Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...a useful role in standard setting and, when those standards are not adhered to, in imposing sanctions or counter measures. Whether those sanctions and counter measures are effective for the use of force is reflective of political will rather than a deficiency in the law. During its annexation of Crimea, Russia attempted to use international law to shield its actions from scrutiny and avoid consequences for breaching the prohibition on the use of force. Rather than marking a failure of the law, the Crimean situation highlighted that even though international...

...‘‘savages’,’ and even international law. It must be pointed out that the UK, and the US, the core of Israel defence in international platforms, were the last supporters of Apartheid South Africa, a support they gave despite stiff opposition from African countries. Incidentally, it was during those years that the West purported to impose sanctions on countries that were accused of tolerating or undertaking ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, or violations of international law. Western sanctions, that were construed in terms of human rights protection, thus became tools of enforcing...

...current concern, whether on academic topics close to my heart like Jus Post Bellum or newsworthy international law developments, including a post here on the relationship between sanctions and the 2013 deal with Iran, a post here on Bashir’s interest in coming to the 2013 General Assembly, and the East China Sea dispute available here. Each type of blogging brings its own rewards, and puts one in contact with different networks of academics, practitioners, journalists, and observers, from around the world. Blogging has also prompted me to follow subjects I’m...

Blog reports on the four new judges at the European Court of Human Rights, representing Bosnia, Croatia, Moldova and Russia. The UN is likely to hold a debate in November about the status of Palestine and whether to upgrade its current observer entity status to observer state status. In Tehran, Iranian police have clashed with protestors upset with the fall of the rial more than 40% in a week due to Western sanctions. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that these sanctions could be eased quickly with atomic cooperation....

...is considering trade sanctions against the Netherlands because of stickers printed by far-right politician Geert Wilders which display anti-Islam slogans in the colors of the Saudi flag. Russia came under heavy criticism at the WTO from several of its trading partners, who raised sharp questions over whether Moscow – one of the global trade body’s newest members – is indeed adhering to the international trade commitments that it took on less than two years ago. The West should impose tougher sanctions on Russia, which is waging a “hidden war” in...

...and (3) it is not clear why it should never be acceptable to tolerate a “great evil” in the name of peace. The essay then discusses two basic problems with his proposals for horizontal pluralization, focusing on his support for non-punitive collective sanctions: (1) in order to avoid being retributively unjust, collective sanctions would have to be imposed using the same liberal-legalist procedures that paralyze international criminal trials; and (2) only retributively unjust collective sanctions could effectively deter mass atrocity. As always, comments are welcome and would be most appreciated....

...welcome addition to the draft treaty because a series of offences catalogued as crimes under international law or for which international law requires criminalization require separate treatment in the treaty, given their serious character and gravity. However, it also raises questions because it would have some overlap with article 6.1 that mandates a comprehensive legal liability system, presumably also including civil, administrative and criminal. The text of article 6.7 is not clearly linked to a clause providing for sanctions or penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offences (which appears...

...from vetoing any sanctions? My guess is that international opinion and pressure will be so overwhelming that Russia will go along with any punishment against the Syrian state, but that the punishment will be sadly weak. Sanctions are a fairly inefficient tool of statecraft, have little effect (link is to the JSTOR database; subscription required), and typically punish the civilian population more than political leadership (I’ll consider the problem of sanctions in a post later this week). So, for those of you who have faith in the UN and international...

Don’t worry, this post is not about President Bush’s authority to exercise “unreviewable statutory authority” in the war on terrorism. Rather, it is about how President Bush does get to exercise “unreviewable statutory authority” in the administration of U.S. trade laws. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Motion Systems v. Bush, a case challenging President Bush’s decision not to impose import sanctions on certain Chinese products despite an International Trade Commission decision supporting such sanctions. (The S.G.’s Brief opposing cert is here and the lower Court of Appeals...

...Torture, and the ICC statute’s article 14, which allows ICC members to make referrals and immediately prompt a preliminary examination. Instead, States have either lacked the political will or otherwise missed rare opportunities to exercise jurisdiction over Sri Lankan perpetrators. Yes, some have imposed sanctions, but sanctions aren’t enough; in the words of the latest UN report, sanctions “remain limited in scope and cannot in themselves substitute for criminal prosecutions and trials” (para. 55). The UN continues to keep silent on whether there are reasonable grounds to believe genocide occurred,...

...Clinton is calling on the UNSC for tougher sanctions against Syria, even though such sanctions are expected to be vetoed. The EU Parliament has approved a deal with the US on air passenger data sharing that includes tighter restrictions to ensure privacy. EU foreign ministers are set to suspend sanctions against Myanmar for one year. Colombia’s FARC denies any plans to surrender, despite proposing negotiations with government. Tensions further escalate between Sudan and South Sudan as the current Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir has promised to teach its neighbor to...

...territorial sea.  The UK seized the vessel because it was believed to be transporting Iranian oil to Syria in breach of sanctions responding to international crimes. While this act violated the ship’s (or Panama’s) passage rights under the law of the sea, the law governing countermeasures arguably offered avenues for precluding its wrongfulness. In casu, the British action must be seen within the broader context of Western sanctions then aimed at dissuading the Assad regime from persisting in international crimes and other human rights violations.  But this argumentative option is...