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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

29 May

...‘endorsed by the ICRC’. Therefore, while specifically tasked with reporting their actions in relation to their legal obligations, States often refer to activities that have been undertaken, not by them, but by the International Red Cross movement. In these instances, the states have never formally relegated their obligations to the International Red Cross movement. Even if they had, they would still be under an obligation to monitor and possibly regulate that actor, and make sure to meet their own obligations in the end. In the case of missing persons, one...
29.05.25 | and |

09 May

[Markus Wagner is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong. This post is part of our New Technologies and the Law in War and Peace Symposium .] The question of how law relates to technological innovation is far from new. For the most part, law has played catchup to technological developments – both in the civilian and military realm. While digital technologies are not exactly new, we are in the midst of a qualitative leap in how computational decision-making will shape our lives. Whether law merely follows technological...
09.05.19 | |

06 Jul

[Nico Krisch, Professor of International Law, Hertie School of Governance; currently Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.] This post is part of the Leiden Journal of International Law Vol 25-2 symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Tom de Boer’s review of my recent book, Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law, presents not only a careful analysis, but also a direct challenge to its normative thrust. This gives me an opportunity to defend and clarify my views, and I am...
06.07.12 | |

31 Oct

alone from the U.S. could not have done this. Now UN member States are required to assist in the investigation. If Syria persists in stonewalling, then UN member States may soon be required to have sanctions against Syria. But still, isn’t this less direct than the U.S. going in and trying a little regime change? Well, yes, but the point is that what sometimes seems to be the most direct method (hey guys, let’s topple a government!) can be the least effective. Rather, here we see the role of consensus...
31.10.05 | |

22 Sep

Martin Lederman Thanks very much for that very thoughtful response, Deborah. I agree with almost all of it. As to the value of requiring a congressional vote, I tend to think the principal reason for that constitutional requirement is to prevent a President from making a horrible decision unilaterally, when unable to convince one or both houses, or the people, of its wisdom. Syria 2013 is a fine example of where the constitutional condition made a world of difference; regardless of whether one thinks the U.S. should have attacked Syria,...
22.09.16 | |

20 Apr

the real threat. And the US has done absolutely nothing to protect Syrians from conventional weapons — it has simply funnelled even more into the country to support various rebel groups (including some that are allied with al-Qaeda) in their struggle against Assad. The US cares about protecting its own interests in Syria, such as preventing chemical weapons from being used against Americans. (The real message of the completely ineffectual attack.) It does not care about the lives of ordinary Syrians, as the ever mounting death-toll indicates. But let’s put...
20.04.17 | |

10 Feb

Matters in Syria are going from bad to worse. I am sure this won’t do any harm, but it is not going to help either. It will simply give the illusion that the international community is dong something about Syria. Syrian officials suspected of committing or ordering crimes against humanity should face prosecution in the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations human rights office said on Friday. “We believe, and we’ve said it and we’ll keep repeating it, that the case of Syria belongs in the International Criminal Court....
10.02.12 | |

17 Mar

...of Governors that makes the decision on membership is not the collection of the individual votes of IMF’s member states. The member states’ votes are not equal; for instance, the United States’ voting share is approximately 17% while Ukraine’s is approximately 0.6 %. On the other hand, the recent admission of South Sudan as the 193rd member state of the United Nations has left little doubts as to its statehood status. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the country to the “community of nations.” Collective non-recognition impedes a secessionist entity’s...
17.03.14 | |

17 Sep

...the decolonization context. Second, the right to self-determination in most instances authorizes a people to exercise its right to internal self-determination, which is typically reflected in a right to form a regional government and/or have other cultural, linguistic, and religious rights respected by the mother state. The right to self-determination, outside of the decolonization context, may lead to the secessionist type of external self-determination only in extreme instances where the mother state chooses to completely disrespect the people’s right to internal self-determination. According to the Canadian Supreme Court in the...
17.09.14 | |

09 Mar

[Remy Jorritsma (LL.M.) is a lecturer and teacher at the Department of International and European Law of Maastricht University.] This contribution intends to demonstrate that Ukraine and Russia are involved in an international armed conflict, triggering the application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). In particular, this post explores two relevant issues: the question of valid consent, and the legal qualification of the recent military hostilities. In the Security Council meeting of 1 March 2014 the representative of Russia asserted that [the Prime Minister of Crimea] went to the...
09.03.14 | |

09 Mar

...against premature recognition and foreign-installed regimes) — the internationally authoritative criterion for an apparatus’s standing as the State’s government (Roth, at 30). First, it should be noted that the “effective control” doctrine conforms to the Montevideo criteria, according to which international personality is found in a territorially coherent political community under the long-term effective control of an independent government (Roth, at 7). Moreover, granting the effective government the legitimacy to act in the international arena stems from the effective government’s capability to fulfill its international obligations (UN Doc. S/1466). Accordingly,...
09.03.14 | |