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Introduction To Intervention Under International Law, Mortimer N.S. Sellers

All Faculty Scholarship

The lawfulness or legitimacy of "external" intervention in the "internal" affairs of sovereign states is one of the most basic controversies in modern international law. The question arises in three separate but related forms: When is intervention lawful? When is intervention legitimate? And when should intervention occur? Discussion here will focus on the legal question, but legitimacy, morality, and brutal reality all form and sometimes trump the law. They dictate the parameters within which all legal determinations take place, including the legality of cross-border interventions. By "intervention" I mean any activity by one state or its agents that influences the …

After Partition: The Perils Of South Sudan, Mario Silva

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

The partition of South Sudan from the largest country on the African continent – Sudan, took place on July 9, 2011.1 The northern portion retained the name Sudan while the newly formed southern state would be known as South Sudan. South Sudan became the newest member of the United Nations (UN) with comparatively little infrastructure and limited arrangements for shared sovereignty by the international community. The partition process was undertaken with oversight from the United Nations and the African Union. It was rather idealistically considered a prelude to an enduring peace within this traditionally troubled African region. The former unitary …

The Humanitarian And Human Rights Duties Of The United Nations Security Council, George E. Weber

University of Baltimore Journal of International Law

International intervention has increased in recent history for the abuses of humanitarian law and human rights. This article reflects on the history of human rights and humanitarian law reasoned interventions authorized by the United Nations Security Council and examines whether a duty now exists in international law for future action. The question of whether a duty exists, and the legal repercussions of failing to exercise that duty, is of paramount importance to international law. Whether the duty currently exists or is currently developing, the analysis that follows will show why the Security Council should have the duty of intervention and …

Accountability In The Aftermath Of Rwanda's Genocide, Jason Strain, Elizabeth Keyes

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the span of 100 days in 1994, almost one million Rwandans died in a genocide that left Rwandan society traumatized and its institutions in disarray. The genocide implicated not only the actual instigators and killers, who came from all levels of Rwandan society, but also the culture of impunity that had thrived in Rwanda for decades. This culture of impunity and inaction in the face of atrocities eerily mirrored the international community's failure to intervene to prevent or respond to the genocide. The genocide provoked a process of reflection within Rwanda and the broader international community about how the …

Book Review: Limits Of Law, Prerogatives Of Power: Interventionism After Kosovo, By Michael J. Glennon, Charles Tiefer

All Faculty Scholarship

The author reviews Michael Glennon's Limits of Law, Prerogatives of Power: Interventionism After Kosovo, discussing Glennon's approach to NATO's 1999 bombing to stop the Milosevic regime's ethnic cleansing of Kosovo in the face of the UN Charter's absolute ban on states using force except in self-defense. Finding Glennon's study at once provocative and readable, the author emphasizes the strength of Glennon's core point - the inability for the Kosovo campaign to be reconciled with the UN charter - but points to the dangers of using one instance (Kosovo) to prove bad law.

Israel's Voice Muffled Amid Hail Of Stones: Distortion: Confronted With A Campaign Of Violence And Propaganda, Israel Goes Unheard In The Court Of World Opinion, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

"I am in the U.S. until February. A few weeks ago, I went to our embassy in Washington and offered to speak on Israel's behalf, to present the true story of what's going on, to counter the very effective job being done by the Palestinians of making it appear as if they are Davids fighting Goliath, and we are not getting the truth out. But the people at the embassy just shrugged."

He knows that in 1948 some 630,000 Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by their leaders, who promised to purge the land of Jews. Instead, they became …