Search: crossing lines
05 Jan Firm Whites and Runny Yolks in WTO Law
[Tomer Broude is a Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law and Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the following post continues our conversation on Shaffer and Pollack’s When Cooperation Fails] Mark Pollack and Greg Shaffer well deserve the praise that the previous commentators have given them for their study of the transatlantic law and politics of GMOs, “When Cooperation Fails”. Empirically, the book is a model of qualitative research, in some parts following the lines of Greg’s superb Defending Interests. The theoretical dimensions of the book masterfully...29 Mar Symposium: Cogan Reply to Pauwelyn
...forms of noncompliance that may be beneficial, but I do not consider them at length. Professor Pauwelyn first claims that I go “too far by underestimating the flexibilities and exit options that exist within the system of international law.” What I describe as noncompliance, he sees as “flexibilities and exit options perfectly permitted and accepted within international law.” I wish more people thought along those lines, and I wish it were that international law were more like what Professor Pauwelyn describes. Unfortunately, international law and international legal scholars appear to...
29 Jun Compulsory Licensing for Crisis Management: Revisiting the EU’s Approach
...implement a compulsory license is shared. This is the underlying principle of the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines (2008), as affirmed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Paul Hunt, who drafted these guidelines (see here, p.12). This principle is enshrined under Articles 7 and 8 of the TRIPS Agreement, which recognise the need for states to take appropriate measures against practices that constitute an abuse of intellectual property rights or adversely affect technology transfer. States have various policy tools...17 Dec China invokes UNCLOS in claiming sovereignty over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands
...hawkish in responding to such measures. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that China’s now also beginning to push its case legally, invoking UNCLOS’s provisions on delineating continental shelf rights beyond its 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone. Specifically, UNCLOS Article 76 provides in paragraphs 7-9: 7. The coastal State shall delineate the outer limits of its continental shelf, where that shelf extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured, by straight lines not exceeding 60 nautical miles in length, connecting...04 Nov A Response to Mark Drumbl
...to compromise has opened, moreover, there is no obvious stopping point. There may be situations where the best case scenario falls short of even Mark’s relatively deferential standards. For example, deference to a dictator’s imposition of blanket amnesty paired with some minimal truth-telling process might be necessary to prevent imminent atrocities, even though the arrangement might fail some of Mark’s preferred criteria, such as those pertaining to good faith and democratic legitimacy. Should the specific guidelines still constrain in that circumstance, or should the Court revert to a general choice-of-evils...04 Jun So What Is the Legacy of Tiananmen, Twenty Years On?
...to say, as a pro bono gift of Sullivan & Cromwell. Tiananmen took place while all of us were there; it was discussed at length, but the conference declined to make a joint statement, if I recall correctly. I think that was the right decision – no one at the meeting was authorized to speak on behalf of their organizations, to start with. Somewhat more disturbing was that not everyone at the conference appeared to think that the Chinese protestors had a defensible cause. The fault lines of the human...
08 Aug Ecocide and Article 2(4): Envisioning Environmental Aggression as “Use of Force”
...“use of force” under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and the need to interpret it in tandem with recent ecological violations. Although, there is a dearth of scholarship arguing on similar lines, the imminency of the issue cannot be over-emphasised. The need for a robust framework including state liability in cases of ecocide is imperative, otherwise the biggest perpetrators of ecological destruction i.e. nation states will go unpunished. As the climate crisis deepens and states continue to deploy environmental destruction as a weapon of war, the existing legal architecture,...
30 Apr AI and Machine Learning Symposium: Humanity-Centric AI for Armed Conflict–A Contradiction in Terms?
...battlefield or combat activities, the benefits of AI are not as evident as the swelling chorus of AI advocates might suggest. Particularly pertinent here are questions of whether AI systems can or indeed should be taking on a significant role in critical selection and targeting functions, whether they should be making lethal decisions, be involved in ‘accelerated sensor-to-shooter timelines’, play a crucial role in predictive suspect selection and classification, or otherwise assume decisive powers in areas where the ethical stakes are patently high. In recent years, these questions have become...
24 Feb Harmonizing Global Health Law and Human Rights Law to Develop Rights-Based Approaches to Global Health Emergencies
...disease. While ostensibly adopted to protect public health, such interventions have rarely been accompanied by social relief programmes, such as income support and debt suspension, that are necessary to avoid collateral damage to economic and social rights, including the rights to health, social security, work, and housing. Instead, responses to the pandemic have largely magnified the fault lines of racial, socioeconomic, disability, gender and age inequalities, intensifying the suffering of those already at greatest risk and falling short of State obligations to ensure that responses to public health emergencies do...