Search: crossing lines
27 Jan In Defense of Minimalism: A Response to Vlad Perju
...than “politicizing” the Court (in order to assuage its legitimacy-problem), there is something important to be said for a more minimalist, indeed, “weak” ECJ. The democratic benefits of allowing judges to enter dissenting opinions seem uncertain in the EU-context. You do not want a “supreme” ECJ, which sharply divides over ever more, and ever more controversial, but hugely consequential, constitutional-legal issues (e.g. the “true” balance between market-freedoms and social rights) along, say, national lines or those of “old Europe” versus “new Europe.” You may not want to jeopardize direct effect...19 Jul Guest Post: Israeli Committee Declares End to West Bank Occupation
...courts and the rest of the world for decades, namely that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is temporary and that measures designating Palestinian land and natural resources for Israeli use are motivated by security concerns. Here are some conclusions by the committee that I wholeheartedly endorse: 1. The so-called “unauthorized” outposts, built without the proper building permits and zoning plans, were as a matter of fact approved and funded by the State of Israel, which provided military protection, installed water and electricity lines, built access roads and funded public...
03 Nov Genocide at The Hague: A Transitional Justice Reckoning?
...from strategic state interests and geopolitical alignments. For example, as Jacobs observes, key Western actors supporting Ukraine’s case against Russia, like Germany and the US have been notably less vocal about Gaza at the ICJ. In contrast, while South Africa and Nicaragua have played visible roles in the Gaza litigation, their engagement with Ukraine’s case has been muted, neither appears to have intervened formally. Such inconsistencies reinforce the perception that legal accountability is applied selectively along political lines. The ICJ is not the UN General Assembly: its authority rests on...
23 Oct The Special Criminal Court Must Fill the Justice Gap Left by the ICC in Central African Republic
[Chuka Arinze-Onyia is a practicing criminal defense lawyer with an avid interest in international justice issues. He authored this article during a recent stint as an International Justice in Africa Fellow with Amnesty International.] On 16 December 2022, the ICC Prosecutor announced that his office had concluded the investigation phase of its work in Central African Republic (CAR) and would not pursue new lines of inquiry within the country. The immediate consequence of this decision is that until the ordinary national courts develop the capacity to dispense justice for crimes...30 Nov The Corrosive Risks of Lawless Leadership
...civilized. That was my duty as their leader . . . War gives the appearance of condoning almost everything, but men must live with their actions for a long time afterward. A leader has to help them understand that there are lines they must not cross. He is their link to normalcy, to order, to humanity. If the leader loses his own sense of propriety or shrinks from his duty, anything will be allowed . . . War is, at its very core, the absence of order; and the absence...20 Oct Guest Post: Bolivia’s First Triumph in The Hague
...is strong and clear, as this judgement follows a bad experience in the case about the maritime delimitation with Peru (solved by the ICJ in 2014). Moreover, to face the further proceedings on the merits, Chile´s legal team has to change its strategy based in the 1904 Treaty, which was specifically excluded from the discussion by the Court. In this regard is worth asking what were the arguments of the parties? And does Bolivia really have a good case? In the following lines I will try to address these two...
11 Jul What Is a Mass Grave? Why Protect Mass Graves? How to Protect Mass Graves?
...it is possible that surface scattered human remains (i.e. at the side of a road) may also constitute a mass grave, and reports point to the existence of such circumstances. How Are Mass Graves Protected? Protection of the site is paramount to preserve the integrity of remains, associated evidence and lines of enquiries. Protection measures ought to safeguard the human remains against contamination, desecration, robbery, scavengers and the movement/relocation of bodies to secondary sites, where a perpetrator is seeking to evade detection. Image from Protocol Appendix 3. Assuming that access...
20 Jan Geoengineering and the Use of Force
...within the current understanding of armed attack justifying self-defense, but as that threat begins to emerge more clearly, one can certainly anticipate that arguments will be made that it is close enough. To the extent that there is strong resistance to such efforts to relax the “armed attack” standard, scenarios such as explored here will tend to blur the lines between self-defense and such justifications as necessity and countermeasures. It is widely accepted that necessity cannot be invoked as a justification or defense for violating the prohibition on the use...