Search: crossing lines
21 Jun The Inadequacy of the US State Department Report on Arms Exports Assurances: Part II
...refute this concern, the Report should have examined all foreseeable and relevant factors that would affect that determination. And given the gravity of the decision, and the failure to pursue various foreseeable lines of inquiry, the Report is indefensible. In fact, we can recall that some reporting claimed that the internal State Department cables between the non-political departments reached a drastically different outcome on the assurances than the Report given to Congress does. We know that a State Department employee who was a contributing author on the first draft of...10 Jun Pride 2020: a time for vigilance, collective action and digital spaces in the COVID-19 pandemic
...inequalities and fault-lines within society. As the world slowly returns to a not-so-normal new normal, social, financial assistance and access to safe, secure homes and the right to housing for LGBTQ persons will remain illusive. Without protection from discriminatory application of laws, lockdown and COVID-19 related measures, LGBTQ persons will continue to be disproportionately targeted by police in the application of new emergency criminal law. The increase in executive control shifts state power towards authoritarianism in many places and this does not auger well for human rights protections that we...29 Jul Emerging Voices: Distinction without a Difference – The UN’s Attempt to Fight A War Without Fighting A War
...commanders for leading an attack on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.) However, a successful prosecution requires the prosecutor to prove that the peacekeepers were “entitled to the protection given to civilians . . . under the international law of armed conflict” and that “the perpetrator was aware of the factual circumstances that established the protection.” To prove these elements, prosecutors often point to the peacekeepers’ distinctive uniforms, colors, and emblems to argue that the attackers knew that they were attacking protected peacekeepers, not an enemy force. Blurring the lines between...
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...03 May How Should the OBL Operation be Characterized?
...and Kooijmans recognized that in a post-9/11 world containing failed states, state practice strongly supports the view that an expansive reading of Article 51 to include non-state actors is appropriate. Sunday’s operation was another example of state practice undertaken with the belief that the boundaries of the battlefield are not determined by geopolitical lines but rather by the location of participants in an armed conflict, whether the participants are states or non-state actors. This continues to be the standard for determining where the law of armed conflict is properly applied....
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...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...