Maxwell, who is currently unavailable, John Dehn provides a response to some of the issues raised by Meyer. Finally, the symposium ends with a comment by Andrew Altman on Fernando Tesón’s chapter, “Targeted Killing in War and Peace: A Philosophical Analysis,” followed by a response from Tesón. Thank you to the editors at Opinio Juris for this opportunity. All Opinio Juris readers are welcome to use the comment section to respond to any of the arguments raised in the symposium....

[Rocío Lorca is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the University of Chile Law School] The papers in the recent ‘After Critique’ symposium move between critique and possibility regarding the role of international criminal law as an instrument of justice. Natalie Hodgson, for example, gives us good reasons to value international criminal law. Not as a grandiose mechanism that will deliver on the promise of holding power to account but as a tool that could help in this endeavor by creating awareness of the crimes of the powerful and...

...dynamics, the Court has unwittingly become enmeshed in national and regional politics. Clark concludes that, although the ICC describes its work in terms of complementarity between international and national justice responses to atrocity crimes, the ICC’s fundamental distance from African societies has produced negative effects both for the Court and the countries where it intervenes. We have invited several scholars and practitioners to discuss Phil Clark’s arguments and conclusions. Their contributions will be followed by the author’s response. We are grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting this symposium. Phil Clark...

not be able to read along or participate. Thus, after talking it over with a few of my co-bloggers, we’re postponing the symposium for 1 week. So, instead of tomorrow, we’ll start next Thursday (Nov. 8) and run the symposium thru the following Monday (Nov. 12). So tune in next Thursday when we’ll begin a conversation on various questions of treaty law and practice, including (a) reservations; (b) dynamic and evolutionary treaty interpretation; (c) the new functions treaties perform; and (d) the role of new actors in the treaty-making process....

[Phil Clark is a Professor of International Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. An Australian by nationality but born in Sudan, Dr Clark is a political scientist specialising in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, particularly questions of peace, truth, justice and reconciliation. This is the final post in our symposium on his book,  Distant Justice: The Impact of the International Criminal Court on African Politics .] I am immensely grateful to Patryk Labuda and Thijs Bouwknegt for organising this symposium, to...

...the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on “Current levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms” (the Report). As the first document formally adopted by the Human Rights Council (HRC) on the issue of gender balance in UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures, the Report offers a clear roadmap for States, the UN, and other actors to achieve gender equality. It also constitutes an important precedent to be followed by other institutions imparting international justice. The Report is the main theme of this symposium, where internationally-renowned...

for the thoughtful contributions from Bonnie Docherty, Tyler Giannini, Robin Kundis Craig, Siobhan McInerney-Lankford, and JB Ruhl, scholars who have shaped academic discourse around climate change and human rights. We also would like to thank Matt Christiansen, who organized this symposium for YJIL. We’ve enjoyed receiving these thought-provoking reactions to our article and believe they warrant at least a brief response. As we conceded in our introduction to this symposium, there remain significant challenges in addressing global issues such as climate change through a human rights framework. Nevertheless, we continue...

...on Guantanamo were released following trial, pursuant to a permanent injunction granted by Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. of the Eastern District of New York. “Although the [U.S. government] defendants euphemistically refer to its Guantánamo operation as a ‘humanitarian camp,’” Judge Johnson wrote, “the facts disclose that it is nothing more than an H.I.V. prison camp presenting potential public health risks to the Haitians held there.” This Opinio Juris Symposium just concluded reveals that, even decades after Sale ended, its story keeps repeating. In particular, as the excellent contributions to this...

...international law, humanitarian practice, diplomacy and peacekeeping, and to forge greater coherence. The full spectrum of civilian protection, however, may be too much to cover in a brief symposium, and we chose to focus discussion on a highly topical but rarely discussed (from a legal perspective) issue: the protection of civilians by peacekeepers. This is topic particularly important to me in work on peacekeeping, though everything in this symposium is written in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. The Security Council first...

This week, along with Völkerrechtsblog we are thrilled to co-host a symposium on Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller’s latest edited volume, Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories (OUP 2021). Scholars and practitioners who will be contributing include: Adeel Hussain, Ntina Tzouvala, Doreen Lustig, Vidya Kumar, Kanad Bagchi, Marina Veličković and Hirofumi Oguri. The symposium will close with a rejoinder by the editors. From the publisher: This book poses a question that is deceptive in its simplicity: could international law have been otherwise? Today, there is hardly...

...reason that we invited a few scholars and practitioners to reflect on the themes covered by the book. We also invited Oumar Ba to respond to the observations of the contributors. We are very grateful to the contributors and to Oumar Ba for participating in this symposium despite the very disruptive effect that the global COVID-19 pandemic has had on professional and personal lives. We are also grateful to OpinioJuris for hosting this symposium. We hope that this symposium will stimulate enriching reflections on the themes covered by the book....