Search: extraterritorial sanctions

...symposium. Our first contributor is Ramesh Thakur, Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Professor Thakur’s article, ‘ Law, Legitimacy and United Nations’, identifies a gap between law and legitimacy in the practice of the United Nations and posits that this is a serious challenge to the authority of the organisation. Thakur detects this ‘ legitimacy deficit ’ with respect to a number of areas. He points to the difficulties with international sanctions regimes, the concerns regarding...

...in which judicial independence has been, or is being, eroded across the EU.  Illustrating the Range of Judicial Independence Issues Adjudicated Litigation has commonly responded to frontal attacks on judges’ independence, such as arbitrary dismissals, unfounded disciplinary sanctions, or even the growing criminalization of the judicial role, often as reprisals against judges exercising independence or opposing powerful actors abuse of power. Many cases involving Poland, such as Dolińska-Ficek and Ozimekf v Poland, challenged the arbitrary removal of Polish judges and their replacement by ‘neo judges’ on the judicial council, which...

...reaches 40. This means that many Israelis, if not themselves suspected of criminal acts, are potential sources of information regarding events in Gaza and the West Bank – whether a bomb dropped on a café, or tank and rifle fire directed at Palestinians seeking food or medical assistance. Israelis, understandably, want and like to travel – whether to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Africa, Europe or Latin America. If governments were serious about sanctions and about their international duty to prevent and to punish genocide and to bring an end...

...under customary international law, and many are widely recognised as being subject to universal jurisdiction. There is an obligation upon all states to enact effective penal sanctions in domestic law and an obligation to search for and to try or extradite persons suspected of grave breaches on the basis of universal jurisdiction, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator.’ (Al-Haq, para 33) The grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions documented in the Goldstone Report are alleged to constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. The UN General Assembly resolution...

...with the UN Charter framework, I am led to the conclusion that aggression cannot be defined as a crime under international law at this time. But this should not be too troubling. The Security Council continues to have the authority under Article 39 to find that a state has committed an act of aggression. And the Council continues to have the authority to impose sanctions on the offending state. And it should not be forgotten that individuals can be held personally accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide....

...rights and freedoms under pressure in three distinct areas: (1) property protection; (2) data protection and privacy, and (3) freedom of movement in the EU. Panels will tackle a range of issues, including, for instance, the use and abuse of international investment arbitration, immunity from execution, or the use of targeted financial sanctions as a foreign policy tool. Confirmed speakers include Judge James Crawford (International Court of Justice), Judge Siofra O’Leary (European Court of Human Rights), Judge Allan Rosas (Court of Justice of the EU), Prof. Joseph Cannataci (UN Special...

...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?...

...other measures based on their capacity to influence the events and their legal positioning vis-à-vis the situation concerned. Still, it is hard to see how, in at least certain atrocity situations and despite Article 103 of the UN Charter a member wielding the veto against a Chapter VII resolution that, for example, imposes sanctions prohibiting all UN Members from supplying weapons to a brutal regime that is known to use those weapons to commit genocidal acts against a protected group would be compatible with such positive duties. Admittedly, the present...

[Kristina Daugirdas is a Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.] Absent a contractual relationship, individuals who have been harmed by the acts of international organizations rarely have access to institutions to hear their claims. National courts are often unavailable on account of organizations’ immunities. Some organizations have established alternative mechanisms to resolve such claims. The World Bank Inspection Panel is one example; the Ombudsperson for the ISIL and Al-Qaida UN Security Council Sanctions regime is another. Such accountability mechanisms must be deliberately designed, adopted, and implemented....

...our work were not there for a variety of reasons, including resources, sanctions, travel restrictions, and the limitations on non-ECOSOC-accredited civil society. Our perspectives matter because the world’s understanding of crimes against humanity is not confined to narrow legal frameworks or isolated examples over time. Rather, it has evolved through the lived experiences of victims, survivors, and affected communities. Our lives and experiences populate the understanding of these crimes that shock the conscience of humanity. However, we remain on the margins of such processes. One of us, Metra, is from...

...the existence of a grey zone is well-known. In practice the divide may not always be clearly visible. Yet, large parts of the debate have been devoted to the establishment of one or more criteria to decide what makes an instrument law (be it sanctions, formalities, intent, effect, substance, or belief). Thus, depending on how one distinguishes between law and non-law, informal law output may or may not be part of international law. If formalities or intent matter, a lot of the informal output would not be law. If, in...

...a foreign relations matter, the proposed legislation also raises the significant practical issue of pragmatic transnational norm advocacy. What is the most effective response for those in the West who wish to defeat this bill? Is it threats of economic sanctions, démarches from European diplomats, or pastoral letters from one (famous) clergyman to another? Is the best recipe for success a mix of carrots and sticks, or a soft appeal to reason and conscience? I for one have little doubt that on an issue like this someone like Rick Warren...