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81. The Redistribution of Resources in Internationalised Intra-State Peace Processes by Comprehensive Peace Agreements and Security Council Resolutions

Author:
Cindy Daase
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
The (illegal) exploitation and (bad) management of high value resources like timber, diamonds, gold, minerals and oil constitute key-factors for the inflammation, continuation and termination of numerous intra-state conflicts. Since the 1990s these conflicts have been increasingly settled by the conclusion of comprehensive peace agreements between the conflicted state and belligerent non-state parties. At the example of the Lomé, Accra and Ouagadougou Agreement, which were negotiated to terminate the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire , the paper describes and analyzes whether and how these agreements addressed the redistribution of conflict-resources during the peace process. In the course of this documentation, the paper finds a strong involvement of the UN Security Council when it comes to the redistribution of resources and the implementation of all three agreements that goes beyond addressing an immediate threat to peace and security. Focusing on this involvement of the Security Council to exert a strong pull towards the compliance of the parties with these agreements, the paper will discuss the legal nature of the example peace agreements and of the specific obligations concerning the redistribution of resources. The paper finds that, under certain circumstances, internationalized comprehensive peace agreements, with a strong endorsement and involvement of the Security Council, can create effective legal obligations for the parties with respect to the redistribution and treatment of resources during the transition from conflict to peace.
Political Geography:
Liberia and Sierra Leone

82. The Falkland Islands and the UK v. Argentina Oil Dispute: Which Legal Regime?

Author:
Alice Ruzza
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
Following Argentina's withdrawal from the 1995 Joint Declaration concluded with the UK for the common exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Falklands, the sovereignty dispute over the Islands has recently re-emerged as an economic 'struggle' for access to the North Falklands Basin's oil deposits. The pa per analyzes the states' pending sovereignty dispute and their present claims, from the perspective of the exploitation of the Island s' natural resources. The lawfulness of uncoupling the treatment of title to territory and to natural resources, particularly in an area where sovereignty is disputed has been examined in the present paper. By considering the UN practice on the Falklands' case, it is argued that a separate treatment is not per se unlawful, provided that all the parties having a legitimate sovereign claim over the territory are involved. The Joint Declaration is employed as a model to provide evidence in this regard. In addition, the paper discusses the unilateral conduct of the parties as a possible alternative to a cooperative agreement. As the UK is currently acting unilaterally with regard to the access to the oil deposits in the Islands, the implications of its conduct are also reviewed.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Argentina, and Falkland Islands

83. Conflicts over Protection of Marine Living Resources: The 'Volga Case' Revisited

Author:
Saiful Karim
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
Non-traditional maritime security concerns have become more important than ever in the post-Cold War era. Naval forces of most developed countries are more concerned about these threats than conventional war. One of the main maritime security issues for many countries in the world is illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the marine area. With these burgeoning issues comes the potential for a large number of disputes involving international law. In early 2002, a long-line fishing vessel under a Russian flag – the Volga, was detained by Australian authorities a few hundred meters outside the Exclusive Economic Zone of Australia's Heard and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean. The vessel was reportedly engaged in illegal fishing. This incident gave birth to litigation in international and Australian courts. Apart from these cases, Russia also announced separate litigation against Australia for violation of Articles 111 and 87 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Considering the outcome of these cases, this article critically examines the characteristics of litigation as a strategy for pacific settlement of disputes over marine living resources. Using the Volga Case as an example, this article explores some issues related to the judicial settlement of disputes over marine living resources. This article demonstrates that the legal certainty of winning a case may not be the only factor influencing the strategy for settlement of an international dispute.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Russia and Australia

84. Regulating Information Flows, Regulating Conflict: An Analysis of United States Conflict Minerals Legislation

Author:
Christiana Ochoa and Patrick J. Keenan
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
The focus of this paper is the connection between conflict and commercial activity. In particular, it focuses on the ongoing conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is funded, in large part, by the sale of conflict commodities – minerals, metals, and petroleum – that fund violent groups at their source and then enter legitimate markets and products around the world. Recently, attention has turned to how to regulate conflict commerce as a tool for divesting from violent conflict. In the United States, for example, the recently adopted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act include a provision addressing conflict minerals originating from this region. The violent and secretive nature of conflict minerals transactions makes crafting effective regulation and policing strategies challenging. As a result the Dodd-Frank Act, like other domestic and international efforts, is designed in large part to discover, gather and disseminate information about the nature and scale of conflict commodities emanating from the DRC. This paper analyzes this legislation while also discussing a number of other current conflict commerce governance efforts. It observes the difficulty of regulating in the context of conflict and corruption and analyses the use of regulation as a tool for information- xtraction, information-forcing and information-dissemination as opposed to its use as a tool for directly proscribing undesirable behavior.
Political Geography:
United States and Democratic Republic of the Congo

85. Incentives and Survival in Violent Conflicts

Author:
Moshik Lavie and Christophe Muller
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
This paper analytically investigates the incentive scheme of perpetrators of violent conflicts. It provides a rational equilibrium framework to elicit how monetary incentives and survival considerations shape a combatant‟s decision to participate in a conflict. In the model, a leader decides to award soldiers monetary incentives. Civilians finance the militia via donations and soldiers decide on the actual fighting and indulge in looting. We explore the scheduled decision-making that takes place on the path toward a violent conflict and study the principal-agent relationship that exists between the leader and the militia. In addition, we analyze the effect of several internal factors (productivity and survival risk) and external factors (relative economic resources, opponents‟ military strength) on the intensity of the conflict.
Topic:
Economics

86. Enhancing Compliance with International Law by Armed Non-State Actors

Author:
Annyssa Bellal and Stuart Casey-Maslen
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
Enhancing compliance with international norms by armed non-state actors is central to efforts to improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Limited engagement with such actors, as well as lack of clarity as to the precise nature and extent of the international legal regimes that are applicable to them, constitute significant barriers to achieving better compliance. In this article the authors argue for international human rights law to be more widely seen as imposing direct obligations upon armed nonstate actors and for counter-terrorism legislation not to be interpreted so as to preclude engagement on positive respect for humanitarian norms. What is needed is greater engagement with armed non-State actors, not less.

87. Regulation of Private Military Companies

Author:
Alexander Kees
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
The increasing use of private military companies by states in armed conflict raises questions regarding the regulation of those non-state actors. However, even though the privatization of core state functions might be an emerging phenomenon with respect to its extent and quality, there is no legal vacuum for the activities of private military contractors. According to international humanitarian law, states must ensure respect for the ius in bello and enforce applicable international law also with respect to private contractor personnel if they are charged with functions governed by international law. Against this background, the challenge for future regulation is on the national and administrative level. States must intensify their efforts to implement existing standards.

88. Armed Forces as Carrying both the Stick and the Carrot? Humanitarian Aid in U.S. Counterinsurgency Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq

Author:
Alice Gadler
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
The fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq has led the U.S. and its allies to devote growing attention and resources to counterinsurgency strategies, stability operations and civil-military operations. Humanitarian and development assistance have acquired an important role in military strategies. However, the activities carried out by armed forces in the field of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq have been criticized for blurring the distinction between civilian and military actors and thus increasing the risk of being targeted for humanitarians and civilians. The article analyzes the conduct of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and the challenges it has posed to humanitarian actors. It then examines U.S. military doctrines and manuals and argues that their most recent versions have increasingly taken into account the needs of humanitarian actors and the principles of humanitarian action, but reasons for concern remain. The engagement of the military in humanitarian assistance has not been definitely limited. In addition, humanitarians should be careful in their relationships with the armed forces in the field of information-sharing.
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Iraq

89. Settling Trade Disputes over Natural Resources: Limitations of International Trade Law to Tackle Export Restrictions

Author:
Stormy-Annika Mildner and Gitta Lauster
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
In the light of rising competition, scarce natural resources are increasingly perceived as a potential national security risk. Hence, governments are increasingly intervening in primary commodity markets to secure domestic supply at lower prices, for instance, by restricting exports through tariffs and quotas. While limiting exports may be justified in certain cases such as temporary shortages of food supply, they are often a second-best policy tool to address domestic market failures, risking international trade distortions. Some import-dependent countries have therefore lobbied for an update of WTO regulations to curtail the use of export restrictions; others have turned to preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to achieve stricter disciplines. In this paper, the following questions are addressed: What are the current WTO rules regulating export restrictions on natural resources, and what are their limitations? Are PTAs better equipped to prevent trade distortions through export restrictions? To answer these questions, we confine our analysis mostly to Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), not considering the multitude of one-sided preferential agreements.

90. Resource Conflicts over Arable Land in Food Insecure States: Creating an United Nations Ombudsman Institution to Review Foreign Agricultural Land Leases

Author:
Anastasia Telesetsky
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Institution:
The Goettingen Journal of International Law
Abstract:
In the last decade of globalization, States in the Middle East, East Asia, Europe, and North America have looked towards Africa and Southeast Asia for opportunities to lease for 30-50 years large tracts of arable land for production of commodity crops and biofuels in order to meet the needs of home markets. Facing their own governance challenges, States in Africa and Southeast Asia have leased land to private foreign investors without requiring any environmental review or mitigation of the proposed land leases. This paper argues that in food insecure states the recent flurry of land leasing activity to foreign agribusiness is likely to lead to unintended long term consequences for the ecology in land-leasing States by depleting the already fragile environment through monocropping, chemical pesticide and fertilizer applications, and large scale irrigation. This paper argues that international investment law may provide foreign investors with legal protection if land leasing States in the future decide to regulate the leases in a manner that discriminates against large agribusiness. The current proposals for self-regulatory voluntary codes of conduct do not provide sufficient oversight over the leasing process to protect the public's interest in a healthy and productive environment against foreign investors who have under the current lease structure no incentive to improve the land that they are leasing. The creation of an United Nations based ombudsman to provide legal and technical oversight and support for States making long-term leases has greater potential than a voluntary code for ensuring a balanced negotiation among the interests of host State governments for investment, investors for arable land, and the public for long-term sustainability.
Topic:
United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Middle East, East Asia, North America, and Southeast Asia