Search: crossing lines
05 Feb AJIL Symposium: Is the Vienna Convention Hostile to Drafting History? A Response to Julian Davis Mortenson, Part 2
...as internally inconsistent. This contention, however, builds on a misunderstanding of the role of the international legal scholar. Treaty interpretation is an activity that engages many different kinds of agents, including, for example, international legal scholars, judiciaries, state organs and representatives, and state counsels. Not all agents are subject to the same societal constraints, of course. Depending on the capacity of a treaty interpreter, consequently, different lines of action are typically expected. So, for example, is a person acting as state counsel expected to choose the line of action that...
03 Nov Third Annual Symposium on Pop Culture and International Law: Subverting Otherness Against Oppression – Decolonizing International Legal Scholarship Through the Music of Bob Marley and the TWAILers
...educational and religious systems of Western civilization, the ideological pillars of the imperialist colonial order: Building church and university Deceiving the people continually This part calls for epistemological independence, in terms similar to the famous lines from ‘Redemption song’: Emancipate yourself from mental slavery None but ourselves can free our minds ‘Ambush in the Night’ continues the argument against the status quo of colonial and imperialist domination. The song shows Marley’s skepticism and distrust not only of his friends, but of Babylon’s operations in general (political theories, ideologies, educational or...09 Mar Jenni Millbank Reflects on Panel 3 and Responds to Guglielmo Verdirame
...can be definitively drawn between integral and marginal conduct associated with sexuality. Sexual orientation is expressed—and revealed—in hundreds, if not thousands, of subtle and obvious ways through appearance, speech, behavior, dress and mannerisms. Moreover, lines between what is “integral” and what is “marginal” conduct associated with sexual minorities in another culture prospectively drawn by Western decision makers have often failed to properly encompass accepted human rights standards, as the lower level decisions in HJ and HT amply demonstrate. Over a decade of my own research on sexuality-based refugee status determination...09 Oct Omit Needless Words
...paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts…. Many expressions in common use violate this principle…. In especial the expression “the fact that” should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs. So how do the top law journals perform under the microscope of William Strunk and E.B. White? In the countless hours of drafting and editing, do the top scholars and top student editors adhere to this elementary principle of composition? The results...
16 Feb UK Okpabi et al v Shell: UK Supreme Court Reaffirms Parent Companies May Owe a Duty of Care Towards Communities Impacted by their Subsidiaries in Third Countries
...Okpabi, and more than 42,000 individuals from the communities of Ogale and Bille in the Niger Delta, alleging that oil spills from the respondents’ pipelines caused severe environmental damage, affecting their land, livelihoods, water sources and health. They sued Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell), UK-based parent company, and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC, which operates the joint venture between Shell and the state-owned oil company. But the responsibility of Shell, and the jurisdiction of UK courts over the case, was contested by their legal counsel. Both the High Court and the...19 Dec Bali High?
...of bold transformation that many think is needed, given the severity of the climate problem. Moreover, the difficulties in negotiating the Bali Roadmap do not bode well for the treaty negotiations that will now commence. Despite the Bali decision, many countries (the United States foremost among them) still appear unprepared for serious negotiations – certainly, not until after the US Presidential elections next year. To make real progress, what is needed, above all, is US domestic action, along the lines of the Lieberman-Warner bill that was reported out of committee...
24 Mar The Potential of Gender Persecution in ICC Case Abd-Al-Rahman: A Twofold Opportunity to Interpret its Customary Status and Intersectional Discrimination
...para 54). Intersectionality fulfils this role enhancing ICL interpretations as it involves the application of customary IHRL standards such as the prohibitions of gender-based violence and discrimination. Intersectionality is not a substantive standard to be implanted in ICL, but a tool to interpret complex discrimination processes underpinning violence through contextualization, capturing the dynamics and lines of force of discrimination (MacKinnon 1023-4). Intersectionality does not involve any concept foreign to ICL but is inherentto it. It addresses concepts such as the prohibition of discrimination and gender-based violence that (as above-mentioned) have...
21 Jun The Inadequacy of the US State Department Report on Arms Exports Assurances: Part I
...making a prediction of risk from the assurances misses multiple critical lines of inquiry. It concentrates on just a few superficial criteria, and overlooks several key points and the overall context. Certainly, the State Department may have taken these factors into consideration in its internal, confidential evaluations and not mentioned them in its report to Congress, but the report lacks clarity and transparency in this regard. The fact that the State Department chose to only ask four brief, vaguely-phrased, and backwards-looking questions before making predictions on the likelihood of misuse...13 Dec Transitional Justice and Judicial Activism Symposium: Closing
...They stall, dither, and, eventually, render flawed decisions that try to square the circle and appease everyone but end up appeasing no one. And when they take advantage of the little leeway they have and manage to dodge the case, they are open to criticism because of the lack of transparency about the considerations that have been weighted. His proposal that international tribunals would have discretion to refuse cases say along political question lines is very interesting. No doubt, where a tribunal is long established and has acquired considerable legitimacy...05 Mar AG Holder’s National Security Speech – Text
...this work, as well as the special role of the Department of Justice in protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution. Before 9/11, today’s level of interagency cooperation was not commonplace. In many ways, government lacked the infrastructure – as well as the imperative – to share national security information quickly and effectively. Domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence operated in largely independent spheres. But those who attacked us on September 11th chose both military and civilian targets. They crossed borders and jurisdictional lines. And it immediately became clear...