Search: crossing lines
07 Feb The Parochialism of Western Cosmopolitanism in a Competitive World Order
...global order, international lawyers of all stripes will need to develop a greater awareness of the diverse frameworks and narratives through which international law events are understood and arguments are made around the world. The first step in building this understanding is for international lawyers to diversify their sources and networks in an effort to see the world from different perspectives and through other eyes. The motivation for taking this step can be founded in cosmopolitan idealism (thinking international law should be more inclusive) or hard-bitten realism (along the lines...09 Feb Mapping the Evolution of States and Empires
The bloggers at Coming Anarchy have put together an informative series of posts about the shifting borders of states and empires. There’s a time-lapse animation of the expansion and contraction of Rome and Byzantium, a series of maps for each of Ethiopia, Poland, Armenia , Persia, and Russia. Also, there’s a series of comparative maps on state borders in modern Europe. Along similar lines (and in light of current events), I would also recommend Catholicgauze’s post on the ethnic geography of Kosovo. Since a picture is worth a thousand words,...
07 Aug Writing in International Law and Cultural Barriers (Part II)
...issues (see, eg, AsianJIL guidelines). We do have, however, some suggestions on how those involved in teaching, writing and publishing can cooperate towards filling in cultural communication gaps. First, we believe that it is important that authors and publishers understand the problem needs to be addressed through a two-way street approach. It should not be for authors to do all the heavy-lifting of having to adapt to different writing styles, nor should this mean that authors should not be concerned with writing and communicating well. Authors should retain agency over...16 Nov The Sovereigntist Premise of Hathaway and Shapiro’s Outcasting
...The “shared understandings” of statehood are morphing so as to shrink the spaces of sovereign insulation. To paraphrase Wendt, sovereignty is what states make of it, and states’ identity as such has come to comprehend a downsized version. There are lots of ways in which international law is degrading sovereignty. I think it’s possible now to imagine the internal enforcement of international law along the lines of the Modern State Conception — not all advocates of international law “tend to let the conversation drop at this point.” (276). The construction...
25 May Affective Justice Symposium: International Justice in Africa–Not All That Simple
...longing for the old days would keep people poor: what we were observing was development, progress. Indeed, this was what we were here to bring. Rid the government of its criminal leaders, plug the country into the world economy and teach the Sudanese how to run a country. What was I doing here if I did not believe we could help fix the place? It was all so simple. I do not recall the lines of my response, but they included the colonial encounter (the most symbolic of which, between...17 Apr Jennifer Trahan’s Cambodia Problem
...the possibility of the appointment of a group of experts to evaluate the existing evidence and propose further measures, as a means of bringing about national reconciliation, strengthening democracy and addressing the issue of individual accountability.” The group of experts recommended the UN create an ad hoc tribunal along the lines of the ICTY and ICTR, but Cambodia favoured a more internationalized tribunal based in its own judicial system. Cambodia thus asked the UN to help it draft legislation for such a tribunal. In response, “the Secretary-General entered into negotiations...
04 Apr COVID-19 Symposium: Israel and its International Law COVID-19 Obligations Towards Gaza
...whether the Strip is still occupied by Israel following the Israeli withdrawal of its army and settlements in 2005. Proponents of the stance that Israel is still occupying Gaza point to the fact that Israel is controlling Gaza’s air and sea space as well as its crossings (see here, page 38, n.101), whereas those that hold that it is not occupied, underline the lack of boots on the ground and Israel’s stated unwillingness to permanently reconquer the area (see here, page 37, n.97). For those holding that Gaza is still...17 Jul A Primer on the Jadhav Case at the International Court of Justice
...certainly highlighted by the issues brought up here – is the greater engagement with individual rights by the ICJ, which has a state centric focus and is not a human rights court. JudgeCançado Trindade’s concurring opinion to the Provisional Measures Order in this case refers to the ‘humanization’ of international law. Cases such as this highlight the dichotomy and the potential blurring of the lines between a focus of the rights of state versus that of the individual. Finally, the impact of an ICJ decision can have consequences on treaties entered...30 Jul Judge Wilkinson and the Ambiguity of the “Conduct that . . . Aims to Harm” Criterion
...is a mens rea requirement. Finally, let me close by raising a question about the requirement of a link to a declaration or AUMF. Consider the post I put up last night discussing the complex array of forces currently engaging in armed attacks on Afghan and Allied forces in the Afghan-Pakistan theater. Some of those forces are within the scope of the 9/18/01 AUMF, but arguably some are not (e.g., Lashkar-e-Taiba). Insofar as we intend for a test along the lines of the Wilkinson criteria to operate in connection with...
07 Aug Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance Symposium: A Reply
...level of review in assessing admissibility challenges (particularly those raised by individual defendants), while setting at times an unreasonably high evidentiary threshold for challengers to satisfy. These procedural hurdles are, in my view, in tension with the policy goals of positive complementarity. I would prefer to see a more clearly articulated and consistent application of a deference principle – along the lines of that called for by Judge Ušacka in her dissents – that could permit a more policy-oriented jurisprudence to emerge without radically departing from the framing of admissibility...