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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

22 Dec

Scientific American has published an article by John Wendle on how climate change has spurred the conflict in Syria. Wendle writes: Climatologists say Syria is a grim preview of what could be in store for the larger Middle East, the Mediterranean and other parts of the world. The drought, they maintain, was exacerbated by climate change. The Fertile Crescent—the birthplace of agriculture some 12,000 years ago—is drying out. Syria’s drought has destroyed crops, killed livestock and displaced as many as 1.5 million Syrian farmers. In the process, it touched off...
22.12.15 | |

05 Oct

...international law-related themes in his chapter on “America’s War” that I wish to comment on. The first theme is that States have the right, under existing international law (and due to policy considerations), to use force in self-defence, collective or individual, against non-state actors in the territory of third states without the third states’ consent. For example, he notes that as “a matter of international law” the US use force against ISIS in Syria was not based on Syria’s consent “but rather in collective self-defence”. The second theme is that...
05.10.18 | |

04 Dec

...even these measures are blocked, it is difficult to claim that the blocking Security Council member(s) are working toward the Council fulfilling its Charter mandate to maintain international peace and security while respecting human rights and international law. I do not believe that I give “short shrift” to the General Assembly sometimes being able to act when the Security Council is blocked, as Professor Tladi claims.  I acknowledge, for instance, the General Assembly’s creating the investigative mechanism for Syria known as the IIIM after veto of the referral of the...
04.12.20 | |

16 Oct

[Harold Hongju Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School. He returned to Yale in January 2013 after serving for nearly four years as the 22nd Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State.] I have been educated by the thoughtful symposium on my new book, The Trump Administration and International Law (Oxford University Press 2018). I am grateful to the committed colleagues who contributed to this Symposium for enlightening me, and deepening my understanding. I especially thank my kind friend Kevin Jon Heller for graciously hosting...
16.10.18 | |

27 Sep

As Ken notes below, the draft UN Security Council Resolution regarding the disposition of Syria’s chemical weapons is now available. While it can’t be construed as authorizing the use of force against Syria to ensure compliance without further Security Council action – entirely consistent with the Council’s past practice in Iraq, Kosovo, and elsewhere with slowly escalating Security Council threats and then reality of sanctions it decides to impose – marks an obvious and large step forward in what had, until a few weeks ago, been a seemingly intractable disaster....
27.09.13 | |

02 Jun

...British government is strongly considering providing weapons to rebels in Syria — and that the CIA has already facilitated weapons shipments to the rebels from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. There is no question that that much of the fighting being waged by rebel groups in Syria is perfectly lawful under international humanitarian law. But there is also no question — as the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and Human Rights Watch have richly documented — that rebel groups have also committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unless...
02.06.13 | |

25 Aug

...nuclear inspectors access to a military base that they have been seeking to visit since 2005, Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehgan has said. More than 191,000 people have died in Syria, United Nation human rights chief Navi Pillay has said, lashing out at “international paralysis” on the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict. In her last address to the Security Council, the UN human rights chief sharply criticised the body for its ineffectiveness on Syria and other intractable conflicts, saying its members have often put national interests ahead of stopping mass atrocities....
25.08.14 | |

31 Aug

...foreign minister’s visit is expected to defuse tensions between Iraq and Syria after Baghdad’s allegations that Damascus was harboring insurgents responsible for the recent truck bombings in Baghdad. “Iraq’s stance is to go on demanding the UN to form an international criminal court to prosecute the perpetrators of these brutal crimes against innocent Iraqis and targeted the security and stability of Iraq,” a statement from Maliki’s office quoted him as saying. Maliki reiterated Iraq’s firm stance of demanding Syria to handover senior members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party whom Baghdad...
31.08.09 | |

10 Nov

ad bellum issue does not arise, but there still might or might not be violations of the jus in bello. Syria certainly poses a jus ad bellum issue, but there the US justification might not be preemptive self-defense, but self-defense against an armed attack that was already committed by a non-state actor operating from Syrian territory, which Syria failed to prevent. In any case it is hard to say more about these events without knowing much, much more about the actual facts. Guneysu In addition to what Milan has written,...
10.11.08 | |

14 Sep

...for theology. Indeed, ‘his arguments against philosophy are themselves philosophical’ (Leaman 2002: 27). Islamic philosophy proper begins under the auspices of the ‘Abbāsid dynasty in the third/ninth century. Its origins are principally Greek, although it was transmitted largely by Christian scholars translating philosophical and other works into Arabic (with some of these from Syriac translations of Greek manuscripts). Of lesser but not insignificant impact was the rendering of Indian and Persian literature likewise into Arabic. Many Muslims did not welcome works of Peripatetic (Aristotelian and Pseudo-Aristotelian) and Neoplatonic provenance into...
14.09.06 | |

10 Sep

...sovereignty issues will be triggered. In Syria, the situation is more complicated. U.S. forces will be acting with the consent of the opposition there, though whether Assad will give his consent to operations in Syria seems unlikely. But perhaps the U.S. will rely exclusively on proxy forces in Syria. He was vague on this. There was no discussion of Security Council authorization, though he did discuss the need for a coalition to fight ISIS. My view is that ISIS represents a far greater threat than al-Qaeda ever posed. ISIS currently...
10.09.14 | |

06 Mar

...translation). The letter acknowledges that there are no longer clear boundaries between Iraq and Syria, and that IS presence in Syria poses a direct threat to Iraq. The letter expresses understanding for the American efforts against IS in Syria, while observing that the US has invoked the right of collective self-defence under Article 51 UN Charter. On the other hand, it is noted that: ‘strict conditions apply for the exercise of this right, especially when an (imminent) armed attack emanates from an armed group such as IS. What is determining...
06.03.15 | |