Search: crossing lines

...not contain substantive definitional provisions, the inclusion of these definitions in the Ljubjana-the Hague Convention serves two critical functions in the fight against impunity. First, by requiring and facilitating domestic criminalization, the Convention empowers victims to report violations within their jurisdictions, as well as, in the jurisdictions of other State Parties, enhancing prospects for effective investigation and potentially prosecution, thereby strengthening the fight against impunity. Second, the coherence established among State Party jurisdictions streamlines legal processes and cooperation in investigating and prosecuting offenders, particularly in cross-border cases, reducing the number...

...Safety Committee (MSC) Guidelines on the treatment of persons rescued at sea (Preamble, para 7). The Recommendation urges cooperation amongst Member States in relation to SAR operations carried out by NGO vessels in order to reduce fatalities at sea, protect the safety of maritime navigation and aim for effective migration management (para 1). It is interesting to note that the flag and coastal State are expressly mentioned. While the coastal State clearly refers to the SAR State, the reference to the flag State is not commonly found in the legal...

...be; conversely, the Tallinn Manual (p.45) considers it as amounting to a use of force. Could it be qualified as a threat of force? Stuxnet produced physical damages to an Iranian nuclear plant, and thus violated the principle of non-intervention and the sovereignty of the targeted State. Nothing prohibits qualifying as a threat of force an action crossing the border of the threatened State. For example, in 1996 a North Korean submarine ran aground on a South Korean beach, and the former denounced it as an act of war (ICB...

Calls for Papers The Irish Yearbook of International Law has a call for papers for a special symposium issue regarding Climate Justice in International Law (Word document). Submission deadline is August 31, 2012. The University of Sydney is hosting a post-graduate conference on November 1-2, 2012 entitled Crossing Boundaries (Word document), open to post-grads in the Asia-Pacific region. Deadlines of abstract submission (no more than 250 words) is August 31, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law is holding The...

[Michael McLaughlin is a cybersecurity attorney and policy advisor in the Washington, D.C. office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C. He is the former senior counterintelligence advisor for United States Cyber Command and a research affiliate for the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy and a juris doctorate from the University of Maryland School of Law.] After years of conducting destabilizing activities worldwide with impunity, Russian forces crossing the Ukrainian border proved to be a...

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa More than 1000 people have died in fighting in South Sudan in the past month, where a political crisis is turning into a tribal conflict. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Australia has requested asylum there a few days before her term was due to end. Americas Edward Snowden has declared “mission accomplished” and also issued an alternative Christmas message for the UK’s Channel 4. Legal or not? A federal District Court judge in New York has ruled...

...pursue a border control agenda under the guise of promoting human rights. The Trafficking Protocol and its companion Smuggling Protocol have set a transnational duty to end all forms of unauthorized border crossing and conscripted states in regions of origin to abet the developed world’s efforts to stymie international migration, in particular by routinized implementation of generic deterrence schemes. Broad brush deterrent schemes of this kind tend perversely to promote human smuggling—and even trafficking—since they make unassisted migration that much more difficult, even as they do nothing to open up...

...UN Human Rights Council to dedicate its reports to the civilian impact of sieges, namely those in Aleppo and eastern Ghouta. During the siege of eastern Ghouta for example – the longest running siege in modern history – the Syria Commission documented how Government forces closed crossing points, cutting off civilian access to food, and simultaneously heightened aerial and ground attacks. Although elaborate networks of manmade tunnels were built in the enclave to secure access to food, Government forces had the upper hand and therefore many tunnels were closed as...

...3 836 arrivals. In October 2021, the Lithuanian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that it processed approximately 1 289 international protection applications with only two applicants receiving refugee status.   Simultaneously in August 2021, the number of intercepted crossings skyrocketed at the Polish-Belarusian border. From 1 January 2021 to 11 November 2021, Poland reported 33 000 illegal crossings. Poland responded by declaring a state of emergency at the frontier zone, the construction of barbed wire, and the redeployment of law enforcement and military forces. The most intense incident was reported on 8...

...develop practical, operational guidelines for investigating and documenting environmental destruction. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, Justice Rapid Response, Physicians for Human Rights, Source International and  TRIAL International bring together complementary expertise: academic research, rapid deployment of criminal justice experts, medical-forensic documentation, open-source intelligence and ICL practice. The Guidelines aim to equip a broad range of actors—investigators, prosecutors, civil society organisations, affected communities, and other frontline responders—with practical tools and methodologies for effectively documenting and investigating environmental international crimes. Whilst the Guidelines support implementation of the OTP’s Policy and assist those...

...Since states ought to protect civilians from atrocity, they have the right to do so (up to and including crossing international borders if necessary under some versions of the doctrine). The structure of the RTP doctrine is the same; it imposes a soft form of moral liability for states’ failure to act — their omissions. At least it does if you take seriously the idea that there is a responsibility to protect. If a state violates this responsibility, then it is responsible for its omission. This is precisely why RTP...

...prescriptions of the law; the focus being on maximizing the numbers by whatever means, without complying with the law.” In my view, the Supreme Court of Malawi’s departure from the quantitative approach is a welcome development because, it places the need to comply with electoral rules at the center of election management and litigation. In 2015, SADC Member States adopted a set of electoral principles and guidelines known as SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. These principles enjoin SADC Member states to ensure that they conduct regular, free and...