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Search: crossing lines

07 Jun

...is a crucial difference between a reasonable legal argument, and an argument which is merely arguable, in the sense that language or precedent can be twisted beyond any recognition. Let me just give you an example - the OLC/John Yoo conclusion that Afghanistan was a 'failed state' and therefore ceased to exist as a subject of international law, thereby obviating any treaty obligations the US might have. This argument is so totally and obviously wrong that any lawyer making it is crossing the basic bounds of professional ethics. It is...
07.06.07 | |

01 Jun

...focused on. The law on use of force draws some sharp lines between being subject to armed attack and virtually everything else. Do indices like this suggest that we should stop treating armed attack, and the possible use of force in response thereto, as being so singular? Kevin Heller My thanks to Ed and Patrick. As for "NewStream Dream" -- you might want to re-read the description of the blog. Last I checked it said that Opinio Juris is "[a] weblog dedicated to reports, commentary, and debate on current developments...
01.06.07 | |

04 Jun

...israel would also have the power to inspect any ships crossing into gaza's territorial waters. that itself wouldn't constitute a 'blockade', as israel would be the de facto authority over gaza's land, sea, ports, crossings and civilian population in that case. israel can't rightfully blockade itself. if israel isn't an occupier (as israel claims), then either one of two things is going on: 1) israel is asserting it's security presence within gaza's territorial waters according to the gaza-jericho agreement in which case israel's navy also has the right to stop...
04.06.10 | |

14 Nov

...residents at the time the crime was committed. Then again, since so many American criminals flee to Canada, maybe this will serve to make a few people think twice before crossing the border. Nick Donovan It's time to start thinking about shared funding models for extra-territorial jurisdiction investigation and trials. Crimes against humanity are deemed to be NOT crimes that are committed in a particular state. Yet the costs fall solely upon the state on whose shores the suspect happens to wash up. This gives prosecution and international crimes some...
14.11.09 | |

11 Aug

...I think we would need multiple attacks to conclude that MH17 was just the byproduct of a policy of firing at everything that flew. Alex Whiting Kevin, I see this as possibly fitting under your (2). It might have been the desire of the perpetrators to shoot down military aircraft, but if they then proceeded to shoot at airplanes without regard for the nature of the target, then we have a war crime. In Galić, the Trial Chamber considered evidence that after the SRK discovered that ABiH soldiers were crossing...
11.08.14 | |

21 Mar

...(I assume, for instance, that someone can be legally admitted as a dead person into the United States where she couldn’t have entered as a live one) Your corpse is not a person, it's a lump of meat, with a few legal protections regarding desecrating it. I don't see any reasons aside from health concerns that it should be barred from crossing country borders. Why would you deny someone's request to be buried in your country? Peter Spiro Matthew, I assume you're right, and I can't think of any reason...
21.03.07 | |

06 Feb

...citizen, or else you have to accept that there will be some military decision process. The reference to Quirin and Haupt in the Hamdi decision was only used to support detention, not execution. However, Haupt could not have been tried in a civilian court because the charge for which he was convicted, "crossing lines without uniform", is part of international military law and can only be charged in a military court. He could, however, have been tried before a Court Martial instead of a Military Commission (as any citizen today...
06.02.10 | |

09 Apr

...a rubber raft, you can kill him. If you see a scout behind your lines, you can shoot at him. Nobody calls these lone encounters a "battle" and nobody remembers them except the individuals involved. A war involves the entire territory of both countries and all international waters. When the US went to war with Afghanistan, international law does not distinguish between Kandahar and Chicago. We may have the military power to send planes and troops to fight in Kandahar, while the enemy may not have the power to send...
09.04.10 | |

20 May

...under IHL would cease to be so merely by the fact of crossing into a neutral third country. The threat that the individual poses would not diminish whatsoever—the only change would be to his/her physical location. This feels like an unnecessarily rigid positivist interpretation of the law. John C. Dehn Jonathan, thanks for responding. I completely agree that resort to IHL and jus ad bellum alone doesn't account for everything in situations where the host state consents to force against a nonstate actor within its borders but with which it...
20.05.13 | |

09 Jun

Ellis Telford Naive question time: Alston refers more than once to international law that requires "transparency and accountability." What and where exactly is this international law? Bryan J. Unrelated, but the Border Patrol shooting of the 15 year old Mexican at the Ciudad Juarez/El Paso crossing seems like an issue ripe for some international law analysis. For example, the evidence thus far shows that the border patrol officer shot the boy when the latter was in Mexican territory. Who gets jurisdiction over the officer, if indeed it is determined to...
09.06.10 | |

17 Jul

Diplomatic Gunboat Imagine if Governors Sarah Palin (born in Idaho but Gov. of Alaska) and Bill Richardson (N.M.) got the respective VP nods. Adding that to the Canal Zone versus Hawaii contest, one could argue that the one most anchored to the Lower 48 was Gov. Richardson, whose own border-crossing birth made him a natural born citizen. It does illustrate some of these different ideas we hold about citizenship and identity....
17.07.08 | |

15 May

Diplomatic Gunboat It is important to expose Trojan horse justifications. A declared policy of 'regime change' is straddling, if not outside, the bounds of international law and the UN Charter. With such a policy a state threatens that it will act on any stretched legal justification it can in order to accomplish its true and aggressive goal of toppling a foreign power. There are plenty of ways to urge policy and legal changes on a foreign government in very strong terms without crossing the line. Unfortunately, despite the lessons of...
15.05.08 | |