Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...been out of the public eye for the past two weeks, to discuss closer ties between the US and China. On her visit to the US, during which she will receive a Congressional Gold Medal, Aung San Suu Kyi has urged for an end of US sanctions against Myanmar. The IMF’s Executive Board has issued an ultimatum to Argentina to clarify its economic data, which could lead to a censure, a procedure never used in IMF history. Although tensions remain high, the Chinese authorities are trying to suppress anti-Japanese protests....

...But here’s the friendly challenge: how to reconcile a position that sees any value in international humanitarian regimes with the premise of his and Eric Posner’s The Limits of International Law, which dismisses IL as a mostly marginal constraint on state action (see for instance pp. 85-88). The Limits is not very keen on multilateral agreements insofar as they are not subject to reliable sanctions by independent third parties. Has something changed, or is there some about the anti-terror context which makes them a meaningful vehicle for modifying state behavior?...

China announced today it has requested consultations with the United States over the imposition of U.S. duties on certain Chinese paper products. This is WTO-speak for: “We’re filing a lawsuit”. This marks the first time China has ever used the WTO dispute settlement procedures on its own (it joined in Europe’s suit against the U.S. steel tariffs). The robust U.S-China trade relationship has hit a few bumps in recent years, and the new relatively anti-trade Democratic Congress has made things worse by threatening all sorts of nasty sanctions against China....

...and scope of obligations for particular non-state actors, such as businesses or corporations (e.g. sanctions, human rights, modern slavery), sporting bodies and organised armed groups; (4) the potential responsibility of these actors and its relationship to state responsibility; (5) the position of these actors in dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms, whether judicial institutions, organs of international organisations or treaty regimes; (6) the special roles of non-state actors in particular areas of international law, such as international environmental law, international economic law (including investment law), the international law of armed conflict,...

...is a growing emphasis on the management of natural resources like oil, timber and diamonds. In Iraq, oil been a key issue in the constitutional debate; in many African countries it has been the source of increasingly sophisticated Security Council sanctions regimes that have resulted in market regulation schemes (which I will discuss in a forthcoming post). This emphasis on regulation is affecting the core content the right to permanent sovereignty over natural resources, which many non-OECD countries have claimed is a jus cogens norm. Third, because economic development helps...

...student ponders why Argentina wasn’t bailed out like banks were in 2008 or Credit Suisse is today. Was a state of 50 million not too big to fail? Are odious debt and economic sanctions not also expressions of unlawful force? They quote Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan favourably; what’s the point of UN mechanisms if Euro-America can deploy international law with tactical impunity? A final student asks about the status of Palestine. If it declares itself a state, if 140 states recognise it as a state, is it not a state?...

...and sanctions regimes — in relation to going further than them to actual armed intervention or not.) C. Recognition of belligerency in a civil war Perhaps the most interesting legal view on how one might undertake humanitarian intervention in Libya was that offered by international law professor Jordan Paust. He suggested that there might be a recognition of belligerency in a civil war, and that the US and others could recognize the belligerency as a legal matter and then side with the rebels as the legitimate legal government of Libya....

...day to eventually get rid of their nuclear program. Additionally, the U.S. and North Korea will start on bilateral talks aimed at restarting diplomatic relations and, probably, some sort of peace treaty aimed at ending the Korean War (remember that war?). Does the U.S. Congress get to weigh in? Not on the agreement itself, but since the U.S. has also promised to begin removing North Korea from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state list and also on ending U.S. trade sanctions, Congress will get to have their say, I’m sure....

...truth commissions, legislative reparations, and (what will no doubt be the most controversial aspect of the book) collective civil sanctions. Mark knows that I do not agree with everything in the book. That said, Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law is a must-read for all international law scholars and practitioners. International criminal tribunals have reproduced almost virally over the past two decades, from the ICTY to the ICC to the various hybrid courts. It is thus critical to question, as Mark does, whether those institutions are capable of fulfilling their central...

...cyberespionage by its military (based on the argument that such activity is not commercial in nature), then denying conduct-based immunity to Chinese officials for the same acts would reinforce the disjunction between foreign state immunity and foreign official immunity in U.S. courts. At a broader level, the announcement of indictments against named Chinese officials reinforces a trend towards focusing pressure on individuals associated with undesirable state policies, whether through immigration enforcement or targeted sanctions. The full implications of this trend for international law and international relations remain to be seen....

...regarded as having a functional character. States try to protect social bonds of attachment against mere formal nationality imposed by the technicalities of law. This functional inquisition is evident in diverse fora. For example in the case of UN sanctions, such as those against Serbia and Iran, the relevant Security Council Resolutions considered the nationality of the vessel based on ownership or contract terms, regardless of the flag under which the ship may sail. (see UN SC Res 787 (1992) and UN SC Res 1929 (2010)). Essentially then, Article 91(1)...

...carefully choreographed mantra on three points: first, recognition of the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is unacceptable and involves a grave violation of international law; second, if Russia invades Ukraine it will have to face severe sanctions; and third, leaving aside the delivery of weapons and other support, NATO and western States will not participate militarily in a Russian-Ukrainian conflict. A number of legal and political issues arise with respect to these positions, and this contribution will zoom in on the last issue. Since the start of the...