Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

[Anthony J. Colangelo is Associate Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law.] I’ll start with a few brief points about why I believe Justice Breyer’s opinion provides a sounder approach and is more legally accurate than the Court’s opinion. Then I will critique the Court’s opinion and, in particular, its extension of a presumption against extraterritoriality to causes of action (as opposed to conduct regulating rules). First, I must say I’m sorry to see Justice Breyer’s view that “just as we have looked to established international...

...Another might be an instance where there is US sovereign complicity in the violation outside of the territorial United States, for instance, where a US or alien subcontractor, acting under U.S. governmental authority or authorization, has violated specific, universal, and obligatory customary international law norms (e.g., Common Article III) by enhanced interrogation techniques employed against an alien plaintiff in a foreign sovereign territory. Finally, perhaps, as with piracy on the high seas, ATS claims may be possible in terra nullius circumstances, such as where acts have occurred in failed states....

Benjamin Davis The question that is unstated in these instant analyses is whether these general comments refer to civil suits or criminal prosecutions also. I would be grateful if persons would speak to that. Given Noriega, it would seem that these discussions would not reach criminal prosecutions at all. Best, Ben Roger Alford Ben, That's a great question. I would assume that individual immunity from criminal prosecution is governed in part by the VCCR, at least with respect to consular officials. Not sure about other government officials. Roger Alford Richard...

...The first of these, however, was not constituted through a Resolution of the League’s Council, like Palestine. Instead, it was constituted through an international treaty, between the UK and the “State of Irak”. Mandatory Iraq, in fact, had a King, Faisal I, and Article 1 of the Treaty of Alliance his government signed with the British was signed “without prejudice to her national sovereignty”. Similarly, the Mandate for Syria and Lebanon established that “[t]he Mandatory shall further enact measures to facilitate the progressive development of Syria and the Lebanon as...

Syria has claimed that anti-government forces carried out the massacre in Houla in order to spur other nations into intervening. The UN and other nations have expressed concern that Syria is on the brink of a sectarian civil war. Russia and the US have been trading accusations about the situation in Syria. Anne-Marie Slaughter at FP posits that Syria is not a problem from hell…but if we don’t act quickly, it will be. A Syrian rebel group is claiming to hold 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria on May 22....

...to Bangladeshi nationality. The Background Bangladesh is entirely foreign to Shamima who is London-born. Yet by the age of 20 she has lost her 3 children and her British nationality. She travelled to Syria in 2015 at the age of just 15, beguiled to be an ISIL bride. After the collapse of the ISIL State she was detained in the Al-Hawl camp in north-east Syria under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Front. Her two elder children had died sometime earlier and her third, a son born in the...

support for the rebel cause has waned in direct proportion to the increasing number of reports emerging from Syria of rebel atrocities. And so has support within Syria itself. If a vote were taken of Syrians now, it is by no means clear that the rebels would prevail over the regime. Professor Thakur then refers to the existence of the Sunni-Shi’a split in the country and in the region. I don’t think I missed this one but may not have made it as explicit as it should be. The tragedy...

[Alonso Illueca is a lawyer and adjunct Professor of International Law at Universidad del Istmo] On July 12, 2019, Panama announced its decision to withdraw its flag from any vessel violating “sanctions and international legislation”. This decision resulted in the removal of 59 ships (mostly tankers) from Panama’s shipping fleet due to their link with the Islamic Republic of Iran (“Iran”) and the Syrian Arab Republic (“Syria”). While Panama has the right to withdraw its flag from any vessel, its practice as the State with the world’s largest shipping fleet...

in Iraq and Syria (including the genocide of the Yezidi people) and the armed interventions by the US, Russian and Turkish military, the nature of the conflict I would argue, has internationalized. The current tension with some Turkish attacks in the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria should surely be argued to be internationalised with the active participation of the US and Russian forces and various Syrian militant groups including ISIS. However, as Mačák has pointed out various parts of this conflict may be a NIAC and others an IAC...

...principles of the UN Charter and escape international accountability and sanctions through using the veto, very little can be done for peace and security. Some of the P-5 not only disintegrated from “guardians of peace” to the worst aggressors, but also protected friendly countries from accountability for genocidal policies (Myanmar), war crimes (Yemen, Gaza) and crimes against humanity (Sudan, Syria). With this in mind, I would go further than Bakircioglu and explicitly demand elimination of the veto, ideally through Art. 109 Review Conference of the UN Charter. Nothing less would...

fighters to date merely acknowledge the individual suffering of single victims in specific instances. The JCE doctrine can be a means of acknowledging the suffering of larger victim groups. Incorporating JCE into an international tribunal or domestic legislation, would therefore also serve the interests of transitional justice for Syrians. Applying the doctrine of JCE to the genocide against the Yazidis would provide a new avenue and encouragement for charging ISIS members with counts of genocide and eventually hold all responsible individuals accountable. Most importantly, the charging of individual members of...

...at from this perspective, only 13 countries outside of Europe and North America issued statements: Brazil, Chile, China, Georgia, Guatemala, Iran, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Peru, Syria, Turkey, and UAE. Of these, Brazil, China, Turkey, and Iran issued Neutral statements. One thing that is sure to complicate this debate about the Global South’s position even further is that it took a long time for Russia’s traditional allies to speak out; and when they did, the reaction was underwhelming. Belarus, Iran, and Syria, in fact, waited 48 hours and only issued...