This article argues that the narratives told about the Great War helped to establish the bombardment of civilians during World War II as an ethical, military and legal possibility. It shows that the ...literary representation of the Great War was antagonistic towards civilians, suggesting that a fairer war would affect the entire nation. Military strategists accepted this premise and planned for a future war that would be directed against civilian populations. International lawyers also adopted this narrative and, constrained by it and their disciplinary conventions, found it hard to posit any strong legal or ethical objections to aerial bombardment.
While challenges may persist with respect to the relationship between counterterrorism (CT) and humanitarian action, it is at least understood that CT measures must comply with international ...humanitarian law (IHL). Clarifying the relationship between this body of law and CT measures is one of the modest but important innovations of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2462. At a minimum, references to IHL in this resolution leave a pathway for States to take measures to preserve impartial humanitarian action from the effects of CT, and at most, they prescribe that States should take such measures. Progress in clarifying the relationship between UN sanctions obligations and IHL obligations appears to be lacking with respect to non-CT-related UN sanctions. As will be discussed in this paper, this leads to questions regarding the application of the so-called “supremacy clause” contained in Article 103 of the UN Charter vis-à-vis IHL obligations.
In recent years, the international community has worked to confront the large and growing threat of terrorism, including by introducing new counterterrorism (CT) measures and tightening existing ...ones. These measures take many forms, including international, regional and domestic sanctions against individuals, groups and other entities. Such efforts pursue the legitimate aims of security and international peace – things that terrorism undermines and goes against – but they have, at the same time, implicated a degree of overlap and confusion between international humanitarian law (IHL), on the one hand, and the law and policy framework underwriting CT measures and sanctions regimes, on the other, particularly as both apply to and affect principled humanitarian action. This article addresses this area of overlap and confusion. First, it examines the applicability of IHL to CT measures and operations. Next, it addresses the co-application of IHL, CT regulations and sanctions regimes, from the mindset of preserving IHL without impeding CT measures and their objectives. The article then examines the legal questions that arise when sanctions regimes and CT measures affect IHL-mandated and IHL-protected activities undertaken by impartial humanitarian organizations. Finally, the article analyzes recent developments and makes proposals aimed at preserving an effective humanitarian space in contexts where IHL, CT legal frameworks and sanctions apply simultaneously.
Anthony Cullen advances an argument for a particular approach to the interpretation of non-international armed conflict in international humanitarian law. The first part examines the origins of the ...'armed conflict' concept and its development as the lower threshold for the application of international humanitarian law. Here the meaning of the term is traced from its use in the Hague Regulations of 1899 until the present day. The second part focuses on a number of contemporary developments which have affected the scope of non-international armed conflict. The case law of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia has been especially influential and the definition of non-international armed conflict provided by this institution is examined in detail. It is argued that this concept represents the most authoritative definition of the threshold and that, despite differences in interpretation, there exist reasons to interpret an identical threshold of application in the Rome Statute.
Larry May examines the normative and conceptual problems concerning the crime of genocide. Genocide arises out of the worst of horrors. Legally, however, the unique character of genocide is reduced ...to a technical requirement, that the perpetrator's act manifest an intention to destroy a protected group. From this definition, many puzzles arise. How are groups to be identified and why are only four groups subject to genocide? What is the harm of destroying a group and why is this harm thought to be independent of killing many people? How can a person in the dock, as an individual, be responsible for a collective crime like genocide? How should we understand the specific crimes associated with genocide, especially instigation, incitement, and complicity? Paying special attention to the recent case law concerning the Rwanda genocide, May offers the first philosophical exploration of the crime of genocide in international criminal law.
The
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are emergency services generally been designed
to provide urgent treatment of patients with life-threatening conditions
outside medical facilities. Even though ...the EMS belongs to the category of
socio-economic rights, it nevertheless has great significance in safeguarding
one of the most fundamental human rights, the right to life. In fact,
international humanitarian law has recognised this important connection by establishing
explicit legal rules that oblige states to ensure urgent medical care for the wounded
and sick. International human rights law, on the other hand, has no such expressed
provisions. However, the problem is not the lack of legal rules applicable to
the EMS as such but rather the challenges in human rights perception, which
hinder the EMS being perceived as a valuable human right. Therefore, this
article essentially argues that international human rights law does not
recognise the EMS as a human right sufficiently and that more thorough actions
are required from the UN Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(CESCR) in this regard.
In the aftermath of the ‘Ethiopian Red Terror’ in the late 1970s, the former provincial governor Eshetu Alemu was tried before the Federal High Court of Ethiopia as well as the District Court of The ...Hague. While both courts dealt with the same material acts and circumstances, they reached diverging conclusions regarding the ‘sufficient nexus’ between (armed) conflict in Ethiopia at the time and Alemu’s acts. The main objective of this paper is to examine the existence of the ‘nexus’ necessary for an offence to be qualified as a war crime. In assessing and classifying the conflict situation in Ethiopia at the time and the status of the parties involved in the hostilities, this article finds that a non-international armed conflict only existed between the government and the secessionists, while the hostilities between the government and the ‘anti-revolutionists’ remained below the thresholds of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The article argues that the District Court of The Hague employed an overly broad interpretation in classifying the conflict and in determining the ‘nexus’ element, an approach which results in an undermining of legal certainty and the very purpose of the ‘nexus’ requirement.
In Folge des „Äthiopischen Roten Terrors“ der späten 1970er Jahre wurde der ehemalige Provinzgouverneur Eshetu Alemu sowohl vor dem Bundesgerichtshof von Äthiopien als auch vor dem Den Haager Bezirksgericht angeklagt. Obwohl sich beide Gerichte mit denselben materiellen Taten und Umständen befassten, kamen sie zu unterschiedlichen Schlussfolgerungen hinsichtlich des hinreichenden Nexus zwischen dem bewaffneten Konflikt in Äthiopien und Alemus Taten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht das Vorhandensein des „Nexus“, der notwendig ist, um eine Tat als Kriegsverbrechen zu qualifizieren. Dazu werden die damalige Konfliktsituation in Äthiopien zum Zeitpunkt der Begehung der Verbrechen und der Status der an den Feindseligkeiten beteiligten Parteien untersucht. Der Artikel kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass ein nicht-internationaler bewaffneter Konflikt lediglich zwischen der Regierung und der Gruppe der „Sezessionisten“ bestand. Der Artikel argumentiert, dass das Den Haager Gericht bei der Klassifizierung des Konflikts und bei der Bestimmung des ‚Nexus‘ eine zu weite Auslegung anwandte. Durch einen Vergleich der beiden Urteile kommt der Beitrag zu dem Ergebnis, dass die übermäßig weite Auslegung des Den Haager Gerichts zur Untergrabung der Rechtssicherheit und des Zwecks des ‚Nexus‘-Erfordernisses führen kann.
Bereits seit den 1970er Jahren warnt der amerikanische Astrophysiker Donald J. Kessler vor den Gefahren durch Weltraumschrott, welcher zukünftig potentiell die gesamte Raumfahrt zum Stillstand ...bringen könnte. Gleichwohl gibt es keine allumfassende Vorgehensweise der Staatengemeinschaft, um diesem Problem dauerhaft entgegenzuwirken. Während das existierende vertragliche Regelwerk nicht auf die Verhinderung oder Beseitigung von Weltraumschrott ausgerichtet ist, sind bestehende technische Richtlinien zwar inhaltlich eindeutig, dafür aber rechtlich unverbindlich. Dieser Artikel untersucht die Anwendung des Umweltvölkerrechts auf den Weltraumsektor und stellt dar, auf welche Weise umweltrechtliche Prinzipien und davon abgeleitete Regeln der Vermehrung von Weltraumschrott entgegenwirken können. Dazu stellt der Artikel zunächst die aktuelle rechtliche Beurteilung von Weltraumschrott sowie dessen Wechselwirkung mit umweltrechtlichen Prinzipien dar. Schließlich wird hinterfragt, ob neben diesem umweltrechtlichen Ansatz der Abschluss eines spezifischen Vertragswerkes zu Weltraumschrott erforderlich ist, um die Weltraumschrottproblematik nachhaltig zu bewältigen.
Since the 1970 s, the American astrophysicist Donald J. Kessler has warned about the dangers of space debris that might potentially terminate the entirety of space flight in the future. Still, there is no overarching approach by the international community to counteract this issue in the long term. While the current legal framework is not aimed at preventing or removing space debris, existing technical guidelines, although being unambiguous in content, are not legally binding. The present article examines the application of public international environmental law to the outer space sector and describes how environmental principles and rules derived thereof can prevent the proliferation of space debris. For this purpose, the article outlines the current legal assessment of space debris as well as its interaction with recognised environmental principles. Ultimately, the article questions whether a specific legal framework concerning space debris is necessary to sustainably overcome the problem of space debris.
The article broadly examines how humanitarian aid for Rohingya refugees inadvertently harmed poorer hosts and adversely affected local capacities for peace. The article also discusses possible ways ...of easing tension and improving social cohesion in the refugee-hosting areas, while also highlighting how policy- and mandate-related constraints hinder a humanitarian response anchored in the "Do No Harm" principle. Finally, the article concludes with the argument that the humanitarian agencies should not just limit themselves to identifying the unintended consequences and lapses in the intervention. Instead, the Do No Harm principle should lead humanitarian aid agencies to make an active effort to accept responsibility for the harm while taking all necessary steps to mitigate or avoid harming in future interventions.
This article, drawing on Pali materials, highlights the Buddhist emphasis on minimising suffering, even in the conduct of war, in line with principles of international humanitarian law (IHL). It ...reflects on the inner roots of conflict and explores ideals of governance and the conduct of war, especially as explored in the Jātaka stories and stories about the god Sakka, and then as reflected in the Edicts of emperor Asoka and the Mahāvaṃsa chronicle.
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