International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Christiane Wilke On Global Justice Or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads By Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003., Christiane Wilke

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Global Justice or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice at the Crossroads by Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003.

The Vexing Problem Of Authority In Humanitarian Intervention: A Proposal, Fernando R. Tesón

Scholarly Publications

As is well known, the doctrine of humanitarian intervention raises a host of thorny issues: the threshold for intervention, the question of proportionality, the problem of last resort, the dilemma of whether or not to codify standards and procedures, and so forth. In this paper I will not address those issues; crucial and controversial as they are; I will assume that they have been somehow settled. I will also assume that it is desirable to find alternatives to unilateral intervention. The question, then, becomes this: who should authorize humanitarian intervention? Any acceptable authorizing procedure must avoid over-intervention and abuse on …

The Limits Of Intervention—Humanitarian Or Otherwise, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism by David Kennedy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 400 pp.

and

At the Point of a Gun: Democratic Dreams and Armed Intervention by David Rieff. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. 288 pp.

Kathleen J. Hancock On Breaking Silence, The Case That Changed The Face Of Human Rights By Richard Alan White. Washington, Dc: Georgetown University Press, 2004. 320pp., Kathleen J. Hancock

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of Moscow: "Non-Lethal" Weapons And International Law In The Early 21st Century, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

At the intersection of new weapon technologies and international humanitarian law, so-called "non-lethal" weapons have become an area of particular interest. This article analyses the relationship between "non-lethal" weapons and international law in the early 21st century by focusing on the most seminal incident to date in the short history of the "non-lethal" weapons debate, the use of an incapacitating chemical to end a terrorist attack on a Moscow theatre in October 2002. This tragic incident has shown that rapid technological change will continue to stress international law on the development and use of weaponry but in ways more politically …

Politics And International Justice In A World Of States, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

War Crimes and Realpolitik: International Justice from World War I to the 21st Century by Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004. 267 pp.

Terrorism And The Use Of Force In International Law, Michael Schmitt

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Waging War For Human Rights: Toward A Moral-Legal Theory Of Humanitarian Intervention, Eric A. Heinze

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention edited by Jonathan Moore. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. 322pp.

Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Political Dilemmas edited by J. L. Holzgrefe and Robert O. Keohane. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 350pp.

Surprised By Sin: Human Rights And Universality, Tawia Baidoe Ansah

Faculty Publications

International human rights law's claim to universality, at the level of normative formation, has been shaped by conceptions of the self over time. The metaphysical reconfigurations of the self, from the Enlightenment to the present, have marked the human rights narrative in particular ways. This essay will suggest that since World War II, a conception of the self within a narrative of rights has been replaced, or at least countermanded, by a conception of sacral evil, with profound implications for the normative claim to universality of the human rights discourse. The essay begins with a synoptic analysis of the rise …

The African Holocaust: Should Europe Pay Reparations To Africa For Colonialism And Slavery?, Ryan M. Spitzer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

For many people of European descent, slavery is little more than an unpleasant memory of a bygone and distant era, largely remembered more for the glory of empires lost and faded dreams of conquest and exploration. For many Africans and African Americans, however, slavery remains an unhealed wound that is frequently, if not constantly, reopened by feelings of continued oppression, manipulation, and discrimination. These disparate views clashed most recently at the U.N. World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa in September of 2001.

Inspired by the U.N. Conference in Durban, this Note analyzes the potential for reparations between …

Self-Determination: Chechnya, Kosovo, And East Timor, Jonathan I. Charney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Hindsight always appears better than foresight. Hopefully, the reexamination of past events will provide lessons for the future. Recent media reports have analyzed the genocide in Rwanda and blamed France, the United States, and the UN Security Council for their failures to take steps that might have prevented or stopped the atrocities. Academic studies also argue how the atrocities in Chechnya, Kosovo, and East Timor may have been prevented or stopped by the United Nations or others in the international community. Such analyses are for international relations authorities and military experts. As an international lawyer, I am reluctant to tread …

Anticipatory Humanitarian Intervention In Kosovo, Jonathan I. Charney

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Kosovo during the spring of 1999 aroused controversy at the time and still provokes questions about the legality of the action, its precedential effect, and procedures for developing new international law. The participants faced a legal and moral dilemma between international law prohibitions on the use of force and the goal of preventing or stopping widespread grave violations of international human rights. This commentary seeks to chart a course for the future in light of the current legal and moral environment.

Many individuals on all sides of the Kosovo crisis …

... And Justice For All: Normative Descriptive Frameworks For The Implementation Of Tribunals To Try Human Rights Violators, Gautam Rana

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

With the formation of the Bosnian and Rwandan War Crimes Tribunals, the international community has created a mechanism for the enforcement of human rights law for the first time since the Nuremburg and Tokyo War Trials. The efficacy of these tribunals, however, is in doubt. This Note proposes that only a few human rights are truly universal in nature and can be guaranteed by the international community. Furthermore, the political realities of the international system precludes the use of international tribunals against the more powerful nations of the international community. The Note concludes that by focusing on the human rights …

Will Hong Kong Be Successfully Integrated Into China? A Human Rights Perspective, Yu Ping

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the human rights forecast following Hong Kong's reintegration into China. The Article first reviews the British human rights record in Hong Kong, and explains why China was angered by last-ditch British political reform. It then explores the legal framework of Hong Kong, including the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, and concludes that neither offers significant protection for human rights in Hong Kong. In particular, Chinese state security and state secrets laws are likely to be used to suppress political dissidents, journalists, international organizations, and other "foreign elements" in Hong Kong. The Article …

No Justice, No Peace: Accountability For Rape And Gender-Based Violence In The Former Yugoslavia, Diane Orentlicher

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Women in the Law Project of the International Human Rights Law Group (Law Group) sponsored a delegation to the former Yugoslavia from February 14 to 22, 1993. The delegation, which was also endorsed by the Bar Association of San Francisco, had two principal objectives.

The Law Of Piracy: "Piracy" In The Twentieth Century, Alfred P. Rubin

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion, Professor Jonathan Charney, Professor Thomas Franck, Professor Jordan Paust, Professor John Murphy, Geoffrey Levitt, Professor Kenneth Abbott, Professor Robert Friedlander, Professor Alberto Coll, Professor Jerome Reichman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Kelsen, in his writings, took the position that in law, particularly international law, there are superior and inferior limits to the law; that is, when a norm is articulated and the society behaves in conformance with the norm, and it would do so even in the absence of the norm, the norm is not serving a legal function; it is not serving a normative function of encouraging behavior because the behavior would be in conformance with that norm in any event. There's also the inferior limit to the law; that is, a situation where a rule is articulated but the …

Political Refugees, Nonrefoulement And State Practice: A Comparative Study, Robert C. Sexton

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article will survey and assess the attempts of five of the major refugee receiving countries of the West, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, and Italy, to comply with the mandates of the Convention and Protocol. Specifically, inquiry will focus on the two issues most applicable to the admission and exclusion of political refugees: (1) domestic interpretation of the Convention definition of "refugee;" and (2) adherence to the principle of nonrefoulement, which is the Convention's proscription on returning persons falling within its refugee definition to countries of alleged persecution.

Section II explores the precise substantive provisions of the …

Charter 77 In Czechoslovakia And The International Protection Of Human Rights, Roger Errera

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Charter 77 was published in Prague in early January, 1977. At that time the document contained 240 signatures, a number which increased by 1977 to over 600. This Charter marked the beginning of a new period in the political history of Czechoslovakia, a period of public affirmation of fundamental liberties. It is useful to recall briefly reactions to the publication of this document in the East and the West, and to analyze its profound significance. It is also important to examine the major events that have taken place since 1977 and the inspiration which Charter 77 derived from the United …

An Introduction To The Role Of Law In The World Community, W. Thomas Mallison Jr.

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

International Law And Basic Human Rights, Rita E. Hauser

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgments And Introduction: Use Of Force, Human Rights, And General International Legal Issues

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Introduction, William W. Bishop, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law is a symposium devoted to human rights aspects of the Helsinki Final Act. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe was convened in Helsinki July 3, 1973. After sessions there and in Geneva, all European states, both Western and Eastern (except Albania), took part, as did also the United States and Canada. On August 1, 1975, the Final Act of the Conference was signed at Helsinki by thirty-five nations. Its provisions had been laboriously arrived at by consensus rather than by voting. Early pressures for such a conference had come …

Prisoners Of War In International Armed Conflict Subject Index, Howard S. Levie

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Chapter V The Punishment Of Prisoners Of War, Howard S. Levie

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Freedom Of Transnational Movement: The Helsinki Accord And Beyond, Daniel C. Turack

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Initial formal evaluation of the implementation of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe signed at Helsinki on August 1, 1975, [hereinafter Helsinki Accord] took place at a 35-nation conference in Belgrade during the period from October 4, 1977, to March 9, 1978. The Helsinki Accord, though not a treaty, sets forth various principles of governmental conduct concerning freedom of transnational movement. The Accord morally commits participating states to implement certain measures either domestically or with other states, to respect, promote, and encourage human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Helsinki Accord is divided into three …