Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...objectives are all valid and important. But is questionable whether they can be achieved best through a broadening of the options for military force. International law offers alternative paths to the use of force to achieve rationales, such as accountability, deterrence or sanctioning of jus in bello violations, i.e. preventive diplomacy, lawful countermeasures, international criminal justice, sanctions etc. Broadening the categories of the use of forces has trade-offs. It weakens these options and their underlying regimes (e.g. non-coercive and non-violent response measures under Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter,...

...impacts would further complicate the adoption of some sort of IIS. Many executive branch activities with likely international impacts would be lodged in the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Defense, activity that has historically been sheltered from such administrative requirements as the EIS and the Administrative Procedure Act. There is something cognitively dissonant about the concept of an International Impact Statement for, say, sanctions on Iran or the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. It’s even less likely that Congress would adopt a practice under which foreign stakeholder interests became...

...vague. As we previously noted in HLP I, limiting the definition of the term “training” to the “imparting of skills” does not cure unconstitutional vagueness because, so defined, the term “training” could still be read to encompass speech and advocacy protected by the First Amendment. For the foregoing reasons, we reject the government’s challenge and agree with the district court that the term “training” remains impermissibly vague because it “implicates, and potentially chills, Plaintiffs’ protected expressive activities and imposes criminal sanctions of up to fifteen years imprisonment without sufficiently defining...

...is not in the cards. As this Russian law professor explains, “If Russia refuses to fulfill the requirements of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea regarding the Greenpeace case, it will not entail any sanctions. International law does not provide punishment for insubordination,” Labin said. I don’t want to overstate the significance of this incident, but if Russia fails to comply (unlike Ghana earlier this year) and does not participate in the Annex VII arbitration (per the China example) either, this is another serious problem for the...

...an option given Russia’s role and veto power. (For the background legal context leading up to the Lockerbie trial, see here; and for an analysis of the verdict, see here.) The International Court of Justice was also approached by Libya and ruled that it had jurisdiction to proceed with the case – before the proceedings were terminated by the agreement of all parties. And of course, it is worth also remembering the role of economic sanctions in bringing pressure to bear. What the Lockerbie trial indicates is that there were...

...Fourth Geneva Convention is generally understood to encompass a duty to search for persons on States’ own territory accused of having committed, or ordered the commission of, grave breaches, and to prosecute or extradite such persons. The Article’s reference to the ‘suppression’ of other violations of the Convention is understood to refer to the need to institute appropriate rules of engagement, administrative and disciplinary measures, and possibly criminal sanctions, in respect of one’s own armed forces.  Arguably it also covers the enactment of domestic criminal legislation based on the territorial,...

...lower mental states such as dolus eventualis or recklessness? I worry about this argument. And here’s why. If intent = recklessness, then all cases of legitimate collateral damage would count as violations of the principle of distinction, because in collateral damage cases the attacker kills the civilians with knowledge that the civilians will die. And the rule against disproportionate attacks sanctions this behavior as long as the collateral damage is not disproportionate and the attack is aimed at a legitimate military target. But if intent = recklessness, then I see...

...genocide, which is enshrined in the Genocide Convention. He stated: States Parties confirm that genocide whether committed in time of peace or war, is a crime under international law that they undertake to prevent and punish … A State Party may choose from among a range of measures – diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, judicial initiatives, or the use of military force – to undertake to prevent or punish genocide. But the State Party’s choice is necessarily discretionary. (Quoted in William Schabas, Genocide in International Law, p. 496) Third: The Future...

...crash site, the Dutch prime minister said. Italy said on Friday it would close a sea rescue mission that has saved the lives of more than 100,000 migrants from Africa and the Middle East, a move one rights group warned could lead to a “surge of deaths” in the Mediterranean. Americas The United States has asked for targeted U.N. sanctions to be imposed on Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Houthi rebel leaders for threatening the peace and stability of Yemen and obstructing the political process. Sierra Leone...

...the countries that offer near-universal healthcare. Cyprus has denied media reports that it had briefly arrested Iran’s foreign minister for violation of an EU travel ban when he arrived at Nicosia International Airport to meet with the Cypriot President. The US has granted exemptions to China and Singapore from financial sanctions over oil trade with Iran. The EU has signed a free trade agreement with Peru and Colombia. Following difficult negotiations, the eurozone leaders have agreed on a deal to bailout banks and develop a eurozone supervisory regime for banks,...

...was raised. The Foreign Minster of Saudi Arabia and one of the Princes did mention, however, that tougher sanctions against Iran could be implemented without UN’s approval, demonstrating by the same token a degree of awareness of international law and legal procedure. Furthermore, there is some more interesting preliminary quantitative evidence on the importance of law in the discourse of officials. Cable analysis prepared by Guardian shows that as a subject matter in correspondence between officials the word “law” is mentioned in 2,473 documents and occupies 92nd place, in contrast...

...crime, there must somewhere be a criminal or else it is merely a series of unfortunate events; if there is a criminal, he or she did not act alone, because these agents acted under instructions from a principal. So this is my concern: If it is politically unrealistic to consider going after Barack Obama and Harold Koh and Leon Panetta and Joe Biden, et al., and that is the reason for not pursuing criminal sanctions that follow upon criminality, well, one has to wonder when it will be politically realistic....