Search: self-defense

...government to perpetuate the oppression of the population, reactivating rapidly and intensively the system of harassment and violent repression against real or perceived opponents (para. 34). Maduro self-proclaimed himself as the President claiming to enjoy all the sovereign prerogatives attached to the office even if he didn’t show any official data and proofs of his victory, violating the Venezuelan Constitution (Article 120). But international law confers immunity by virtue of office, not by self-proclamation, and under Venezuelan domestic law, virtue of office has to be recognized to the elected President...

...support for a policy if foreign countries have adopted or global institutions have recommended the policy. Second, the data are based on self-reported levels of information. And, we can easily imagine that self-understanding and self-reporting of one’s own awareness of social policy is systematically skewed (e.g., in favor of reporting overconfidence generally, over- or under-reporting confidence among particular types of individuals). Third, cases in which low-information subjects responded more strongly may mask a spurious correlation. That is, another factor—e.g., lack of concern about the social policy—might lead both to individuals’...

...perhaps arrive at a similar, yet broader, conclusion, through different means. When discussing the British position in the Chagos Islands case, Prof. Wheatley points out that the UK’s B-Series position rests in the conviction that the International Court of Justice “should decide the case in the same way it would have done in the late 1960s, a time when the legal status of the self-determination norm divided states”. For him, this is incorrect due to the inherent limitations with B-Series thinking. International law is not a “brute fact” static in...

...The odd judge out is Vice-President Sebutinde, who in her dissenting opinion opines (para. 1; see also paras. 67, 69): the Court has not received arguments or evidence on the territorial scope (i.e. borders) of the State of Israel as on the eve of independence; nor of Israel’s competing territorial claims in relation to the disputed territory. These are issues that must first be addressed before the legal consequences of the alleged occupation of territory by Israel, or the territorial scope of Palestinian self-determination, can be determined. She then complains...

...grant protected person status even to its own nationals if they have differing allegiance. Kubo claims that this interpretation is both in line with the spirit of humanization and also practical (or at least not completely unpractical), while attempting to refute a number of disagreeing authors, including myself (which probably explains why I chose this somewhat arcane topic). In the post I will first summarize the Tribunal’s position, then the arguments defending the ICTY jurisprudence, and I will try to demonstrate why I don’t find them particularly convincing. Needless to...

I’m delighted to announce the publication of two new essays. The first is “The Use and Abuse of Analogy in IHL,” which is a chapter in Jens’s edited book for CUP, “Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict and Human Rights.” I’m very proud of the essay — and all of the contributions to the book are excellent. The second publication is my article “Radical Complementarity,” which has just appeared in the Journal of International Criminal Justice. Here is the abstract: In March 2015, a domestic court in Côte d’Ivoire...

...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...

...in favour of an intellectual amateurism, ‘an activity that is fuelled by care and affection’, in Said’s words. This ‘rather sentimental’ (also Said’s words) approach to intellectual life is not, however, an inward-facing act of self-care or self-enrichment. On the contrary, a sentimental international law may be ‘an apt way to think about and change the world’ (3). Writing and reading appear in The Sentimental Life as intellectual practices with which to effect such a disciplinary refashioning, which is to take place, therefore, through language. The gravitational pull of structuralism...

defense attorney for doing his job, can anyone maintain with a straight face that transferred defendants would be tried fairly? Second, and relatedly, the ICTR has uttered nary a word in protest of Erlinder’s arrest. That’s absolutely shameful — and is indicative of the Tribunal’s general contempt for defense attorneys. The very first post I ever wrote for Opinio Juris, way back in February 2006, focused on the second-class status of defense attorneys at the international tribunals. Unfortunately, it seems clear that nothing has changed in the past four years....

...lack thereof—is what this is really about. In the days and months after 9/11, while OLC was generating the Geneva Convention memos and the torture memos, L was being run by an ex-General Counsel of the Department of Defense (who had also been an Acting Secretary of Defense) and included a staff of lawyers who had worked more at negotiating, interpreting, and applying the laws of armed conflict than anyone else in the U.S. except for some of the uniformed JAGs. This is not to say that OLC was “evil,”...

Bill Poser By what authority could the Pentagon prevent Colonel Davis from testifying? If he is subpoenaed, why would an order not to testify be any different from an order from a civilian employer not to testify, that is, of no force, and contempt of court? J.D. Clearly the Dep't of Defense is not just like any other employer. It is an agency of our government, a part of our sovereign. They could attempt to claim a privilege under Military Commission Rule of Evidence 506...(or 505 if some of it...

...evil in mercy. Hardship is the only language that is used here. Anybody who is able to die will be able to achieve happiness for himself, he has no other hope except that. The requirement is to announce the end, and challenge the self love for life and the soul that insists to end it all and leave this life which is no longer anymore called a life, instead it itself has become death and renewable torture. Ending it is a mercy and happiness for this soul. I will not...