International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Self-Determination And Secession Under International Law: The New Framework, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article argues toward the necessity to develop a new international law framework on secession. The development of such a normative framework is necessary in order to address various secessionist situations around the globe and to replace the resolution of secessionist struggles through politics of the Great Powers with true legal norms.

This Article first analyzes several examples of successful and failed secessions in recent history. Next it focuses on existing international law on the subject matter of secession and concludes that existing norms are insufficient and indefinite. Finally, it develops a new proposed framework on secession, which attempts to …

Repatriate . . . Then Compensate: Why The United States Owes Reparation Payments To Former Guantánamo Detainees, Cameron Bell

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In late 2001, U.S. government officials chose Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as the site to house the “war on terror” detainees. Since then, 779 individuals have been detained at Guantánamo. Many of the detainees have endured years of detention, cruel and degrading treatment, and for some, torture—conduct that violates well-established prohibitions against torture and inhumane treatment under both general international law and the law of war. Under these bodies of law, the United States is required to make reparation—through restitution, compensation, and satisfaction—for acts that violate its international obligations. But the United States has not offered financial compensation to any Guantánamo …

Transitional Justice And Judicial Activism— A Right To Accountability?, Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

Victims of systemic rights abuses, their families, and non-governmental organizations are turning to international and regional human rights tribunals to address the failure of states to investigate, prosecute, and remedy past human rights violations. In many cases this relates to acts that occurred decades ago and for which a previous repressive regime was responsible. In other cases there may be powerful interests within the state, such as the police or security service, that are complicit with the violations in question. This Article explores the historical and political contexts in which these cases have arisen, how the courts approach the question …

Maturing Justice: Integrating The Convention On The Rights Of The Child Into The Judgments And Processes Of The International Criminal Court, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Beginning To Learn How To End: Lessons On Completion Strategies, Residual Mechanisms, And Legacy Considerations From Ad Hoc International Criminal Tribunals To The International Criminal Court, Dafna Gozani

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ndaa, Aumf, And Citizens Detained Away From The Theater Of War: Sounding A Clarion Call For A Clear Statement Rule, Diana Cho

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In the armed conflict resulting from the September 11 attacks, the executive authority to order the indefinite detention of citizens captured away from the theater of war is an issue of foreign and domestic significance. The relevant law of armed conflict provisions relevant to conflicts that are international or non-international in nature, however, do not fully address this issue. Congress also intentionally left the question of administrative orders of citizen detainment unresolved in a controversial provision of the 2012 version of the annually-enacted National Defense Authorization Act. While plaintiffs in Hedges v. Obama sought to challenge the enforceability of NDAA’s …

The Doctrine Of Legitimate Defense, Jens Ohlin

International Law Studies

The following article reorients mainstream conceptions of self-defense by defending a broader doctrine of legitimate defense that, in limited circumstances, justifies unilateral intervention. The source of the doctrine is natural law, which was explicitly incorporated into the text of UN Charter Article 51. The effect of this incorporation was to preserve, as a carve-out from the prohibition against force in Article 2, the natural law rights of defensive force. Specifically, the Article concludes that defensive force under natural law included, in extreme situations, a right of intervention in rogue States that refused to comply with natural law.

Targeting And Detention In Non-International Armed Conflict: Serdar Mohammed And The Limits Of Human Rights Convergence, Aurel Sari, Sean Aughey

International Law Studies

In recent years, the United Kingdom has seen a steady flow of legal challenges arising out of its involvement in the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among these, the case of Serdar Mohammed, decided by the English High Court in May 2014, is of particular interest because of its wider implications. In essence, the High Court’s judgment in Mohammed questions the existence of a legal basis under the law of armed conflict for the conduct of status-based operations in non-international armed conflicts. This article demonstrates that the restrictive approach adopted by the High Court in Mohammed is mistaken as …

Is There A Way Out Of The Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma?, Gabor Rona

International Law Studies

Detention in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs, or wars fought between States and non-State armed groups) is a time-honored military and humanitarian necessity. And yet, the principles of sovereignty, the texts of the law of armed conflict and international human rights law and the historical record leave little doubt: international law recognizes no inherent detention power in such wars. As long as NIACs were purely internal civil wars, there was little basis to question the exclusive role of domestic law in regulating detention of the enemy. With the advent of transnational NIACs, such as the war in Afghanistan involving multi-national forces …

Defensive Force Against Non-State Actors: The State Of Play, Monica Hakimi

International Law Studies

This article assesses the implications of the current Syria situation for the international law on the use of defensive force against non-State actors. The law in this area is highly unsettled, with multiple legal positions in play. After mapping the legal terrain, the article shows that the Syria situation accentuates three preexisting trends. First, the claim that international law absolutely prohibits the use of defensive force against non-State actors is increasingly difficult to sustain. States, on the whole, have supported the operation against the so-called Islamic State in Syria. Second, States still have not coalesced around a legal standard on …

The Failure Of Environmental International Law During Times Of War, Blake Lara

University of Baltimore Journal of Land and Development

Throughout history, war and armed conflict have maintained a continuous presence around the world. Though the reasons for war change, various nations emerge and subside, and populations alter, one of the constant elements of war is its degrading effect on the environment. In addition to indirect effects on the environment that ultimately result from war, nations have used the environment as both a weapon and target of war. For example, during the Peloponnesian War, the Spartans salted Athenian lands to make them infertile. In the Franco-Dutch War from 1672 to 1678, dikes and damns were destroyed in order to create …

Amicus Curiae By The John Marshall Law School International Human Rights Clinic In Support Of Plaintiff-Appellant, Jawad V. Gates, No. 15-5250 (U.S. Court Of Appeals, District Of Columbia Circuit 2015), Steven D. Schwinn, Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak, John Marshall Law School Human Rights Clinic

Court Documents and Proposed Legislation

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Relevance Of International Refugee Law In A Globalized World, Guy S. Goodwin-Gill

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

The movement of people between States continues to be high on national and international agendas. One does not need to look far beyond the headlines to see what a difficult issue it is for States and for regional and international organizations, and how often they make a mess of managing it. Nor does one need to look hard to discover how desperate is the situation of many a migrant, whether in the physical hardships and risk to life and limb encountered during the search for refuge, or in the often incomprehensible and complex web of national laws and procedures with …

Amicus Curiae In Support Of The Petitioners, Santa Barbara Campesino Community V. Perú, Inter-American Court Of Human Rights, No. 10.932 (2015), Sarah Dávila-Ruhaak, Steven D. Schwinn, John Marshall Law School International Human Rights Clinic

Court Documents and Proposed Legislation

No abstract provided.

Americas, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Asia & Oceania, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Americas, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Subsaharan Africa, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The 'New' Law Applicable To Lgbti International Civil Servants In The U.N. System, Daniele Gallo

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invisible: My Experiences With The Undocumented And Abused, Anna Paden Carson

VA Engage Journal

As a legal advocate at Tapestri, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia this summer, I saw many of my immigrant and refugee clients consumed by fear, desperation, and insecurity, and I quickly realized that many of the women I helped only contacted Tapestri because they truly had nowhere else to turn. They were victims of domestic violence and usually living in America undocumented, making the seriousness of their situations that much more intense and pressing. These women were trapped and alone, and Tapestri’s role was to help them in any way we could.

This article explores what I learned throughout my eight-week …

National Insecurity: The National Defense Authorization Act, The Indefinite Detention Of American Citizens, And A Call For Heightened Judicial Scrutiny, 49 J. Marshall L. Rev. 69 (2015), Harvey Gee

UIC Law Review

This essay outlines the problems posed by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (“NDAA”) and interprets the Act’s language to answer the question of: whether American citizens can be indefinitely detained under the NDAA?

Subsaharan Africa, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Asia & Oceania, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Middle East & North Africa, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

Values And The Courts: Maintaining The Rule Of Law In The Global World, Honourable Beverley Mclachlin

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The International Committee Of The Red Cross, Rotem Giladi, Steven Ratner

Book Chapters

In the absence of a serious implementation mechanism in the Geneva Conventions, much of the leading responsibility for promoting their observance falls upon the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the 150-year-old institution that is a sui generis hybrid between a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO) and an international organization. With its secretariat in Geneva and delegations throughout the world, the ICRC is, in many conflicts, the most direct voice for the Conventions. The central role of the ICRC pre-dates the Conventions, for the ICRC has been the driving force behind the codification of international humanitarian law (IHL) since the …

The Complexity Of International Criminal Trials Is Necessary, 48 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 151 (2015), Stuart Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

There is a widespread belief among both academics and policymakers that international criminal trials are too complex. As a result, tribunals have come under enormous pressure to reduce the complexity of their trials. However, changes to trial procedure have not meaningfully affected trial complexity. This Article explains why these changes have failed and argues that the complexity of international criminal trials is necessary for them to achieve their purposes.

Using a multiple regression model of the factors driving trial complexity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), this Article shows that the largest drivers of complexity are …

Thinking Globally, Policing Locally: A Model For Decentralized Law Enforcement In Cote D'Ivoire, 15 J. Int'l Bus. & L. 15 (2015), Hugh Mundy

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ending Bacha Bazi: Boy Sex Slavery And The Responsibility To Protect Doctrine, 25 Ind. Int'l. & Comp. L. Rev. 63 (2015), Samuel Vincent Jones

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This essay challenges the conventional wisdom that prohibitions against government-condoned child-sex slavery have attained non- derogable, peremptory status under international law. Much to the utter shock of field investigators and human rights experts, boy sex slavery has evolved into a constitutive and central feature of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Afghanistan) because of a customary practice commonly referred to as bacha bazi.

Proceedings Of The Ninth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, International Criminal Law: Year In Review 2014–2015, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This publication is based on Professor Drumbl's remarks on September 1, 2015, at the Ninth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs held in Chautauqua, New York.

What I do not want to do is review and repeat what has already been said about the international arena. I thought what I would do is boil it down to a couple observations that I have about the activities at the international institutions over the past year, and discuss four elements that have emerged.

One is transition. What I mean by this is that the work of a number of the international institutions is winding …