Search: self-defense
02 Oct The “Frozen” Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh
...that the right to self-determination leads to secession outside of the colonial paradigm, or outside cases of extreme oppression. Instead, most authorities on self-determination would agree that the right needs to be exercised internally, through an autonomy regime within the confines of the existing parent state. Thus, the international community’s stance that Nagorno-Karabakh ought to remain a part of Azerbaijan, with some type of autonomous status, appears consistent with international law and most other precedents (except for Kosovo). Although the international community’s attitude vis-à-vis Nagorno-Karabakh appears rooted in international law,...
03 Jun Non-innocence Under Article 19(2)(a) UNCLOS: A Response to Cavalcanti de Mello Filho
...ICJ did in relation to Israel’s violation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination), when would a vessel transporting military equipment to that State be regarded as complicit or also engaged in the threat or use of force in violation of self-determination? This question, which is not the focus of this piece, is discussed in the legal opinion of ASCOMARE and is independent of the arguments made above. Regardless of what the threshold is or should be for a vessel to be regarded as violating principles of international...
16 Feb Symposium on Rewriting Histories of the Use of Force: Mnemohistory and the Affective Life of International Law – A Method for the Madness
[Miriam Bak McKenna is Associate Professor of Law and Global Governance at Roskilde University, School of Social Science and Business. Her book Reckoning with Empire: Self-Determination in International Law (Brill) was released in December 2022.] By now it is perhaps axiomatic to assert that the historical narratives surrounding international law are rather murky at best. As the canon of texts revisiting and critiquing these accounts expands, the creeping sense that international law finds itself in the midst of a George Santos style identity crisis continues to grow. History may be...27 Mar Cybersecurity at the WTO
...League Boycott against Israel–there has never been a case actually adjudicating the security exception. The reason is that Member States’s recognize that national security questions are self-judging. Each Member State decides for itself whether action is necessary for its essential security interests. Article XXI of GATT 1947 and Article XXIII of the Government Procurement Agreement both have such language. Baker focuses on the language in Article XXIII requiring that the procurement be “indispensable for national security or for national defence purposes.” But the operative language is that “[n]othing in this...09 May A Thought Experiment About Complementarity and the Jordan Appeal Decision
...President to the ICC. Instead, exercising its right under Art. 17 of the Rome Statute, it prosecutes him for genocide itself. I see nothing in the Jordan appeal decision that rules out S3. If the ICC arrest warrant entitled Beta to arrest and surrender the President of Alpha to the ICC despite his HoS immunity, surely it entitled Beta to arrest the President and prosecute him itself. The principle of complementarity is a foundational part of the ICC’s jurisdictional regime. Beta has thus managed to evade HoS immunity simply by...
15 Feb Symposium on Rewriting Histories of the Use of Force: Conflicts of Interest in International Law Scholarship – Addressing An Indifference to Capitalist Imperialism
[Isa Blumi is Associate Professor at the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Stockholm University.] Dr. Agatha Verdebout’s Rewriting Histories of the Use of Force (2021) charts how International Law’s founding generations of scholars sought relevance during times when the powerful adopted “the law” only when it suited their interests. By reading beyond the ‘emotional’, ‘cynical’, or ‘idealistic’ discourse that accompanied assertive claims about the distinctive eras of this Euro-American global order, Verdebout (pp. 213-319) methodically ‘deconstructs’ the self-serving discourse of 20th century scholars’ assumptions that they have improved...31 May More Relentless Self-Promotion: Ku on TV
All right, it’s not the Today Show, but for anyone in the New England area who might be interested (or curious what I sound like), I will be discussing Amnesty International’s recent human rights report on “Nite Beat with Barry Nolan” around 7:30 p.m. tonight on CN8, which is part of The Comcast Network. Also featured will be the head of Amnesty’s New England chapter....
31 Jul When Neurotechnology Erodes Freedom of Thought: The Habeas Cogitationem Writ
...Habeas Writ Habeas corpus (‘you shall have the body’) is a well-known urgent procedural mechanism for protecting the physical/bodily self-determination of citizens in situations such as illegal detention or torture, among others. The Oxford Dictionary of Law defines this mechanism as [a] prerogative writ used to challenge the validity of a person’s detention, either in official custody (e.g. when held pending deportation or extradition) or in private hands. This writ, widely used throughout the world, is complemented in various countries by a similar mechanism intended to protect the informational self-determination...
15 Dec Why Ukraine and the International Community Should Demand that Russia Renounce Territorial Expansion
...Obligations: Russia recommits itself to never expand its de jure or de facto borders, either through aggression, accepting union with another entity, or any other means. It will never again invade or occupy territory, nor displace the sovereign authority of another outside its own territory. No additional numbers of military personnel under Russian control will leave Russian soil. 3.2 Interpretation: No conduct by any other entity shall be used as an excuse for a violation of this commitment, including preparations for self-defence against Russia. 3.3 Enforcement: This shall be enshrined...
05 May Symposium on the UNWCC: Defences and the UNWCC
...finding was exceptional; the only reported example of a successful defence argument in the 15 volumes. In another similar example where self-defence was attempted [Hangobl, vol. 14], involving an airman who had bailed from a faltering plane and found himself in Austrian territory in 1944, and a civilian who was part of the local defence force found him, the defendant reported that on seeing the airman reach towards his jacket, him shot him once as he faced him and once in the back as the airman turned to run away....