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Search: crossing lines

24 Oct

...implies that, like reports of other international organizations, this report ends up with “muddy, often useless conclusions in an attempt to avoid rocking the boat.” Well, I guess someone better tell all those demonstrators in Damascus to calm down. That is not the result of a document that avoids rocking the boat. What is even more interesting are the comments of some of the Syrians in the street when asked about the report. Comments were along the lines of, “well, if these allegations turn out to be true then whoever...
24.10.05 | |

05 Nov

...Americans, and only incidentally to others. Most Americans would hew to that today, but it’s not quite as easy to get there as in the past. Obama’s speech threaded the identity issue with this: “our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared.” I expect we’ll see some elaboration in the inaugural address. Perhaps something alongs the lines of his “citizen of the world” riff at Berlin? The speech will easilly be the most internationally-directed (and consumed) inaugural address in U.S. history. How much will he speak to Americans, singularly,...
05.11.08 | |

12 May

...elements for restitution. International human rights law is an example. In this context, the Human Rights Council has recognized that organized looting, smuggling, and theft of and illicit trafficking in cultural property undermines the full enjoyment of cultural rights.  In the present post, I will lay down some general remarks concerning the relationship between cultural heritage and human rights law. I will present some alternatives to rely on this body of law in order to enable the restitution of culturally relevant pieces. Another aim of these lines is to suggest...
12.05.23 | |

23 Oct

...Armed Conflict was created by the General Assembly ( Resolution A/RES/51/77 ) following the publication, in 1996, of a report by Graça Machel titled the “Impact of Armed Conflict on Children”. The Machel Report provided the first comprehensive assessment of the multiple ways in which children are abused and brutalized in the context of war. It highlighted that contemporary warfare was changing and that the lines between civilian and combatant were no longer clear, with children often on the frontline and directly targeted. It stressed the disproportionate impact of war on children and...
23.10.20 | |

09 Dec

...ideological lines, thereby delegitimizing customary rules and increasing fragmentation. Thus, far from being an unqualified boon to benevolent legal ordering, codification can replicate, magnify, or alter power dynamics present in forming bare customary law. Indeed, the fragmentation of customary law that can result from codification actually prevents a unified understanding of customary law from emerging — the exact opposite of codification’s ostensible purpose. This Article uses the Capture Thesis to explain important developments in customary international law, including the outlawing of the slave trade in the nineteenth century, the rise...
09.12.11 | |

08 Sep

...years – a “global” corporation that was in fact balkanized, sometimes viciously so, in its local business units around the world along ethnic, national, and similar lines. Management in NY would sing the praises of the “universal” company and its “universal” values – but there was only one matter in which there was general agreement about universals, and that was finance. Finance – quoting the extremely business-credentialed financial engineer spouse of a close friend – was the only truly common language among the various business units. Human resources, in her...
08.09.10 | |

16 Apr

...fact that IHL may apply to situations in which a multinational operation is involved is nowadays accepted, states and international organisations are generally reluctant to admit that a peace operation has become party to an armed conflict. Such possibility has been often discussed but frequently let sink through the lines and rarely tackled head on. If, on the one hand, the capacity of a multinational operation to become party to the conflict is often taken for granted, the concretisation of such a possibility is on the other hand never explicitly...
16.04.18 | |

06 Sep

...UN ROE, the Force Commander has command responsibility to order the necessary and permissible use of force to fulfill the POC mandate. To the extent that UN military contingents continue to be subject to their national command and exclusive criminal jurisdiction, however, many contingents and their commanders do not fully accept the unified command and operational control of the UN Force Commander.. The resulting dual lines of authority undermine the authority of the UN Force Commander, the responsiveness of national contingents to his or her orders, and ultimately the credibility...
06.09.16 | |

16 Jan

...denied his requests. And he’s extremely upset at “the tyrants [who] won’t allow me to attend #CES2015, #TNABC or anything in the US.” Here’s Roger with his “Borders are Imaginary Lines” t-shirt he wore for his appointment at the US Embassy Barbados to apply for a Visa. He even seems to be selling these shirts as a way people can express their opposition to the tyranny that is keeping him from visiting the US. As I’ve written before, I don’t think American citizens who renounce their citizenship for tax purposes...
16.01.15 | |

07 May

...control of independent sovereign nations. They ask states to delegate lawmaking, law enforcement, or adjudication authority to bureaucracies, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, or the World Trade Organization, that operate along undemocratic lines and remain unaccountable to any nation. These efforts at global governance create tension with American constitutional controls on state power…. Many scholars of international law argue that globalization’s demands justify abnormal powers for the federal government. Treaties on global warming or the environment, for example, should have a reach beyond the Constitution’s...
07.05.12 | |

01 Mar

...lines proposed by the working group, it will only serve to undercut the legitimacy of international law. Indeed, given the current nature of state practice with respect to the use of force and the lack of compliance with the UN Charter framework, I am led to the conclusion that aggression cannot be defined as a crime under international law at this time. But this should not be too troubling. The Security Council continues to have the authority under Article 39 to find that a state has committed an act of...
01.03.10 | |

22 Oct

...the primary motivations for state compliance with international law: reciprocity. UPDATE: There is an informative article in the New York Times Magazine addressing the difficulty of where to draw the line when soldiers are on the ground facing threatening circumstances. It addresses the question of “the line that separates nonlethal force that is justified – and sometimes very painful – from nonlethal force that is criminal.” Not directly relevant to enemy detention, but underscores the need to draw lines between what is criminal mistreatment and what is not. Read it....
22.10.05 | |