Search: crossing lines
16 Sep Legal Accountability of International Organizations and Their Agents
...such as telephone lines, etc.? This is, after all, an investigation by a state DA, and not even a federal prosecutor. Although somewhat weirdly, given the politics at that moment, a local level investigation by a state DA of unimpeachable integrity and also a stalwart of the Democratic establishment – rather than a DOJ investigation by the then-Bush administration, turned out to be far more politically palatable. In any case, the weakened Annan did not do what might otherwise have been an inflexible and categorical response of the UN –...17 Sep In Free Trade Move, Honduras Privatizes Three Cities, Extremely (A New Kind of Company Town?)
...to Mauritius and then to the UK Privy Council (according to this earlier report). This strikes me as the leading edge of a potentially huge development, in which private actors more formally get their own pieces of turf and the lines between sovereign entities further blur. This is by no means to necessarily to celebrate the development (science fiction suggests this dystopian destination). But it does deepen the challenge to received doctrine, and it will require legal innovation to situate the new, private city-state in the world of international law....02 Apr Kosovo, South Ossetia, and Crimea: the Legal Rhetoric of Intervention, Recognition, and Annexation
...call on everyone to respect that voluntary choice,” he said, adding that his Government could not refuse Crimeans their right to self-determination. Historical justice had been vindicated, he noted, recalling that for many years, Crimea had been part of the Russian Federation, sharing a common history, culture and people. An arbitrary decision in 1954 had transferred the region to the Ukrainian Republic, upsetting the natural state of affairs and cutting Crimea off from Russia. Gone were the bright lines that Russia had said existed regarding Kosovo: that inasmuch as Serbia...
07 Mar Seychelles, the United States, and Transitional Justice: Big Lessons from Little Countries
...the army and police, blurring the lines between the two, and started a People’s Militia where neighbor spied on neighbor and civilian members used army-supplied guns and equipment to intimidate those perceived as not sufficiently supportive. Militia membership was a way to show allegiance to the regime. Dissidents were harassed, detained, tortured, or disappeared, their families often forced to self-exile to the United Kingdom or Australia. Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles—March 5, 2021. The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC)—a truth-seeking body devoted to investigating alleged violations of human rights during...
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...28 Dec Can Spider-Man Save the UN’s Image?
...to be distributed free to 1 million U.S. schoolchildren, will be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature superheroes such as Spider-Man working with U.N. agencies such as Unicef and the ‘blue hats,’ the U.N. peacekeepers.” At least we know Spidey can scale those ten stories that John Bolton wanted to lop off UN Headquarters! Full story at the FT here. Commentary at the NYTimes Opinionator here. Apparently, the story lines are still being developed. So what UN tasks would you like to see taken on by the superheroes?...
25 Oct What Black Widow Can Teach Us About Human Trafficking Law
[Samantha Franks is an associate at a law firm in Washington D.C., where she specializes in international trade. She is a former Frederick Douglass Fellow, a former Fulbright postgraduate scholar, and a current member of the Department of Health and Human Services Office on Trafficking in Person’s working group.] For many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 2021 release of Black Widow felt like a breath of fresh air. After twelve years on the sidelines, the film finally gave the first female Avenger, portrayed by Scarlett Johansson, a story of her...
18 Aug Forced Sterilisation and Transformative Reparations: The Inter‑American Court’s Seminal Judgment in Ramos Durand et al. v. Peru
...Indigenous and rural women, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) created in June 2001 did not incorporate forced sterilisation among the core violations it investigated. This despite the possibility of addressing it under categories such as torture or other serious injuries. That omission carried into the design of Peru’s Integral Reparations Plan (PIR) in 2005, which followed the CVR’s lines and consequently excluded survivors of forced sterilisation from the programme and its Victims’ Unified Registry (RUV). Later amendments in 2021 broadened categories by referring to “sexual violence in its various...