Search: extraterritorial sanctions
07 Jul A Crisis of International Law or of Mutual Respect? An Optimistic Legacy to Our Students
...a sort of double standard in the enforcement of international law, which strikingly differs depending on whether the wrongdoer is a great power or one of its closest allies. Thirdly, other unilateral measures affecting global problems have multiplied despite clear-cut treaty prohibitions on them: the imposition of customs tariffs, the deportation of migrants, the extraterritorial arrest of drug traffickers and terrorists, the boost in greenhouse emissions, and the sanction of UN and ICC officials just for doing their job. Fourthly, an ever-growing number of states are withdrawing from, or hampering...
23 Jun Digital Clarity: Why International Law Needs Clearer Application in the Digital Space
...control over territory. Furthermore, States must ensure their cyber capabilities and operations comply with existing international obligations, including human rights law, international humanitarian law, and treaty commitments. The extraterritorial application of human rights obligations takes on new dimensions when State surveillance technologies can monitor individuals globally or when State cyber operations affect critical infrastructure providing essential services. In December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted the Eleven Norms of Responsible State behaviour in cyberspace. Although these norms are voluntary, they are based on international law obligations. However, it is concerning...
07 Dec Advancing Human Rights in Pandemic Treaty Debates
...“solidarity” – that is, “national, international, multilateral, bilateral, and multisectoral collaboration, coordination and cooperation in order to achieve a fairer, more equitable and better prepared world” (art. 4). Other experts of international law and relations argue that global solidarity encompasses not only pandemic preparedness, but espouses broader obligations, including the notion of common but differentiated responsibility, the denouncing of charitable assistance, and intergenerational equity – providing for manifestations of solidarity in pandemic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Aligning this clear commitment to global solidarity with extraterritorial human rights obligations of...01 Oct Kiobel Argument Goes Badly for Shell (FWIW)
...well, allowing for the possible interposition of procedural bars to the making of Alien Tort claims (as pushed by Sotomayor). He got in an effective IG Farben analogy and even a little human rights speechifying (see p. 55). Breyer gets the award for zinger of the day: “if Hitler isn’t a pirate, who is?” (Anyone want to do the legal math on that one?) So predictions of the ATS (extraterritorial) demise may be premature. On the other hand, recent experience demonstrates that predictions based on oral arguments are not especially...
26 Jun The Ljubljana-The Hague Convention: Where are we Now?
...The ICC has launched a new policy under which it will operate as a ‘justice hub’, supporting national authorities. At the same time, record numbers of states are pursuing domestic trials of international crimes on the basis of universal and extraterritorial jurisdiction. The vital role of inter-state assistance has never been more apparent: a robust legal framework which enables states to request and share information and evidence, access victims, witnesses and assets, and extradite suspects is essential if states are to effectively prosecute international crimes. The purpose of the Ljubljana-The...14 May Brookings Conference on Legislating Counterterrorism
...for going after terrorists themselves. But even as the administration wants to expand the reach of the strategy, the legal space for it threatens to shrink. And it is not especially clear that the administration understands that acceptance of certain things that parts of its foreign policy advisors would like to do – accept extraterritorial application of the ICCPR, for example – would have potentially grave effects on the legal rationales it offers for its targeted killing strategies. I see it as a potential clash within the Obama administration’s foreign...
06 Sep Once Again: Drone Killings and International Law
...actors (BVerfG, 2 BvE 2/16, paras. 50–51). At any rate, such extraterritorial operations may constitute a violation of the sovereignty of the State of sojourn. If this State – for example, Afghanistan (now represented by the Taliban) – did not consent to such an attack, the strike would constitute a violation of the principle of non-intervention derived from the principle of the sovereign equality of States (Article 2(1) UN Charter) (cf. ICJ, Nicaragua Judg. 1986, para. 202); it could also amount to a violation of the prohibition of the use...20 May A Truly Bizarre Invocation of the “Unwilling or Unable” Test
...region. See generally Ashley S. Deeks, “Unable or Unwilling”: Toward a Normative Framework for Extraterritorial Self-Defense, 52 Va. J. Int’l Law 483 (2012) (discussing the development and limitations of the unable and unwilling test); Essentially, the US is claiming that the invasion of Venezuela was legitimate self-defence because at the time of the invasion the government of Venezuela was led by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, not Nicolas Maduro, and Gonzalez was unable to prevent Maduro from using Venezuelan territory to launch armed attacks against the US. A more bizarre invocation of...11 Jul A Canal Runs Through It
...the plaintiffs. But the court isn’t buying it. It finds that the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) doesn’t protect foreign harms, including Mexican seepage wetlands just south of the border. Statutes don’t normally have extraterritorial application and there’s nothing in NEPA to suggest Congress wanted to protect these foreign environmental harms. Okay, that argument didn’t hold water, so the plaintiffs try for trans-boundary harm. Harms in Mexico will have trans-boundary harms in the United States. Like what? Well, the loss of seepage in Mexico will reduce crop importation to the...
11 Oct Rethinking International Law After Gaza Symposium: Trade, Resistance and International Law – Responding to Atrocities
...world states violate human rights, rule-of-law-abiding weapons manufacturers in the first world respond to the conscience of humanity by adhering to their extraterritorial human rights obligations (see, EU Criterion Two). However, when benevolent and civilised states commit atrocities, these actions are often dismissed as the unfortunate consequences of war. The suspension of arms trade is not even considered until the scale of the atrocities becomes too significant to ignore. When it’s raining bombs, trade becomes a passive factor against carnages and barbarisms of weapon-yielding entities, states or non-state entities or...