Search: crossing lines
30 May Options for a Peace Settlement in Ukraine: Option Paper V – Dispute Settlement Mechanisms and Peace Agreements
...arrangement would be particularly useful given the part-domestic and part-international nature of any likely agreement. It would offer the opportunity of dealing with disputes related to the domestic aspects of the agreement first in a domestic setting (utilising both political and judicial dispute settlement mechanisms) before referring any unresolved matters to an international body. Such an international body could, in parallel, deal with any disputes arising from the international aspects of the agreement. Alternatively, one could consider a hybrid body, for example along the lines of the Joint Supervisory Body...
05 Oct ‘Barbie’: How a Film has Reignited the Debate About China’s Claims to Sovereignty in the South China Sea
...South China Sea,’ stating that: ‘[We Hereby] Reaffirm our respect for and commitment to the safety and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea, in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS.’ Momentarily, however, China-ASEAN negotiations on a ‘Code of Conduct in the South China Sea’ have stalled; nevertheless, guidelines to accelerate them were agreed on 13 July 2023. ‘Blurred Lines’ Meanwhile, the Philippines has approved the release of ‘Barbie.’ The Philippine Movie and Television Review and Classification Board has concluded that the film does...
11 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: Private Investigators, Public Accountability – Digital Forensics and the Politics of Evidence in International Crimes
...for selective curation of evidence, and, importantly, the vulnerability to weaponization and politicization of sensitive data. In this short post, I critically examine these risks and argue that the current lack of accountability structures beyond voluntary codes of conduct for private actors creates legal and ethical fault lines. As a potential solution, I propose a shift in international legal thinking: rather than relying on formal legal personality, responsibility should be based on an actor’s practical engagement in justice processes. The Politics of Evidence in International Conflicts Since these armed attacks...31 Oct Global FEMA?
...costs away from those who cause them. Compensate folks for building houses on floodplains or sand dunes and they’ll just build them again. These problems would presumably be compounded at the international level. So maybe the endpoint is more in the way of today’s state-federal partnerships than in the way of world-government FEMA. FEMA itself is starting to do some thinking vaguely along these lines; here is a news item from earlier this week about an EU-IOM-Namibia agreement that institutionalizes disaster relief in advance. Other such arrangements will surely follow....
12 Dec Challenges to Security in the Black Sea: Analyzing the Tripartite Initiative Operation in the Black Sea
...is obliged to notify the neutral states of risks to innocent shipping. As long as military circumstances allow, the requirement to provide notification must be fulfilled promptly. Delayed notification does not automatically result in a breach of international law. The Tripartite Mine Clearing Operation As seen above, the three states being Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye (“the Tripartite”) have adequately reported the locations and the dangerous presence of sea-mines in the Black Sea near their coastal lines. The fact that all of them informed the international community about the presence of...02 Jun Law of the Sea Treaty Ratified! (By the Interior Department)
...the new lines is none other than the Law of the Sea Treaty, which, as the paper points out, the U.S. has thus far refused to ratify. Actually, this is not as crazy as the Times believes. The U.S. has signed the treaty after all, and it has also recognized many of its provisions as customary international law. U.S. courts apply customary international law all the time in resolving territorial disputes between states, so it seems fine if an executive agency (which otherwise has that authority) wants to use the...26 Oct Book Roundtable: Ruti Teitel’s Humanity’s Law
I’m delighted to have been asked to participate in this discussion of Ruti Teitel’s Humanity’s Law. Let me start by simply saying what a great read this book is. Congratulations to Ruti on a book that really does shift our thinking about the base lines of international law, challenge conventional notions of a state-centric international legal system, and help make sense of the changes across a range of sub-fields in international law that all do more to privilege the individual. Ruti’s central claim is that there has been a move...23 Jun New Rules for Cyberwar?
...the U.S. can defend itself by blocking cyber intrusions and taking down servers in another country. And, as in cases of mortar or missile attacks, the U.S. has the right to pursue attackers across national boundaries — even if those are virtual network lines. Under the new Pentagon guidelines, it would be unacceptable to deliberately route a cyberattack through another country if that nation has not given permission — much like U.S. fighter jets need permission to fly through another nation’s airspace. Uri Friedman over at the Atlantic Wire distills...
23 Aug International Investment Law Symposium: Is Foreign Direct Investment a Blessing or a Grift?
...Arbitrators preserve the solipsistic thinking of investors, translating special interests into general principles of the regime. Normative conflict is the only possible outcome as each demographic battles over jurisdictional lines. For example, a clever argument recently pursued to support the injection of human rights into the adjudication of panels is the ‘necessity defence’ under customary international law. Do prospective violations of human rights or ecological sustainability amount to a “grave and imminent peril”, permitting states to breach their investment treaty obligations? While this might seem like overreach, some investment tribunals...
09 May New Technologies Symposium: How Law and Autonomy (Should) Interact in War and Peace
...actions, the chapter could have discussed further the inherent difficulty in assigning responsibility in complex decision-making systems. Such decisional structures could easily become what I have previously called systems of organized irresponsibility. The lines of responsibility between those who program the software, those that decide on the deployment of an AWS and those who program mission parameters into systems with autonomous capabilities are likely to be difficult to discern. This is especially the case when the underlying technology – as is the case with AWS – makes it virtually impossible...