Law Commons^™

The Legal Legacy Of The Special Court For Sierra Leone: The Sierra Leone Perspective—When The Story Is As Important As The Storyteller, Dr. Michael Imran Kanu

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Apathy And The Need For A New, Cooperative International Refugee Response, Emily Gleichert

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

While an increasing number of nations move toward isolationist, nationalist policies, the number of refugees worldwide is climbing to its highest levels since World War II. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the international body tasked with protecting this population. However, the office’s traditional solutions for refugees – local integration, resettlement in a third country, and voluntary repatriation – have mostly eluded refugees who spend an average of twenty years in exile. The limitations UNHCR’s structure imposes on the office, specifically in its ability to fund its operations and compel nations to act, have contributed to its …

Chemical Weapons And Other Atrocities: Contrasting Responses To The Syrian Crisis, Tim Mccormack

International Law Studies

Why has the use of chemical weapons in Syria engendered such a substantive multilateral response in stark contrast to almost every other egregious international law violation perpetrated against the civilian population? Various theories have been offered but the explanation has little to do with humanitarian concerns for Syrian victims and is more readily explicable by unusual (in the Syrian context) alignment of U.S. and Russian national interests. Bashar al-Assad was convinced to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, to surrender his stockpiles of chemical weapons and to co-operate with international investigators deployed under UN Security Council auspices amid a cacophony …

After Atrocity: Optimizing Un Action Toward Accountability For Human Rights Abuses, Steven R. Ratner

Michigan Journal of International Law

It is a great honor for me to be here to deliver the John Humphrey Lecture. Humphrey led one of those lives within the UN that shaped what the organization has become today—as one of the first generation of UN civil servants, he was to human rights what Ralph Bunche was to peacekeeping, or Brian Urquhart to UN mediation. To read his diaries, so beautifully edited by John Hobbins, is to see a world that has in many ways vanished, a nearly entirely male club, mostly of Westerners, that hammered out new treaties and mechanisms over fine wine and cigars …

The Post-Postcolonial Woman Or Child, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This essay is based on remarks given as Distinguished Discussant for the 16th annual Grotius Lecture at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law/Biennial Conference of the International Law Association. The essay examines the international law status of women, on the one hand, and children, on the other, through the contemporary lens of the post-postcolonial world and the historical lens of Hugo Grotius and the colonialist era. In so doing, the essay responds to the principal Grotius Lecture, "Women and Children: The Cutting Edge of International Law," which was delivered by Radhika Coomarswamy, NYU Global Professor …

Rights And Responsibilities: What Are The Prospects For The Responsibility To Protect In The International/Transnational Arena?, Carolyn Helen Filteau

PhD Dissertations

The dissertation involves a study of the emerging international norm of ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ which states that citizens must be protected in cases of human atrocities, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide where states have failed or are unable to do so. According to the work of the International Commission on the Responsibility to Protect (ICISS), this response can and should span a continuum involving prevention, a response to the violence, when and if necessary, and ultimately rebuilding shattered societies. The most controversial aspect, however, is that of forceful intervention and much of the thesis focuses on this aspect. …

Humanitarian Intervention: Evolving Norms, Fragmenting Consensus (Remarks), Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Traditionally, the evolution of customary international law was understood as a gradual process: in some idealized model, we might see first a few states, and then a few more, implicitly agreeing to follow a practice, and then we would gradually begin to see additional states doing the same thing. We would also gradually accumulate evidence that these various states are acting in such a way because they consider themselves legally bound to do so. Then, over time, we’ll see more and more states following suit both in word and deed, until at some point we can say with a great …

International Law And The Future Of Peace, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

These remarks, delivered at the April 4, 2013, luncheon of the American Society of International Law Women in International Law Interest Group, reflects on contributions of Jane Addams and other members of the early 20th C. peace movement as a means to explore law and practice related to the contemporary use of force and armed conflict.

Libya: A Multilateral Constitutional Moment?, Catherine Powell

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Libya intervention of 2011 marked the first time that the UN Security Council invoked the “responsibility to protect” principle (RtoP) to authorize use of force by UN member states. In this comment the author argues that the Security Council’s invocation of RtoP in the midst of the Libyan crisis significantly deepens the broader, ongoing transformation in the international law system’s approach to sovereignty and civilian protection. This transformation away from the traditional Westphalian notion of sovereignty has been unfolding for decades, but the Libyan case represents a further normative shift from sovereignty as a right to sovereignty as a …

Politics And Prosecutions, From Katherine Fite To Fatou Bensouda, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

Based on the Katherine B. Fite Lecture delivered at the 5th Annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs in Chautauqua, New York, this essay examines the role that politics has played in the evolution of international criminal justice. It first establishes the frame of the lecture series and its relation to IntLawGrrls blog, a cosponsor of the IHL Dialogs. It then discusses the career of the series' namesake, Katherine B. Fite, a State Department lawyer who helped draft the Charter of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and who was, in her own words, a "political observer" of the proceedings. The essay …

"A Sea Change In Security: How The War On Terror Strengthened Human Rights", Michael Galchinsky

Michael Galchinsky

The UN Security Council's initial response to 9/11 (UNSC Res. 1373) deemphasized the requirement that states respect human rights and humanitarian law in their counter-terrorism efforts. However, starting in 2002, a backlash by numerous global governance institutions asserted that human rights and security are mutually reinforcing. The emerging norm of mutual reinforcement influenced the SC to direct its Counter-Terrorism Committee to incorporate human rights concerns more robustly into its work. The SC’s increasing adoption of a rights-based approach indicates that the UN's security and human rights missions are bound more closely together than ever before.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 On Women, Peace, And Security — Is It Binding? , Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Adoption Of The Responsibility To Protect, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

This book chapter traces the legal and political origins of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine from its early origins in the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty through the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document and up to January 2011. The chapter examines the legal meaning of the Responsibility to Protect, the obligations the Responsibility imposes on states and international institutions, and its implications in for the international legal and political systems. The chapter argues that while the Responsibility to Protect has developed with extraordinary speed, it is still a norm in development rather than a binding legal rule. Its …

Occupation In Iraq: Issues On The Periphery And For The Future: A Rubik's Cube Problem?, George K. Walker

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Kurt Mills On Governance, Order, And The International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik And A Cosmopolitan Court. Edited By Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp., Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Governance, Order, and the International Criminal Court: Between Realpolitik and a Cosmopolitan Court. Edited by Steven C. Roach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 289pp.

Paradigm Shifts In International Justice And The Duty To Protect; In Search Of An Action Principle, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article places the emerging “responsibility to protect” within the historical development of international human rights and criminal law, while also attempting to more fully theorize the responsibility to ensure that it can be a basis for action in the face of a state’s commission of atrocities against its citizens. The main point of departure concerns the issue of “right authority” at that point in time when a coercive intervention is justified. Rather than rely solely on the Security Council in these situations, this article contends that unilateral and multilateral action must be countenanced by a fully theorized “responsibility to …

The United Nations, The European Union, And The King Of Sweden: Economic Sanctions And Individual Rights In A Plural World Order, Daniel Halberstam, Eric Stein

Articles

In the last decade, economic sanctions have become a major instrumentality of the UN Security Council in the struggle against terrorism and lawless violence endangering peace. It is not surprising that innocents would be ensnarled, along with culprits, in the nets of the so-called "smart" or "targeted" sanctions, which are directed against named individuals and groups (as opposed to delinquent States). In such rare cases, as the individual concerned searches for a legal remedy, significant issues of fundamental human rights may arise at the levels of the international, regional, and national legal orders. This essay explores these issues. After examining …

United Nations Collective Security And The United States Security Guarantee In An Age Of Rising Multipolarity: The Security Council As The Talking Shop Of The Nations, Kenneth Anderson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This essay considers the respective roles of the United Nations and the United States in a world of rising multipolarity and rising new (or old) Great Powers. It asks why UN collective security as a concept persists, despite the well-known failures, both practical and theoretical, and why it remains anchored to the UN Security Council. The persistence is owed, according to the essay, to the fact of a parallel US security guarantee that offers much of the world (in descending degrees starting with NATO and close US allies such as Japan, but even extending to non-allies and even enemies who …

Enhancing Community Accountability Of The Security Council Through Pluralistic Structure: The Case Of The 1267 Committee, Machiko Kanetake

Machiko Kanetake

No abstract provided.

War And International Law: Distinguishing Military And Humanitarian Professions, David Kennedy

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

The Obligation To Use Force To Stop Acts Of Genocide: An Overview Of Legal Precedents, Customary Norms, And State Responsibility, Joshua M. Kagan

San Diego International Law Journal

Though the Genocide Convention was created to "liberate mankind from [the] odious scourge" of genocide, the dreams of its drafters have still not come to fruition. The commission of genocide, widely considered the most appalling of all crimes, did not end with the signing and ratification of the Convention in 1948. Genocide continues in the world today. While its sentiments were noble and its aims commendable, the Genocide Convention as it is interpreted and applied today is insufficient to stop the commission of genocide in the world. In order to rid the world of this crime, a new interpretation of …

The Right Of Self-Determination: Is East Timor A Viable Model For Kashmir?, Amardeep Singh

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Full Volume 75: International Law Across The Spectrum Of Conflict

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Getting To Know The General: American Conceits About The Rule Of Law, Kenneth Anderson

Book Reviews

This essay reviews a book about General Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian strongman toppled by the Bush Sr. administration in 1989; Noriega was tried on drug charges in Miami and has spent many years in prison. This book examines Noriega's background and rise to power, involvement in drugs and politics in Central America, including the famous murder of Hugo Spadafora, and his trial in the United States. The book's author covered the trial for newspapers; the review's author monitored human rights in Panama in the two years prior to the US invasion and covered the invasion for human rights organizations.

A More Effective International Law Or A New "World Law"?: Some Aspects Of The Development Of International Law In A Changing International System, Jost Delbruck

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.