Search: crossing lines
27 Aug Guest Post: Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17–Possible Legal Avenues for Redress (Part 1)
[ Dr Aaron Matta is a Senior Researcher at The Hague Institute for Global Justice , Rule of Law Program. Anda Scarlat is a Summer Fellow with the Rule of Law Program at the Institute.With many thanks to Dr Lyal Sunga, Jill Coster van Voorhout and Thomas Koerner for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this commentary.The views expressed here do not represent the views of the Hague Institute for Global Justice.] 17 July 2015 marked one year since the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine,...18 Apr More on Baltasar Garzon
...particular irritated many people in Spain, even across the party lines – Garzon’s arrival at the station and taking charge of the investigation ‘on no authority whatsoever other than his own ego’ (I quote an annoyed Zapatero supporter at the time). There was also quite a lot of irritation that Garzon seemed to have unlimited capacities for pursuing universal jurisdiction claims and attendant international headlines abroad – but could not manage to find time, so the allegation went, for piled up, years dragged out, quotidian domestic cases on his docket....21 Mar CEDAW, Federalism, and Democracy in U.S. International Lawmaking
...and provide assistance to state and local governments (along the lines of the assistance the State Department provides to state and local law enforcement to facilitate enforcement the Vienna Consular Convention). It strikes me that none of this is possible if CEDAW is adopted by treaty, unless further implementing legislation is enacted. An outstanding issue that Oona has not squarely addressed (that may argue for CEDAW to be brought via the treaty route) is the linkage between CEDAW and U.S. v. Morrison. CEDAW’s General Recommendation Number 19 includes gender-based violence...09 Nov I Wasn’t Paying Attention When the Wall Came Down
...away again. It was very hard for me to believe that this was actually real and tangible, and not something so fragile that a little puff could bring the house of cards down. (I’m not sure if Philip Alston remembers, but we had a conversation on almost exactly those lines, at a human rights conference organized by Philip and Henry Steiner, with me as administrative assistant, on Crete earlier that summer, sitting out on the beach of a Cretan monastery and positively slathered with sunblock.) So I wish I had...
13 Apr ICC Prosecutor Symposium: The Appointment of the Next ICC Prosecutor Is Not a Forum for Career Transition
...as a team player? The first two Prosecutors loomed large in the public perception of the Court, and its portrayal in the media. This certainly advanced a better understanding of Prosecution priorities and strategies concerning different cases, but also arguably led to blurred lines concerning the difference between the Prosecutor as a leading representative of the Court, as an institution, and the Prosecutor as a party to proceedings, which are presided over by Judges. Charisma may be important -– a Louis XIVth “sun king” style leader might further raise the...
04 Aug Symposium on Ljubljana – The Hague Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance: Critical Reflections – Wanted: ‘Widest Adoption Possible’ of the Ljubljana-The Hague Mutual Legal Assistance Convention
...language from ‘shall’ to ‘may’ was necessary—in fact, it could be a deal breaker. The change would permit States that do not recognize the customary nature of universal jurisdiction for crimes under the Convention to nevertheless join (see debates in the UN General Assembly Sixth (Legal) Committee here, here, and here). Ultimately, ‘shall’ was retained—and therefore so too was the substantive obligation. Reading Between the (Red) Lines Ostensibly, these are two examples of compromise with the same goal—seeking the greatest number of State Parties possible. However, the context in which...05 Apr The Syria Attacks: Haven’t We Had These Debates Already?
Reports of another horrific use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria seems to have affected President Trump. In comments today, President Trump said the chemical attacks against civilians “crossed a lot of lines for me” and changed the way he views Syria and leader Bashar al-Assad. Although it is always hard to interpret the President’s comments, he did cite his “flexibility” to change his policies. One might interpret this to mean that the U.S. my change course and directly use military force against the Assad government in Syria. As...
22 Mar SCSL Symposium: The Important Contributions of the Special Court for Sierra Leone on Amnesties and Immunities–Reinforcing Foundational Principles of International Criminal Law, Part II
...of its creation and its pedigree, was an “international court” along the lines of similarly created (although not identical) institutions – the ICTY, the ICTR, and, of course, the ICC. For this reason, it found that it fit squarely within the Yerodia exception. Likewise, in its 2019 decision in the Al Bashir case, the ICC Appeals Chamber resolved the case similarly. Although Jordan had argued before the Appeals Chamber that the ICC was a ‘foreign’ court, and that it could not exercise jurisdiction over Al Bashir who was a sitting...
08 Aug Emerging Voices: The Time We Have, the Space We Need
...by way of obliterating the element of time that a reboot of international scholarship was made possible, creating new avenues for academic debate and rerailing intellectual conversations along lines that we somewhat keep following today. But even when the abstract functioning of disciplinary discourse is exposed, its structural bias remains unexplained. For precisely because it is indeterminate and theoretically empowers no-one, international law is also invariably used to disempower the already disempowered. Here, almost on a second thought, the contextuality of time reappears, echo of a broader post-structural turn which...
30 Mar COVID-19 Symposium: Returning “Home”–Nationalist International Law in the Time of the Coronavirus
...their nationals suspected of having joined DAESH, leaving no doubt that even solicitousness for one’s nationals (let alone the attitude to non-nationals) remains a highly bifurcated affair. The lines of nationality – or at least the sort of nationality that is deserving of the state going out of its way to provide protection – can sometimes be subtly redrawn to distinguish between nationals, a phenomenon manifest in relation to dual nationals or racialized nationals. Whither international law in all of this? When it comes to globalization, international law was as...