Search: extraterritorial sanctions
19 Feb Moving Towards a Settlement of the Conflict in Ukraine
...be a UN-mandated force under OSCE guidance, or a force with a delegated UN mandate supervised by the Group of Supporting States. Should any side resume the conflict, an arrangement for the automatic snap-back of sanctions could be constructed. While this might be difficult to accept for the Russian Federation, Ukraine and its allies could insist that the UN Security Council Resolution that would endorse the settlement under Chapter VII provides for sanctions that would be brought into force automatically, and universally, should a further armed attack occur. As confirmed...
12 Aug Symposium on Prosecuting Asia-Pacific Crimes: Choosing Justice – Forum selection in Universal Jurisdiction cases
...the political context and other advocacy objectives. Understanding these considerations could explain the deployment of universal jurisdiction within the region. What is the law? Civil society actors deciding where to file universal jurisdiction case must begin by assessing the applicable domestic law. States, through their domestic statutes have adopted different approaches toward prosecuting extraterritorial mass atrocities. In recent years, several states have adopted laws requiring the consent of the Attorney-General or some other government official, the presence of the accused person, and/or some other connection to the state to activate...
09 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: Genocide in Gaza – Earth Observation, Surveillance, and the Politics of Control
...than what is already available from non-US providers, so for years global platforms like Google Earth displayed only low-resolution imagery of the area. This is a remarkable example of the extraterritorial reach of a US legislation that with a domestic statute could effectively project one state’s security interests into the global infrastructure of witness Earth from above. This exceptional censorship regime hid evidence of expanding settlements, leveled villages, and military deployments, hindering both science and human rights monitoring for decades. The accountability costs were real. Through the Second Intifada and...
12 Aug Symposium on Prosecuting Asia-Pacific Crimes: Crimes Against Humanity Convention and the Obligation to Prevent
...distinct and separate obligation imposed on States. Such an obligation, with respect to genocide, has extraterritorial application as confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Gambia v. Myanmar, and is mutatis mutandis applicable to CAH. Modelled on the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the Draft Articles impose a binding legal obligation upon States to not commit CAH (Draft Article 3(1)), whether directly or indirectly. In other words, any act or omission by a State could give rise to state responsibility if it contributes to or constitutes CAH. This...
12 Feb Reforming Military Obedience: Strengthening Vertical Checks on Trump’s (Ab)use of War Powers
...about removing human judgment from the cycle of violence, including at the stage of executing orders. For example, Christof Heyns, then UN Expert on Extraterritorial Execution, called the use of force without reflection “mechanical slaughter.” One of the concerns expressed by Heyns, in comparing AWS with human soldiers, was precisely the lack of “ability of robots to distinguish legal from illegal orders.” The development of mechanical soldiers has, it seems, contributed to a greater recognition of the value of human judgment and common sense in human soldiers. Embracing that value...
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...
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...
21 Jan Unequal Treaties Revisited: Coercive Trade Agreements in a Fragmented Global Economy
...Hong Kong, the opening of treaty ports, and extraterritorial privileges for foreign nationals. Similar arrangements were imposed on pre-Meiji Japan (1854 Treaty of Kanagawa) and Korea (signed with Japan after the Meiji Restoration, 1876 Treaty of Ganghwa), often under conditions of gunboat diplomacy. These historical unequal treaties had distinct commercial dimensions. First, states such as China and Korea lost their autonomy over tariff-setting, with tariff levels fixed at low rates favourable to Western imports. Second, the inclusion of Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) clauses locked weaker states into perpetual concessions, ensuring that any...
11 Jul Death by Omnibus? The European Commission’s Proposal and the Fate of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (Part II)
...for harmonized civil liability, the Omnibus defers entirely to national tort laws, where many Member States do not currently recognize a clear duty of care for extraterritorial harms. Additionally, the deletion of the provision enabling NGOs and trade unions to bring representative actions places the burden of initiating transnational litigation solely on individual victims—often rural communities, migrant workers, or Indigenous peoples lacking sufficient resources for protracted legal proceedings—and the absence of collective redress procedures under EU law further diminishes the likelihood of meaningful remedy. Misalignment with International Standards and Practices...
28 Aug Minding the Gap, Properly: Conflict Classification, Protected Persons, and What the Geneva Conventions Already Require (Part II) – A Reply to Alexandria Virginski
...agreement on modalities and a work plan. Divergence over the extraterritorial reach of human rights law, and State reluctance to confer anything resembling status on armed groups, were among the obstacles in both processes. A reform proposal has to engage with the record of the terrain it proposes to enter. We ask, what would make a treaty negotiation succeed where the 2012 and 2015 processes stopped short? And, which of the objections were principled and which merely convenient? Where the Gap Actually Lies We want to close constructively, because there...