Search: crossing lines
05 Apr The Situation in Palestine
...organisations). Thus the correct statement that the Prosecutor could have included at this point should have been along the lines that ‘the current status granted to Palestine by the General Assembly is that of ‘entity’, not as a ‘non-member State’. Is this a pedantic and pointless criticism? Does what the Prosecutor says even matter anyway? I’m not too sure at this stage, but I do know that it is a statement that I would require a student to clarify, and would have pointed them in the direction of the UN’s...01 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: Did Obama Consult His Lawyers Before War Powers About-Face?
Doesn’t sound like it, if you read between the lines of this AP account. Until Friday, everyone was assuming that congressional pre-clearance was not constitutionally required or otherwise warranted. Obama’s national security team was in agreement that while consulting with Congress was critical, there was no need for formal approval, officials said. Seeking a vote in Congress to authorize a strike wasn’t even an option on the table. You have to guess there were memos to that effect bouncing around State and Justice. Obama turned around on a dime after...19 Jun Berman Book Discussion: Notes From a Fellow Traveler
This post is part of our symposium on Dean Schiff Berman’s book Global Legal Pluralism. Other posts can be found in Related Posts below. This is a great book, and I am almost completely on board with the orientation here. Paul is right on the money in navigating between the territorial sovereigntists on the one hand and the cosmopolitan universalists on the other. The critique of the universalists is especially key insofar as it persuasively rebuts a standard sovereigntist fallacy (along the lines of, the sovereign state may be imperfect,...
25 Feb The Nature and Implications of Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territory: Part I
...obligations towards the Palestinian Territory must be assessed going forward. Israeli Belligerent Occupation of the Palestinian Territories 1967-1994 Israel first established effective control over the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem—then widely referred to as the “Palestinian territories”—during the 1967 “Six Day War,” an IAC between Israel and several Arab States, including Egypt and Jordan. Much as today, the international legal status of those territories was ambiguous in 1967. The Palestinian territories constituted those parts of the former Mandate of Palestine that lay outside the 1949 armistice lines...29 Mar Follow-up to NYU JILP Symposium on LGBT Asylum and Refugee Law
...told, in effect, that they are not “gay enough” to be able to prove that they would suffer sufficient psychological harm. To be clear, I do not worry that Hathaway and Pobjoy or the judges on the House of Lords would stray in this direction. But credibility assessment at the front lines of refugee status determination is already a messy business, with adjudicators often tempted to probe the intimate lives of asylum-seekers more than they should.[7] I fear any interpretation of the refugee definition that might increase the risks of...
03 Jun Brazil Fights Itself: Climate Litigation Against Incoming Backfire
...Strategic Plan for Protected Areas (PNAP) and international instruments, being the UNFCCC, the Paris Agreement and the Rio Declaration the ones most cited. These legal instruments have been combined with strong lines of legal reasoning arguments such as the responsibility and solidarity to the rights of future generations, the State’s fundamental duty to protect the environment, the claim for a fundamental right to climate stability and the principles of prohibition of insufficient protection of the environment and of socio-environmental and ecological retrogression. IV – …against incoming backfire The interweaving of...
09 Aug Muddying the Waters: A Reply to Kay and Kern on the Statehood of Palestine and the ICC – Part II
...this resolution knowing that Palestine had been given observer state status in the organization. The same Security Council resolution also made it clear that it would “not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”. Evidently, Palestine’s borders are the 4 June 1967 lines. Another Red Herring The argument that Palestine cannot purport to be a state because it lacks effective control over all of its territory is another red herring, when it is Israel...14 Oct Carsten Stahn Guest Post: On Intervention, Narratives of Progress, Threats of force and the Virtues of Case-by-Case Assessment–A Rejoinder to Koh (Part III)
...third important factor in the debate is role of context. Koh seeks to draw an analogy to domestic law to justify a new exception. He uses the example of ‘ambulance’ drivers who are permitted to cross red lines in accidents. This comparison is appealing, but shaky. It presents intervention as a ‘clean’ and ‘neutral’ recipe that can be used to address the underlying dilemmas of conflict. This premise is questionable. Intervention is not like targeted medical surgery and interveners are typically not simply ‘neutral’ and ‘benevolent’ humanitarians. Symbolically speaking, this...07 Sep Departing from Peace-time Standards – the Prosecutors’ Perspectives
...courts are incapable of trying those accused of terrorist acts. The positions of proponents and opponents fall mostly along party lines. Conservatives favor some form of special-purpose tribunal to the unprecedented challenges. Progressives play down the novelty of the al Qaeda threat. But what do experienced professionals think? In this case, this means prosecutors with relevant experience. On Monday, the New York City Bar will host a discussion to illuminate this question. What has been the experience of trying accused terrorists in federal district courts? Former US Attorney Mary Jo...