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Search: crossing lines

29 Jul

...the breaking of civilian will becomes the necessary predicate to any eventual enemy surrender. The tactical logic that plays out in contemporary sieges is consistent across theatres: encircle the population, sever supply lines, manipulate and obstruct humanitarian relief, and systematically dismantle and destroy the infrastructure that is indispensable to sustain life. These are not the incidental consequences of armed conflict. They are the mechanism. While the use of siege warfare is not prohibited per se and is lawful insofar as it is directed exclusively against combatants, siege tactics have repeatedly...
29.07.26 | and |

09 Apr

As I write these lines, the United States is fighting for the very soul of its democracy. Under dispute is whether their government can forcibly transfer a lawful resident – in this case a Latino with a tattoo – to a forced labour camp in El Salvador without any due process. For now, the US Supreme Court’s answer seems to be “no”, provided the Latino with a tattoo in question files a Habeas Corpus petition before deportation. The debate is raging on as US commentators decry just how limited this...
09.04.25 | |

21 Oct

as I said before, solve the Orford-Skinner or the Orford-Hunter Debate. Like all Great Debates, we may end up reading and re-reading them for many years to come. But I do hope that in these lines I may offer a different perspective on how to approach them: not as the expression of a necessary methodological incompatibility between our disciplines, but as a pool of wisdom from which to extract valuable lessons in the construction of our interdisciplinary common future – one where historians see law as language and where lawyers...
21.10.21 | |

05 Dec

...as: the aircraft or munitions used, unique characteristics regarding how the attack was conducted, or – ideally – official Russian claims of responsibility. The Berlin meeting resulted in a shortlist of incidents involving attacks on hospitals, and some promising lines of inquiry regarding attribution to Russia. Preserving Potential Evidence Syrian Archive, meanwhile, was rapidly preserving online documentation of attacks impacting medical facilities in Syria before it could be taken offline and possibly lost. As of March 2021, Syrian Archive had preserved online, open source videos documenting 410 separate, verified attacks...
05.12.24 | and |

16 May

...(ii) adequate school infrastructure, facilities and environment; (iii) a well-qualified teaching force; (iv) a school that is open to the participation of all”. Along the same lines, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR Committee), the supervisory body for the ICESCR, has underlined that acceptability of education includes curricula and teaching methods that are “relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality”. Concerning infrastructure, the ICESCR Committee has stressed that States Parties must take measures to ensure the availability of education, including by ensuring availability of “buildings or...
16.05.22 | and |

27 Nov

...these have been typically slow paced. Nonetheless, due to the exponential evolution of the technology in the last year, an amplified sense of urgency has grown, which is reflected in the increasing number of governance initiatives. Currently, there is a rich yet diverse ecosystem of multiple regional and multilateral efforts towards the governance of AI lato sensu, including the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI (UN-HLAB); the G7 Hiroshima Process; the G20’s Guidelines; the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and...
27.11.24 | |

14 Jun

...“adjacent to the coast.” Article 76 of the LOS Convention eliminates the adjacency limit, provides that each State Party has a legal continental shelf extending to at least 200 nautical miles from baselines (unless restricted by a boundary with a nearby state), and sets specific criteria under which some continental shelves may extend beyond 200 miles from baselines. The LOS Convention promotes the reliability of coastal states’ outer limits lines by creating a technical body, the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), to which States Parties must...
14.06.12 | |

29 Apr

...14 lines of difference including ‘gender, sexuality, ‘race’/skin-colour, ethnicity, nation/state, class, culture, ability, age, sedentariness/origin, wealth, North–South, religion and stage of social development.’ Lutz’s list is neither exhaustive nor definitive but, importantly, she warns of the dangers of keeping a closed concept that risks neglecting the spaces between these lines of difference. In my chapter, ‘De-essentializing Race: Intersectionality as a Feminist Approach in International Human Rights Law’, I argue that the conceptualisation of intersectionality should include as many multiply-burdened individuals as possible. As I show, if we fail to address...
29.04.26 | |

11 Aug

...and described operations in arming the villages and creating defensive perimeters; also in attacking Georgian police and military units and stations, to drive them out of the area. Those guys struck me as very, very, very dangerous – but also completely disciplined as fighters. Out of the front lines, the militia forces on both sides were untrained or at best ill-trained, and fought while drunk and high. David Rieff, who was on that mission, and I walked around the parking lot in Sukhumi where the militia fighters assembled to go...
11.08.08 | |

07 Jun

...beyond the old system of imperialism, militant nationalism, and the balance of power. I cannot help but see the strong parallels with Obama. He has the genuine ability to speak directly to the people, and appeal to a better future, creating momentum for change that cannot be ignored by the stale leadership of the Middle East. Here is my outline of the seven key issues he discussed, together with the applause lines (averaging one per minute): Violent Extremism: We’re not at war with Islam, we are at war with extremists....
07.06.09 | |

06 Nov

...that theory United States v. Lopez might have come out differently because it was not “really disputed” in the Lopez case that the gun in question had crossed state lines. In Lopez, however, the defendant made a facial rather than an as-applied challenge to the statute and, more to the point, the government did not try to prove that the gun had crossed state lines. Indeed, the court of appeals in that case noted that “[c]onceivably, a conviction” under the statute “might be sustained if the government alleged and proved...
06.11.13 | |

21 Mar

The wide-ranging responses to Oona’s work are a testament to its ambition and importance. In the interest of keeping the discussion manageable, I’d like to offer two additional comments on Oona’s piece even though I could easily pursue a half dozen other lines of inquiry. First, I wanted to comment on the subtitle of the article—“The Past, Present and Future of International Lawmaking in the United States.” I wonder about the use of the term “lawmaking” here. Is it true that when we talk about treaties we’re always talking about...
21.03.08 | |