Poor due to climate impacts
The threat of climate apartheid looms large over the world, says new UN Report
UN special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Phillip Alston, recently released a report assessing the impact of climate change on human rights, especially the rights of people livingin poverty, who are also the most vulnerable to climatic catastrophes. Poor people are most exposed to climate vulnerability because of where they live, their livelihood activities or lack of resources to cope with climatic shocks. It leaves people in destruction, …
Land and identity
On India’s revocation of Jammu & Kashmir’s special constitutional status
“There will be chaos if our identity is compromised”. This statement by Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister of the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), shows that the long-simmering conflict over the region (see also Bofax Nr. 517E “Trading Blows”) has once again reached boiling point. Juxtaposing the interplay of land and minority identity in Kashmir with the current ascendancy of land rights in international law, we see that …
Between policy and reality
On the challenges of being a refugee in Asia
Since the violent events of August 2017, which triggered one of the most recent mass exoduses of Rohingyas from Rakhine state in Myanmar, the Rohingya diaspora continues to rise. Many are still stranded in Bangladesh, some have managed to risk their lives on boats and journeyed across the seas to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while others have attempted to flee to Australia, only to be trapped on Manus Island. …
Are EU misappropriation sanctions dead?
On 11 July 2019, the EU’s General Court delivered seven analogous judgments in a series of Ukraine-related sanctions cases, including that concerning Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych is best known for fleeing Ukraine for Russia amidst mass protests in early 2014, leaving behind a private zoo and a mansion with gilded bathrooms. The General Court struck down the EU’s sanctions against Yanukovych and a number of other Ukrainian former public …
After the trial is before the trial
The ICJ’s Jadhav case and its uncertain domestic implementation
The interplay of international court decisions and their domestic implications is currently challenged in the Kulbhushan Jadhav Case (India v. Pakistan). In this case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its verdict on 17 July, 2019. It concerns a 49-year-old former Indian Naval Officer, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistani Military Court on 11 April 2017, on charges of espionage and terrorism. The ICJ ruled against the …
Finally holding the World Bank accountable?
Analyzing Jam v International Financial Corporation from a TWAIL Perspective
The World Bank (WB), a financial institution born in the Bretton Woods Hotel at the end of the Second World War which enjoys far-reaching immunity due to its status as international organisation, must respond to the US justice system. This was the decision issued on February 27, 2019 by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) with a wide margin of 7 votes to 1 in the case of …
Identifying customary international law from the ivory tower?
Self-defence against non-state actors and why doctrinal precision actually matters
The discussion about the right of self-defence of states against non-state actors is in flux. Among the reasons for that could be new types of terrorism and conflicts which have emerged since the entry into force of the UN Charter. Cross-border impacts and the number of actors involved have increased significantly. These factors, combined with the UN Security Council’s inaction and the increasing threat from terrorist groups, are putting a …
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Response: Critiquing in the Light of The ABC of the OPT
We are grateful to Verfassungblog for dedicating a symposium to The ABC of the OPT; to Anne Peters and Alexandra Kemmerer for their generosity of mind, indeed the contextual mindfulness in which they held a launching event for the book in Berlin (sponsored by both the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law, International Law‘s Berlin Office and Recht im Kontext (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and wrote the introduction to this symposium; and …
“Say My Name”: The Politics of Not Naming
At first sight, the “ABC of the OPT” creates the impression that this is yet another book written exclusively by Israeli academics about a situation that has profoundly transformed the framework of occupation law—and international humanitarian law in general—a long time ago. This first impression is underpinned by the use of hegemonically loaded terminology, structure, and choice of entries and sources. Despite the many nuances academics employ to draw a …
The broken promise of belligerent occupation law
The ABC of the OPT, the award-winning new publication by three outstanding Israeli scholars and jurists – Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo –demonstrates, in a masterly fashion, the use and abuse of the laws of belligerent occupation as a masquerade for raw power and as a tool for oppression. The authors illustrate, using the format of a legal lexicon dedicated to specific legal terms and rhetorical devices (or newspeak), …
Phantom sovereignty and the imaginary version of international law
In the ABC of the OPT, Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard and Hedi Viterbo offer a guidebook for the legal tourist – a narrated cartography to the strange legal planet that has become Israel/Palestine, governed by hundreds of military and civil officials that harbor wide discretion and a flexible rule that I call phantom sovereignty. Shaped as a lexicon, it includes entries that offer both a thematic and a chronological history …
Mobilizing the untapped capacity of international law
It is a particular honour to be asked to contribute to the Book Review Symposium at Verfassungsblog because of the occasion: the arrival of an outstanding work on international law that addresses – dispassionately, authoritatively and comprehensively – one of the most pervasive and most tragic issues of our time: Israel’s interminable occupation of Palestine. This book du jour – The ABC of the OPT – by Orna, Michael and …
From “Assigned Residence” to “Zone”
Introduction to the Book Review Symposium on The ABC of the OPT
Israel’s occupation or “control” (as the book prefers to call it) of Palestinian Territory that began with six days in June 1967, presents a depressing and tragic political and moral conundrum. For the international lawyer, it is also a legal laboratory of global relevance. “The Israeli occupation of Palestine embodies a fateful and troubling paradox regarding international law that we must acknowledge and think our way through”, writes Michael Lynk, …
Strafverfolgung ohne Jurisdiktion?
Das Legitimitätsdilemma des IStGH angesichts der Rohingya-Ermittlungen
Die Chef-Anklägerin des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs (IStGH) sorgte mit ihrem neusten Antrag vergangene Woche für einigen Wirbel. Am letzten Donnerstag ersuchte Fatou Bensouda die Vorverfahrenskammer um Erlaubnis, mit ihren Ermittlungen um die Geschehnisse in Bangladesch/Myanmar im Jahr 2017 fortfahren zu dürfen. Damit befindet sich der Fall nun in jener Phase, an der die gerichtliche Aufarbeitung der Situation in Afghanistan im April scheiterte, nachdem sich der IStGH in seinem wegweisenden Beschluss gegen die …
In the wake of the ICJ’s Opinion in Chagos: Britannia waives the rules
The United Kingdom recently reacted against the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius. Has the UK abandoned the international rule of law? A unanimous verdict sows division On 25 February 2019, the ICJ handed down its Advisory Opinion on the UK’s separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius on 8 November 1965. The Opinion stated clearly that the excision of Chagos …
Conference “Cynical International Law?”
Program and Registration for Engaged Listeners
The joint conference of the Working Group of Young Scholars in Public International Law (Arbeitskreis junger Völkerrechtswissenschaftler*innen – AjV) and the German Society of International Law (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht – DGIR) on the topic of Cynical International Law? Abuse and Circumvention in Public International and European Law 6 – 7 September 2019, Freie Universität Berlin has published its conference program and is now open for registration for engaged …
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