Search: extraterritorial sanctions

This IHT report documents horrific human rights abuses in Myanmar/Burma gathered by an Englishman who has been sneaking in Burma over the past five years. Of course, the real story here is that these abuses, if true, are going on. But the practical question: Is there any remedy for foreign governments, consistent with existing international law, to stop the abuses. (Note: The U.S. still has as many sanctions on Burma as I believe is possible. But I don’t think China is nearly as scrupulous). Well, I suppose Kosovo and maybe...

...Venezuela and Iran, to seize enemy and neutral oil tankers and institute forfeiture proceedings against them on the basis of unilateral US sanctions. The blockade issue is complicated by, first, questions over whether some of these vessels qualified as stateless, and second, that the US claims to have imposed a ‘global blockade’, rather than a geographically defined one, as required by international law (San Remo Manual, Article 94). By bringing the issue under the remit of civil forfeiture, rather than the traditional law of prize, the US makes its own...

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...

...practices, including the erosion of due process guarantees and the normalization of corporal punishment against women and children. The focus here, however, is on Article 9, which unambiguously establishes a stratified system of criminal punishment based on social status. The Regulation governs the imposition of taʿzir — that is, discretionary punishment, as opposed to ḥadd, which entails mandatory sanctions. Article 15 provides that “for every offense for which no fixed ḥadd punishment is prescribed, taʿzir shall be imposed on the offender,” regardless of whether the offender “is free or enslaved,...

...different ways. First, the UN Security Council (UNSC) may take action under its Chapter VII powers to supply relief itself, impose sanctions against the offending actors, or intervene militarily. Second, private aid organizations, foreign states, and international organizations likely may continue to provide assistance regardless of the sovereign’s disapproval with appropriate legal justification. Third, criminal charges may be filed against the individual(s) responsible for disrupting aid if doing so rises to the level of a war crime or a crime against humanity. Finally, another state may sue the offending state...

[Piet Eeckhout is a Professor at University College London and a leading authority in EU Law and international economic law. He notes that he has been involved in the Kadi litigation on the side of Sheikh Kadi.] Devika Hovell’s paper is an excellent attempt at conceptualising the relationship between the domestic judge and the UN Security Council (UNSC). That relationship has come about as a consequence of the UNSC’s smart sanctions policies, which intrude in the daily lives of those which are subject to them. Most of the significant case...

[Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 25 years of UN and other experience dealing with the rule of law and international peace and security efforts including peacekeeping, sanctions, disarmament and counterterrorism.] In the face of a veto by any permanent member of the UN Security Council blocking enforcement action against the mass atrocities in Palestine, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen and elsewhere, is the international community helpless to help – failing to fulfill its responsibility to protect? Proponents of the use of force for purposes of...

...fled to Tunisia. This defection is a big deal. Ghanem had been at OPEC when Libya was under economic sanctions, and his return to Libya as prime minister and head of the ruling party in 2003 was intended to signal Muammar Qaddafi’s return to respectability in the international community. Ghanem became the face of the reformed Libya, which had given up its dabbling in chemical and other weapons and was willing to privatize its state sector industries and do big deals with Western oil companies. He staunchly defended Qaddafi, going...

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...

...what might satisfy this due diligence obligation. Dormann and Serralvo offer examples of states enforcing sanctions against other states not in compliance (an approach that might also arguably be applied to nonstate actors), or the panoply of regulations and restrictions attached to arms export. Domestic and international frameworks governing arms export, trade, and assistance tend to be at least partly motivated by the responsibilities invoked under Common article 1 as well as other treaty obligations to prevent weapons transfers that might contribute to serious violations of IHL or human rights...

...the IAEA refused to recognize in 1982 the credentials of Israeli delegates in the aftermath of the raid on the Osiraq reactor; Myanmar was deprived of ILO technical cooperation in 1999 as a result of its practice of forced labor; the OAS suspended Cuba from membership in 1962; Egypt was suspended from the Organization from the Islamic Conference in 1979. (These examples are cited as the kind of countermeasures anticipated by the ILC’s articles by Frédéric Dopagne, “Sanctions and Countermeasures by International Organizations: diverging Lessons for the Idea of Autonomy,”...

...a matter of intense bilateral concern. When President Barack Obama and Argentine President Christine Fernandez met for the first time in November 2011, the two heads of state spent the majority of their time discussing Argentina’s obligation to pay the arbitration awards, and the consequences that would flow from its failure to do so. The United States is clearly calculating that such trade sanctions will alter Argentina’s cost-benefit analysis. Buenos Aires is set to pay approximately $18 million annually in increased duties as a result of the GSP suspension, far...