Search: crossing lines
07 Sep Events and Announcements: September 7, 2019
...as many proposals as possible, but preference will be given to scholars who did not present last year and to works that have not yet been accepted for publication. We also workshop early stage projects. If you are interested in presenting on an early stage project, please let us know the working title and a few lines about the idea you are pursuing. Finally, if you are willing to be a commentator, please let us know. UN Audiovisual Library The Codification Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs...
30 Oct Fourth Annual Symposium on Pop Culture and International Law: Understanding the Nakba through Arab Drama – Documentation and Symbolism in al-Taghreba al-Falastinya
...Palestinians can never obtain real or full self-determination) Eghbariah argues that the Nakba regime maintains the structure of oppressive fragmentation by developing a variety of legal constraints preventing refugees from returning to their lands or reuniting with family members with a different legal status (p.986). This is reflected in several heartbreaking scenes that litter the last few episodes of the series, such as Masoud’s attempts to cross the armistice lines to get some oranges from their old farms or when Rushdi sneaks into 1948 lands to search for his mother. ...18 Apr Stay in Your Lane! When Political Scientists Become Bad International Lawyers
...carefully argued piece descends into complete gibberish when it tries to explain how “international law” can be a tool for the United States to constrain and manage China’s activities in the South China Sea. And if Beijing tried to extract economic gains from contested regions [in the South China Sea], Washington could facilitate a process along the lines of the proportional punishment strategy it helped make part of the World Trade Organization: let the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in The Hague, determine the gains of China’s illegal actions, place a...
15 May EU Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence Obligations: From Means to Results
...least adequately mitigate them. This makes it clear that duty of vigilance cannot be fulfilled by a tick box exercise. Along these lines, Article 9 requires that the corporation sets a complaint mechanism for legitimate concerns regarding the adverse human rights impacts of the corporation’s activities. As for the duty of care counterpart of HRDD in the Commission’s Proposal, concerns have been raised on the nature of the obligation it establishes. Indeed, national law considers duties of care as obligations of means/best efforts: if the defendant proves that they were...27 Mar New Documents Reveal Kissinger’s Support of 1976 Coup in Argentina
...and the disappeared.” The documents also reveal that the U.S. had advance knowledge of the impending coup: More than a week before the coup, Ambassador Robert Hill sent Assistant Secretary Rogers a secret cable reporting that the commander of the Navy, Admiral Emilio Massera, had requested that the U.S. embassy “indicate to him one or two reputable public relations firms in the U.S. which might handle the problem for a future military government.” Massera, according to the cable, promised that the Argentine military would “not follow the lines of the...
10 Oct Reimagining Palestine in TWAIL Scholarship
...The hesitation of academics to confront tangible aspects of settler-colonialism is consistent with their worldview, he explains. Doctrinal and critical scholars alike unite in the near beatification of the Westphalian tradition, a system that relies on the negation of indigenous and non-state sovereignty. In this context, even calls for Palestinian self-determination appear timid, contingent on colouring within the lines of Israeli administrative zones. As I’ve argued elsewhere, this leads TWAIL scholars to an intellectual and ethical cul-de-sac. We admit the profane origins and practices of international law—from a TWAIL perspective,...
28 May Futureproofing Human Rights Symposium: Human Rights in the Era of Blockchain – A Polycentric Accountability Framework
...acknowledges that decentralized digital systems cannot be effectively governed through top-down state intervention or private self-regulation alone. Embedding Human Rights in Decentralized Governance If blockchain governance requires new institutional models to ensure accountability, the same holds true for human rights. Historically, human rights law was designed to hold centralized entities—primarily states—accountable for violations against individuals. But blockchain challenges this premise: it disperses authority, embeds decisions in code, and blurs the lines of legal responsibility. In this context, human rights protection must also evolve to operate within polycentric systems. Just as...
20 Jan Q&A: The Times and Temporalities of Human Rights
...by showing up the concurrent timelines at play (still enduring one trauma as the next begins), demonstrating the snares that law sets for itself (through, for example, not anticipating its own failure or ‘stuckness’), and the predictable outcomes of the timelines law and policy establish. NM: I was struck, in reading the collection, by the pervasive presence of temporality in human rights law, in its promises and aspirations and also in its fault lines and limitations – from the idea of progressive evolutive interpretation in the ‘living instrument’ doctrine of...08 Jan Liberia’s TRC Begins Work
The beginning of Charles Taylor’s trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone is obviously big news, and those who are interested in the trial should check out the live-blogging and analysis here. But Taylor’s trial should not overshadow an equally important event related to the civil war in Liberia — the launch of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: The commission was established along similar lines to South Africa’s post-apartheid body. Since 2003, Liberia has inched forward, helped by the presence of thousands of peacekeeping troops. The conflict saw the...03 Feb Sorting through the Torture Debate: Lederman in a Split Decision
...discretion here. If the Administration has a policy to treat detainees “humanely” but nonetheless prisoners are not being treated “humanely” as well as (possibly) in violation of certain laws, the Administration is responsible for not preventing these abuses, even if they were not technically illegal. In order for the Administration to use coercive interrogations skirting the lines of legality, they must demonstrate the judgment and the credibility that they would wield such power judiciously. Their record thus far is not very reassuring, to say the least. No one in the...