Search: extraterritorial sanctions

Kenya’s Supreme Court has upheld Uhuru Kenyatta’s election as president. Although there were some riots over the weekend and five were killed, the situation in Kenya is described as calm but tense. North Korea has described its nuclear weapons program as the nation’s life, and has vowed to continue it despite the international sanctions. South Korea, meanwhile, has vowed a swift response to any provocation by the North and the US has deployed more radar-evading fighter jets. French-supported Malian forces are fighting Tuareg rebels in the north of Mali after...

China and Russia are resisting calls for sanctions against Sudan and South Sudan being pushed by the United States and other Western nations within the UN Security Council. South Sudan has claimed that Sudan bombed oil fields yesterday in the latest clash between the two nations. The decision on Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s immunity in the civil law suit brought against him by the Sofitel housekeeper is due today. In the most explicit acknowledgment to date, John Brennan made a speech yesterday discussing the US’ targeted killing program. Marty Lederman linked to...

...of Russia’s aggression and the demand that Russia abide by its humanitarian law obligations. Despite international denunciation of Russia’s aggression and a barrage of EU and U.S. sanctions, 57% of Russians blamed NATO for the death and destruction in Ukraine, 17% blamed Ukraine itself, and only 7% blamed Russia, according to Levada. Levada also found Putin’s approval rating rose from 61% in August 2021 to 83% in March 2022. That Russian public opinion is so much at odds with the way much of the rest of the world views the...

Justice Holmes famously argued that “If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which such knowledge enables him to predict, not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience.” Holmes was articulating the contractual concept of an efficient breach. If the costs of performance exceed the benefits to all the parties, a breach of contract is...

...added he was concerned about the threat of ethnic cleansing. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday he does not believe tighter sanctions against Russia will help resolve the Ukraine crisis even though Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the European Union is considering further sanctions. Sweden has confirmed that a small foreign submarine illegally entered its waters last month, though it was still unclear which country was behind the intrusion, officials have said. The British prime minister has outlined plans to seize passports from British nationals linked to...

...and legitimise UNGA actions. Part 2 asks what action the UNGA should take in light of this report. Specifically, whether the UNGA has the legal authority and should recommend UN Member States to issue sanctions against Israel until it fully complies with the ceasefire agreement, and whether states following those recommendations can do so legally. Independent Commission of Inquiry Report 2025 The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (“the Commission”) was established on 27 May 2021 by the Human Rights Council....

The LA Times recently carried this op-ed by former Australian FM Gareth Evans on the successes of preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping (perhaps better described as peacemaking) missions around the world. He cites the Human Security Report 2005 for evidence that the incidence of war is on the decline, and that third-party interventions (diplomatic, sanctions, military deployments) play a large role in the success stories. As Evans notes, one of the problems of measuring success is how to determine the conflicts that were avoided – the Holmesian (Sherlock, not Oliver Wendell)...

...Resettlement of displaced people. As issues of return affect not just Ukraine and Russia, but the international organisations who manage issues of resettlement and return, and the third-party host states, this is an issue that is likely to require some level of geopolitical agreement. Sanctions relief, reconstruction and international financial support. These all require geopolitical agreement between those involved in imposing sanctions, and will need to be linked to whatever settlement is agreed between Russia and Ukraine. Regional stability framework. Any wider regional stability framework that would attempt to include...

...and for Ukraine v. Russia in Crimea) and issues of non-intervention (e.g. Qatar v. UAE on sanctions and travel bans against Qataris) to be complained of under the cover of racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, cultural erasure, targeted murders and torture as well as other human rights protected by the CERD. The strategy is to cleverly re-characterize the dispute around racial discrimination in order to pass the step of jurisdiction ratione materiae. A clear example of this reformulation would be Ukraine’s argument in the Ukraine v. Russia case that “while it...

...an attack could trigger catastrophic radioactive releases requiring mass evacuations across hundreds of kilometers, potentially affecting neighboring countries. The IAEA’s Diplomatic Approach to Non-Compliance: A Pathway to Resolution The IAEA follows a clear escalation process when countries violate nuclear agreements. IAEA inspectors first identify violations and report them to the Director General, who presents findings to the 35-member Board of Governors. The Board initially asks the violating country to fix the problem. If diplomacy fails, the IAEA refers the case to the UN Security Council for potential sanctions. This process...

...that more harm could be done to the value of international humanitarian law by throwing in a referral to the court as a way to garner support for sanctions against Khartoum. Goldsmith says that “even though criminal courts have done little to bring reconciliation to Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia,” or even “deter future crimes,” it is nevertheless “possible that the concrete threat of an ICC prosecution could temper the killings in Darfur without adversely affecting the recent peace deal…” While he seems to recognize that this is a pretty...

South Sudan’s Parliament has ratified a border and oil deal with Sudan, which includes a demilitarized zone between the two states. The EU has placed new sanctions on Iranian oil, gas and tanker companies, the effects of which Iran calls futile. In related news, A NYTimes article describes the impact of European sanctions on Iran’s ability to keep the money printing presses going. Invoking humanitarian reasons, the UK government has blocked the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the United States where he is wanted for hacking into military computers in...