International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Operation Sojourner: The Government Infiltration Of The Sanctuary Movement In The 1980s And Its Legacy On The Modern Central American Refugee Crisis, Kristina M. Campbell

Journal Articles

This Article will discuss “Operation Sojourner,” the federal government’s covert infiltration, and subsequent criminal prosecution, of persons involved in the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s, as well as its impact on the modern Sanctuary Movement in Arizona and the Southwest occurring in response to the current Central American refugee crisis. Section I will provide an overview of the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s, and the general religious beliefs and philosophies of those involved in the movement. Section II will discuss the genesis of Operation Sojourner by the former Immigration and Nationality Service (INS) in the early 1980s, and the criminal …

War/Crimes And The Limits Of The Doctrine Of Sources, Steven R. Ratner

Book Chapters

International humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL) are the product of lawmaking processes that are not captured in the black-letter doctrine of sources under which Article 38 of the ICJ Statute is the rule of recognition for international law. Despite efforts by certain institutional players and scholars to place these two regimes squarely within Article 38, both remain distinct in terms of how actors determine whether a purported rule is a legal rule. These distinctions constitute a challenge to the idea of a unified rule of recognition and argue instead for looking for indicators (not rules) about a …

What Investigative Resources Does The International Criminal Court Need To Succeed?: A Gravity-Based Approach, 16 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 1 (2017), Stuart Ford

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

There is an ongoing debate about what resources the International Criminal Court (ICC) needs to be successful. On one side of this debate are many of the Court’s largest funders, including France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and Japan. They have repeatedly opposed efforts to increase the Court’s resources even as its workload has increased dramatically in recent years. On the other side of the debate is the Court itself and many of the Court’s supporters within civil society. They have taken the position that it is underfunded and does not have sufficient resources to succeed. This debate has persisted for years …

The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side: Finding A Remedy For Palestinian Farmers For Harms Created By The Israeli Security Wall, Omar Ghani

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

The Karadžić Genocide Conviction: Inferences, Intent, And The Necessity To Redefine Genocide, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article first discusses and analyzes the Genocide Convention and its strict definition of genocide and the "intent" requirement. It then focuses on the evolution of this definition in light of the recent Karadžić case. This Article demonstrates that in modern-day conflicts, the finding of genocidal intent may be an impossible task for the prosecution and that the ICTY Trial Chamber’s method of inferring intent based on knowledge and other indirect factors may be the only way that prosecutors will be able to obtain future genocide convictions. This Article then discusses a possible re-drafting and re-conceptualizing of the genocide definition …

Individual Criminal Responsibility For The Destruction Of Religious And Historic Buildings: The Al Mahdi Case, Milena Sterio

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, also known as Abou Tourab, was a member of the radical Islamic group Ansar Eddine, serving as one of four commanders during its brutal occupation of Timbuktu in 2012. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Al Mahdi on several charges of war crimes for intentional attacks against ten religious and historic buildings and monuments. All the buildings that Al Mahdi was charged with attacking had been under UNESCO protection and most had been listed as world heritage sites.

The case against Al Mahdi at the ICC unfolded relatively quickly and efficiently, from the official Malian …

Response To Professor Holper's Article, "Redefining 'Particularly Serious Crimes' In Refugee Law", Fatma Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

An individual who faces a significant risk of persecution in her home country is barred from asylum in the United States if she is convicted of a “particularly serious crime” (“PSC”). Despite the grave consequences of such a conviction, there is relatively little scholarship exploring how a PSC should be defined. The term, which comes from the UN Refugee Convention, was incorporated into the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1980.

Professor Holper’s article, Redefining “Particularly Serious Crimes” in Refugee Law, makes an important contribution to the literature by showing how the historical trajectory of the PSC definition mirrors the “severity …

Submission On The Draft General Comment On “State Obligations Under The Icescr In The Context Of Business Activities”, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In January 2017 CCSI made a submission to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding its draft General Comment on “State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Context of Business Activities.” CCSI’s submission focused on: (1) host and home states’ obligations as they relate to international investment agreements (IIAs); (2) extraterritorial obligations in the context of outward investment; and (3) state obligations related to corruption issues.

In the submission, CCSI emphasized that states must ensure that existing treaties do not generate conflicts between obligations owed under IIAs and the Covenant (in …

Guide To Land Contracts: Forestry Projects, International Senior Lawyers Project, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Agricultural investment contracts and forestry projects can be complex, with complicated provisions that are difficult to understand. To assist non-lawyers in better understanding agricultural investment contracts, such as those available on the Open Land Contracts repository, CCSI has developed a Guide to Land Contracts: Forestry Projects.

This Guide, prepared by International Senior Lawyers Project staff and volunteers in collaboration with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, aims to assist the Open Land Contracts repository users in unpacking the technical provisions and language typically found in forestry contracts in order to better understand the contracts and the potential implications of …

Introduction To Symposium On Unauthorized Military Interventions For The Public Good, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

On April 6, 2017, the United States launched fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles against an air base in Syria, after evidence surfaced that Bashar Al-Assad’s regime had again used chemical weapons against its people. President Trump announced that the strikes were intended “to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.” But as of this Symposium’s publication, the United States has not articulated a formal legal justification for the strikes. Instead, it reportedly circulated a document that listed several case-specific considerations that, in its view, justified the use of force. Yet the global reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Many states …

Human Rights And Constitutional Democracy, David L. Sloss

Faculty Publications

This essay reviews Professor Jamie Mayerfeld's book, The Promise of Human Rights. I am sympathetic to the broad contours of Professor Mayerfeld’s argument. Nevertheless, this essay challenges portions of his account. Part One addresses the topic of international oversight. Mayerfeld makes a powerful theoretical argument in support of his claim that increased international oversight could help strengthen human rights protections in the United States. Here, though, I think his account omits some important information and gives insufficient weight to current political realities. Part Two focuses on what Mayerfeld calls the United States’ “self-exemption policy.” In brief, this is the U.S. …

What If The International Criminal Court Could Prosecute President Al-Assad For The Chemical Weapon Attacks In Ghouta?, Paul Cho

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Henry J. Richardson Iii: The Father Of Black Traditions Of International Law, James T. Gathii

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Wrestling Tyrants: Do We Need An International Criminal Justice System?, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Prof. Christopher L. Blakesley delivered this keynote address at the Crimes Without Borders: In Search of an International Justice System Symposium, held at the McGeorge School of Law in the spring of 2016.

The President's Private Dictionary: How Secret Definitions Undermine Domestic And Transnational Efforts At Executive Branch Accountability, Sudha Setty

Faculty Scholarship

The 2016 EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is an agreement allowing companies to move customer data between the European Union and the United States without running afoul of heightened privacy protections in the European Union. It was developed in response to EU concerns that the privacy rights of its citizens have been systematically abrogated by the U.S. government in the name of national security, and contains a variety of assurances that the United States will respect and protect the privacy rights of EU citizens.

How trustworthy are the U.S. assurances under the Privacy Shield? Both the Bush and Obama administrations secretly interpreted …

Grave Breaches: American Military Intervention In The Late Twentieth- Century And The Consequences For International Law, Calla Cameron

CMC Senior Theses

The duality of the United States’ relationship with international criminal law and human rights atrocities is a fascinating theme that weaves through all of American history, but most distinctly demonstrates the contradictory nature of American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century. America is both protector of human rights and perpetrator of human rights atrocities, global police force and aggressor. The Cold War exacerbated the tensions caused by American military dominance. The international political and physical power of the American military allowed the United States to do as it pleased in the 20th century with few consequences, …

A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing: Executive Order No. 13,780 As A Disguise For A Muslim Ban: The Implications Of International Refugee Assistance Project V. Trump, Latoya Tyson

North Carolina Central Law Review

No abstract provided.

Data Protection And Humanitarian Emergencies, Fred H. Cate, Christopher Kuner, Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Orla Lynskey, Christopher Millard

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Extractive Industries And Human Rights, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Hunt Or Be Hunted, Jeremiah Cioffi

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Bulgaria is the geographic and political center of the European migrant crisis, which has the Bulgarian citizenry uneasy about its security. Bulgaria's societal disdain for Middle Eastern migrants stems from hundreds of years of subjugation and non-Muslim Bulgarians' second-class citizenship under the Ottoman Empire. Roving bands of civilian migrant hunters have begun taking the law into their own hands by capturing migrants and turning them over to the Bulgarian authorities for deportation. This Note discusses the illegality of such migrant hunting under Bulgarian domestic law. It then discusses how the impunity enjoyed by migrant hunters is an abdication of Bulgarian …