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421. The Gaza Flotilla Incident: Implications for Middle East Politics and U.S. Policy

Author:
David Makovsky, Michael Eisenstadt, Robert Satloff, and Soner Cagaptay
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Abstract:
Although a full narrative will have to wait until the ongoing Israeli inquiry is complete, it is possible to sketch the outlines of what happened on the Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara . The six boats of the "Free Gaza Flotilla" departed Turkey on May 28, and Israeli naval vessels began shadowing them two days later, around 11:00 p.m. on May 30. At that time, Israel requested that the boats divert to Ashdod to allow inspection of their cargo for contraband, but they refused to comply.
Topic:
Political Violence, International Law, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Turkey, Middle East, and Israel

422. Hybrid Tribunals and the Rule of Law: Notes from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Cambodia

Author:
Johanna Herman and Olga Martin
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
Abstract:
Following the establishment of the international ad hoc tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR respectively), a new model of justice administration emerged at the end of the 1990s through the development of hybrid or internationalised courts. Hybrid tribunals are conceived as a mixture of international and domestic law and staff, as a way to provide the necessary resources and guarantees for justice closer to those whose work matters to most. They have different compositions and legal frameworks depending on the context of the country. The first ones were established in Kosovo, Timor Leste and Sierra Leone These first hybrid mechanisms were seen as a new experiment for international justice.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:
Bosnia, Kosovo, and Balkans

423. Reaching for Justice: The participation of victims at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Author:
Johanna Herman
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre on Human Rights in Conflict
Abstract:
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is the first international or internationalised tribunal to include the participation of victims as Civil Parties during the trial. There was a steep learning curve regarding management of victims' involvement in the first trial. There was initially insufficient funding allocated to support victims' participation, with late establishment and understaffing of victim support at the ECCC. Cambodian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have proved instrumental in ensuring the submission of Civil Party applications, legal representation and other forms of support for Civil Parties throughout the process and played a pivotal role in outreach activities. Donors should consider financing NGO and civil society activities that support victim participation, in order to maximise the impact of the significant expenditures they are often allocating to the ECCC. The challenges and successes of the first trial provide lessons not only for future ECCC cases but also for other courts concerning the participation of victims such as the International Criminal Court.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, and International Law
Political Geography:
Cambodia and Southeast Asia

424. The ICJ's Advisory Opinion on Kosovo

Author:
Richard Caplan
Publication Date:
09-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
On July 22, 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its advisory opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence of February 17, 2008, observing that the declaration was not in violation of international law. The Court's opinion may facilitate further recognitions of Kosovo but thus far there has been no significant increase in the number of countries extending recognition. Although the Court's opinion was drafted with the specific and unique circumstances of the Kosovo case in mind, it has been followed with interest by separatist parties engaged in contested territorial struggles elsewhere around the world. Separatists are likely also to be watching with interest the next steps that may be taken with regard to Kosovo in the wake of the ICJ's advisory opinion, especially any boundary adjustments that may be proposed and agreed upon between the Serbian and Kosovar governments.
Topic:
International Law and Sovereignty
Political Geography:
Kosovo and Balkans

425. Was Kosovo's Split-off Legitimate? Background, Meaning and Implications of the ICJ's Advisory Opinion

Author:
Heiko Krueger
Publication Date:
06-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Caucasian Review of International Affairs
Institution:
The Caucasian Review of International Affairs
Abstract:
On 22 July 2010 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reached a final decision in one of its most momentous cases: Kosovo. The media response was huge and many headlines were plain in pointing out that “Kosovo's independence is legal”. But what sounds so clear at first sight arguably becomes an erroneous assumption upon closer examination. Indeed, the ICJ explicitly avoided deciding upon the legality of Kosovo's independence. Finally, there are sound reasons to question the legal significance of the Court's findings.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Kosovo

426. Cartography and Geopolitics in the Arctic Region

Author:
Jeppe Strandsbjerg
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper discusses the relationship between geography and politics; and more specifically, the relationship between sovereign claims and cartography. I introduce the term 'cartopolitics' to describe a particular way of making space real and corresponding with politics that defines contemporary bordering practices in the Arctic region. The paper argues that too often boundary studies assume that socio-political space arises as a result of boundary practices. In contrast, this paper proceeds from a notion that space should precede boundaries in the analysis because, unless space is taken as a natural given and constant background, its 'construction' conditions how boundaries can be established in the first place. In sequence, I argue how the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea builds on–and requires–a particular spatiality epitomised by so-called modern cartography. This has implications for the way in which sovereignty over space is transferred from a political to a scientific domain, and essentially, it tends to mask the constructed nature of the spatiality given objectivity through the law of the sea.
Topic:
International Law, Politics, United Nations, and Maritime Commerce

427. Remedying European Legal Pluralism: The FIAMM and Fedon Litigation and the Judicial Protection of International Trade Bystanders

Author:
Marco Dani
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
In FIAMM and Fedon the European Court of Justice has ruled that Community firms hit by US trade sanctions authorized by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body are not entitled to compensation from EC political institutions. The article discusses the cases in the background of current debates on the attitude of the Court of Justice towards international law and, more broadly, on European legal pluralism. From this standpoint, it provides a critical assessment of the legal issues involved in this litigation – internal status of WTO obligations, scope for manoeuvre of EC political institutions in international trade relations, liability for unlawful and lawful conduct – and offers a comparative analysis of its possible solutions, suggesting that a finding of liability for lawful conduct would have been a preferable outcome in both theoretical and substantive terms.
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

428. The Legal Dimension of the International Community: How Community Interests Are Protected in International Law

Author:
Santiago Villalpando
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This article uses the emergence of the protection of community interests in international law as a theoretical framework to explain a number of legal notions and regimes, such as jus cogens, obligations erga omnes, international responsibility towards the international community as a whole, and individual criminal responsibility. With reference to various international conventions, the work of the International Law Commission, and the case law of different international tribunals, it describes how changes in social intercourse at the global level have entailed structural transformations of the international legal order, as well as tensions caused by the concurrent legal protection of community and individual interests. The article further explains how the proposed theoretical framework may be used to address several concrete issues which have arisen in the contemporary legal debate, such as the question of exceptions to the immunity of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction, countermeasures by states other than the injured state in international responsibility, the legal regime of jus cogens, etc.
Topic:
International Law

429. Symposium: The Human Dimension of International Law: Introduction

Author:
Paola Gaeta
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
This symposium comprises the contributions presented by five distinguished international lawyers at the European University Institute in Florence in October 2008 on a very special occasion. Antonio Cassese ('Nino' to his friends and colleagues) had recently celebrated his 70th birthday and, as is customary in many European countries, a group of his former students and friends chose this occasion to celebrate his academic and professional career with the publication of a selection of his most important writings on the three branches of public international law he has most influenced – international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and international criminal law. The outcome was a book, The Human Dimension of International Law, published in summer 2008 by Oxford University Press, the intention of which is to shed light on Nino's intellectual approach to these three areas of public international law. The publication of this volume also provided an excellent occasion to convene a small number of friends and colleagues as a token of appreciation and admiration for his many achievements as an international lawyer. As Nino shies away from any personal limelight (indeed, I am certain he will be troubled by these few lines about him), it was decided that this meeting at the …
Topic:
International Law
Political Geography:
Europe

430. The Position of Individuals in International Law: An ILC Perspective

Author:
Giorgio Gaja
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
According to the ILC Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, any state to which an erga omnes obligation is owed may claim reparation in the interest of an individual who is the victim of an infringement and the beneficiary of the obligation. The ILC Articles on Diplomatic Protection should have specified that also the state of nationality may seek reparation only in the interest of the injured individual when his or her rights have been infringed.
Topic:
International Law