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1. Basis and Implications of the ICC's Ruling Against Myanmar

Author:
Tanushree Nigam
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
n a major decision, the International Criminal Court ruled on September 6, 2018 that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of alleged deportation of the Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh. The Pre-Trial Chamber accepted the OTP’s argument that the Court may exercise jurisdiction over the crime of cross border deportation of Rohingyas even though the alleged crime had been committed in Myanmar which is not a State Party. The Pre-Trial Chamber stated that this could be done as some “elements of the crime” had taken place in the territory of Bangladesh, which is a State Party. This judgment makes a towering statement that ICC’s jurisdiction is objective rather than subjective in nature. In this post, I discuss the basis and implications of the Chamber’s findings.
Topic:
Legal Theory, International Criminal Court (ICC), Humanitarian Crisis, and Deportation
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, and Myanmar

2. The Legal Aspects of the MH17 Disaster: What Next?

Author:
Emma Bakkum
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
The most often discussed legal avenue is criminal law, under which individual perpetrators can be held accountable for the crimes they committed. Not only those directly responsible but also those who ordered, conspired to or aided and abetted the shooting down of MH17 can be held responsible. These individuals can be prosecuted both at the national level in domestic courts or at the international level, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) or a specially established tribunal. Criminal law, however, requires a high burden of proof. Not only needs to be proven that an individual has committed a criminal act but also that the individual did so with the required knowledge and intent, making it difficult to prosecute individuals. Under the circumstances of the MH17 situation, investigations are strenuous. Jeroen Akkermans, who was one of the first investigative journalists present at the crash site, underlined the problems with gathering evidence.
Topic:
Crime, Law, Legal Theory, and International Criminal Court (ICC)
Political Geography:
Europe, Malaysia, Ukraine, and Asia

3. The United States, China, and Taiwan: A Future With Hope

Author:
James Lilley
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
You have clearly worked over the complicated relationship between Taiwan and China. I can only try to build on what Dr. Lin Chong--pin and Mr. Rostow have already described so lucidly. I would like to point out first that China chooses, for both tactical and emotional reasons, to place a special heavy emphasis on its relationship with Taiwan and to its point that Taiwan is part of China. Emotional, because this stirs up nationalism among a skeptical Chinese elite who have lost ideology. Tactical, because driving home the unity and sovereignty themes forces the U.S. on the defensive, i.e., the U.S. interferes in China's internal affairs, a cardinal sin in China's own lexicon. In reality, however, China has been practical. For almost fifty years Chinese propaganda has focused on Taiwan as a pure target, but objective circumstances have changed and so has China's strategy. China took over the Ta Chen Islands peacefully in 1954, its last significant territorial acquisition in the Taiwan Strait. Its later more militaristic approach against a well--defended Quemoy (Chin men) failed in 1958, and China retreated with much bluster and firing of cannons, many of them empty.
Topic:
Politics and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
United States, China, Taiwan, and Asia

4. What is Sovereignty? The Cases of Taiwan and Micronesia

Author:
Peter R. Rosenblatt
Publication Date:
10-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Public International Law Policy Group
Abstract:
The title of my contribution to this discussion raises a point that is easy to overlook in discussions relating to the legal status of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. The range of options across the Strait is not confined, as the title of this conference suggests, to the reunification of China or Taiwan's independence, although either of these is obviously a possibility. A more likely option, in my judgment, is some future status for the ROC which involves neither incorporation into the People's Republic of China nor the challenging step of a declaration of “independence” as the Republic of Taiwan. This third option embraces a multiplicity of status shadings involving a continuing evolution of the ROC's current status of de facto independence. It is this option that I would like to address.
Topic:
Politics and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
China, Taiwan, and Asia