Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

...32 of the VCLT guide interpreters to discovering the common intention of treaty parties. Thus, ordinary meaning, context, preparatory work, and other means of interpretation help interpreters understand the legally correct meaning of a treaty. A detailed analysis of the preparatory work of the Vienna Convention is an appropriate method for a scholarly analysis of the legally correct meaning of Articles 31 and 32 of the VCLT. As I will explain in my two posts for this Symposium, I think all three of Julian’s assumptions are either fundamentally flawed or...

[Darryl Robinson is an Assistant Professor at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law] This post is part of the MJIL 13(1) Symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Much has been written about command responsibility. In my article, I argue that views on the nature of command responsibility have become unnecessarily obscure and convoluted, and that the problem flows from an early misstep in the jurisprudence. If we revisit the first misstep, a simple and elegant solution is available. Famously, early Tribunal jurisprudence concluded...

[Richard Gardiner is a Visiting Professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws] The article which this symposium addresses is important, timely, and elegant. It is an important study because it examines one of the most common misunderstandings about the VCLT provisions on the role of preparatory work in treaty interpretation. It lays to rest the mistaken idea that an interpreter may only consider preparatory work if interpretation of a treaty provision by applying the general rule reveals ambiguity or obscurity, or leads to a result which is manifestly absurd...

This week, we are hosting a symposium on Defining the International Rule of Law: Defying Gravity?, (free access for six months) the latest article from Robert McCorquodale, the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, University of Nottingham, and Barrister, Brick Court Chambers, London. The article was recently published in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly. The article’s abstract: This article aims to offer a definition of the international rule of law. It does this through clarifying the core objectives...

...access (a positive list approach more geared towards letting parties avoid making new commitments in unliberalized sectors). Whether the same outcome would have been achieved in a perfected Coasean framework, we cannot tell; what is certain, however, that it is a compromise between negotiators who were playing the behavioral choice architecture game. *On another note, it is a real pleasure contributing to this online symposium, soon after OJ’s 10th anniversary, not least because I played a small role in what was one of the first OJ online symposia, in 2006....

This week we’re hosting a symposium on both lead articles in the October 2013 edition of the American Journal of International Law. Today and tomorrow, Kofi Kufuor, Solomon Ebobrah and Horace Adjolohoun discuss “A New International Human Rights Court for West Africa: The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice” by Karen Alter, Larry Helfer and Jacqueline McAllister: The Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States has been transformed from an interstate tribunal for resolving disputes over ECOWAS economic rules into a court with far-reaching human rights jurisdiction....

[Marten Zwanenburg is legal counsel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.This post is a part of the Protection of Civilians Symposium.] Let me start by saying that the publication of “Protection of Civilians” is very timely. As Ralph says in his introductory post, this topic is a well-established topic in international law but controversial in practice. The latter is particularly true in the context...

[William Partlett is an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School and a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.] This post is part of the Harvard International Law Journal Volume 53(2) symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. The Democratic Coup d’Etat is an important article. First, and most obviously, this Article carries significant policy implications. The political transformations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa – known as the “Arab Spring” – have presented a wide range of conceptual challenges to policymakers and political...

[Valerie Oosterveld is a Professor at theUniversity of Western Ontario Faculty of Law (Canada) and member of the Canadian Partnership for International Justice. The author wishes to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its research support. This essay was initially prepared at the request of FIU Law Review for its micro-symposium on The Legal Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone by Charles C. Jalloh (Cambridge, 2020). An edited and footnoted version is forthcoming in Volume 15.1 of the law review in spring 2021.] The Special Court for Sierra Leone...

[Marten Zwanenburg is legal counsel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.This post is a part of the Protection of Civilians Symposium.] In this post, I will focus on Mona’s chapter in “Protection of Civilians”, in which she addresses the issue of the use of force by UN peacekeeping operations for the protection of civilians. Mona’s main point is that the mandate to use force...

...(1980, dir. Bruce Beresford), focus on the pressures faced by soldiers can cause them to commit war crimes as well as the kaleidoscope of perspectives on justice that swirl around warfare; others, like Argentina, 1985 (2022, dir. Santiago Mitre), explore how political and social forces can shape a country’s efforts to hold to its own leaders accountable. For this symposium, I’ve chosen to focus on Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), a film that, despite its age, powerfully highlights many of the nuances and complexities surrounding the trial of mass atrocities. Judgment...

[Dr Anastasios Gourgourinis is Lecturer in Public International Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Faculty of Law, and Research Fellow at the Academy of Athens] Let me start by extending a warm thanks to Freya Baetens for her overall care, diligence and patience as the editor of Investment Law within International Law: Integrationist Perspectives, the publication of which is very timely and indeed. I am also grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting this Book Symposium, as well as to Anne van Aaken, who I am privileged to...