Law Commons^™

State Responsibility Beyond Borders: What Legal Basis For Italy's Push-Backs To Libya?, Mariagiulia Giuffré

Mariagiulia Giuffré

This article takes Italy’s widely-debated 2009 push-backs to Libya campaign as a point of reference to address whether bilateral agreements for technical and police cooperation provide the legal foundation for the forced return of intercepted refugees to countries of embarkation. Through a detailed analysis of both the facts and the texts of the published and unpublished bilateral accords, it concludes that, although push-backs do not have a clear legal basis, the agreements between Italy and Libya constitute a fundamental component of the multifaceted legal and political framework underpinning Italy’s practice of interdiction and return. Moreover, by entrusting a non-EU third …

Complexity Theory And The Horizontal And Vertical Dimensions Of State Responsibility, Mark A. Chinen

Mark A. Chinen

In this Article I argue along with other commentators that a gap that has always existed in the law of state responsibility is now becoming more evident, namely the one that exists between a state and its citizens, making it difficult to justify why state responsibility should be distributed to those citizens. If for example a state agrees at the international level to undertake domestic austerity measures, why should its citizens bear the costs of such measures, especially when the same state is obligated under international law to protect those citizens’ human rights?

I use concepts taken from complexity theory …

Towards 'Flags Of Convenience' In Space?, Frans G. Von Der Dunk

Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications Law Program: Faculty Publications

With the increasing privatization of outer space activities, the issue of appropriate national licensing thereof and the consequent risks of cheap 'flags of convenience' being sought for the purpose is becoming more relevant. The paper assesses the possibility of such 'flags of convenience' arising in the context of space activities, as well as what could be done about it, all with reference to the law of the sea where the concept originally was coined.

Book Review Of The Law Of International Responsibility (James Crawford, Alain Pellet, And Simon Olleson Eds., Oxford University Press, 2010), Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

If one were to affix a label to the first decade of work by the UN International Law Commission in this century, a good one to choose would be the “decade of codifying international responsibility.” No fewer than five projects relating to that general topic were brought to a conclusion by the Commission in the space of ten years, constituting a formidable effort at codification that may well influence the field of public international law for years to come. Given that the Commission had spent decades considering, as part of a single project, myriad aspects of state responsibility, in some …

Book Review Of The Law Of International Responsibility (James Crawford, Alain Pellet, And Simon Olleson Eds., Oxford University Press, 2010), Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

If one were to affix a label to the first decade of work by the UN International Law Commission in this century, a good one to choose would be the “decade of codifying international responsibility.” No fewer than five projects relating to that general topic were brought to a conclusion by the Commission in the space of ten years, constituting a formidable effort at codification that may well influence the field of public international law for years to come. Given that the Commission had spent decades considering, as part of a single project, myriad aspects of state responsibility, in some …

Reparations For The Uyghur Refugees Illegally Detained At Guantánamo Bay, Robin A. Lukes

Robin A. Lukes

The United States wrongfully captured a group of Uyghur refugees near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and detained them at Guantánamo Bay. These detentions violated customary international law, conventions and treaties. The International Law Commission’s Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts outline reparations required for a violation of State obligations. In order to fully repair the grave damage inflicted on the Uyghur refugees by their illegal detention, the United States must provide restitution, compensation and satisfaction, including a resettlement option in the United States for the Uyghur refugees who were held or who currently are held at Guantánamo.