Abstract
This article explores to what extent the ad hoc tribunals have made use of the national law of the state where the crimes have allegedly been committed in their quest for elements of crimes, ...concepts of criminal responsibility, grounds for excluding criminal responsibility and guidelines for sentencing. At first sight, one would expect the legislation of the territorial state to feature only as an indication of 'general principles of law' or 'international customary law'. However, the investigation of case law reveals that the law of the territorial state holds a far more prominent place. In search for rationales, the author suggests that, initially, national legislation has been used to plug the legal gaps in international criminal law. However, more recently the ad hoc tribunals have canvassed the national legislation of the territorial state, in order to find out whether this state would qualify to take over criminal proceedings against mid-level perpetrators. The author suggests that the International Criminal Court might follow suit, in order to give shape to its policy of 'positive complementarity'.
C’est par un regard systémique que sont abordés dans cette étude les rapports entre les ordres juridiques européens, Union européenne et Conseil de l’Europe, et les ordres juridiques nationaux sur le ...terrain spécifique de la protection des droits fondamentaux. L’ensemble des interactions a atteint un degré de sophistication tel qu’il est devenu difficile d’organiser leur analyse. L’approche par l’identification d’un système européen de protection des droits fondamentaux permet de dégager des règles, qui se présentent comme des effets de ce systèmes pour les ordres juridiques précités. Ainsi, la présomption de protection équivalente entre les droits fondamentaux est envisagée comme un élément déclencheur, formalisant les interactions entre les ordres juridiques dans un système. Celui-ci fonctionne grâce aux principes de subsidiarité, de proportionnalité et de sécurité juridique. Ces trois principes sont les règles du système, révélées par le regard englobant du système. Dans l’ensemble, il apparaît que l’adhésion de l’Union européenne à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme serait pertinente mais ne représente pas une étape indispensable. En revanche, il serait souhaitable d’avancer vers une harmonisation matérielle plus poussée, qui pourrait être réalisée par les juges européens. Il suffirait d’élaborer des notions européennes communes et des obligations positives identiques à la charge des États, afin d’assurer une protection effective des droits fondamentaux.
The relationship between the two european legal order, the European Union and the Council of Europe, and national legal orders is analysed through a systemic vision, on the specific field of protection of Fundamental rights. Their relation has become so intense that it is hard to organise a study about them. That is why the systemic approach helps consider those relations as a whole. The first step, that shifts the interaction between the legal orders mentioned into a system is the presumption of equivalent protection. Follows the discovery of the rules of the system, that are also an effect of this system. More precisly, the rules are the principle of subsidiarity, proportionality and legal certainty. It appears that there is no need for the European Union to acceed to the European Convention of Human Rights, even if it would make the legal relation easier. However, it could be useful for the effectiveness of Fundamental Rights to deepen the substantial harmonisation between the european legal orders through the identification by the judges of european autonomous concept and common positive human rights obligations.
The contribution of the general principles of law to the development of the European Union is spectacular. Certainly first and foremost, both publicly and in professional literature, the development ...of basic EU citizen rights from the general principles of law can be found. The transfer of basic rights into a written charter of fundamental rights and their forthcoming adoption in the European Union Constitution give rise to the contemplation of the future role of general principles of law. One could also ask the question of whether these legal sources will eventually 'be exhausted'. It is for this very reason that the author goes on to more closely examine the role of the general principles of law in the further development of EU rights.
L'objectif est d'analyser la jonction des principes généraux du droit au niveau européen. cette étude se limite aux principes généraux du droit à ces deux cultures juridiques, soit aux principes ...admis par la jurisprudence et s'imposant à l'administration et à ses rapports avec les particuliers. il s'agira ainsi de répondre à plusieurs questions dont : les principes généraux du droit tendent-ils réellement à converger ? faut-il déceler une uniformisation du droit sous l'influence des principes généraux de droits européens ou cela permet-il de mettre en avant que certains principes sont <> ? dans le cas contraire pourquoi certains principes restent-ils propres à certains systèmes juridiques ? ne faut-il pas voir dans les droits européens la possibilité de s'enrichir des principes généraux des droits d'origine extranationale ? mais également de partager les principes généraux du droit français ? /...
The aim is to analyze the junction of general principles of law at European level. this study is limited to the general principles of the right to these two legal cultures, to the principles accepted by the jurisprudence and imposing itself on the administration and its relations with individuals. it will thus be necessary to answer several questions, including: do general principles of law really tend to converge? Is it necessary to detect a uniformity of law under the influence of the general principles of European rights or does it make it possible to emphasize that certain principles are "universal"? if not, why do certain principles remain specific to certain legal systems? should we not see in European rights the possibility of enriched by the general principles of rights of extranational origin? but also to share the general principles of French law? / ...
Abstract
International lawyers usually disregard the vital functions that general principles of law may play in the decisions of international courts and tribunals. The relative indifference in these ...principles should lead to a renewed attention in the legal regime of the general principles of law as a source of public international law. As far as international criminal law is concerned, general principles of law may be crucial to the outcome of an international trial, inter alia because the conviction of an accused in respect of a particular charge may depend on the existence of a given defence under this source. This article examines the role that general principles of law have played in the decisions of international criminal courts and tribunals. In particular, it aims at analysing their alleged 'subsidiary' nature, their process of determination, and their transposition from national legal systems into international law. It concludes that general principles of law have played a significant role not only by filling legal gaps, but also by being a fundamental means for the interpretation of legal rules and the enhancement of legal reasoning.
With the fall of communism and the appearance of a new world order, it is hoped that the United Nations will become the principle organisation for the regulation of relations between states as well ...as for the settlement of conflict. The recent crises over Iraq and the continued bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia have ensured a higher profile for the United Nations but have at the same time placed great pressure on that organisation to resolve conflict and organise relations between states in a manner that is acceptable to the international community. The essays collected in this volume are published in conjunction with the International Law Group. Providing valuable statements of the fundamentals of international law from leading authorities, they re-examine the Declaration of Principles of International Law Governing Friendly Relations Between States. The Declaration is the nearest thing that states have to an international constitution and embodies the fundamental values of the international legal system. The great changes in the international system since 1989 hold out the prospect of the reinvigoration of the Charter, perhaps for a new system of international legal relations, and make the reconsideration of the Declaration particularly timely.
Le Tribunal arbitral du sport (TAS), organe de résolution des litiges sportifs par la voie de l’arbitrage, rend des sentences qui, grâce à la pratique du précédent, acquièrent la cohérence nécessaire ...à la formation d’une jurisprudence. À travers cette jurisprudence, le TAS contribue à l’édification d’un ordre juridique sportif global et autonome. Cette contribution est le résultat d’un double apport, normatif et structurant. D’abord, les règles prétoriennes produites par le TAS et formées essentiellement des principes généraux constamment appliqués par les arbitres, constituent une source de droit à l’intérieur de l’ordre juridique sportif. Certains de ces principes, principalement ceux permettant de protéger la sincérité des compétitions et les droits fondamentaux des athlètes, se démarquent par leur caractère intangible pour former l’ordre public sportif. La mise à l’écart du droit étatique au profit de l’application de ces principes, mais aussi des règlements sportifs, permet d’assurer l’autonomie de l’ordre juridique sportif. Ensuite, ces principes sont un facteur de structuration de l’ordre juridique sportif, dans la mesure où leur intervention favorise la cohérence du système. Cette structuration est le résultat de l’application de ces principes pour contrôler l’exercice par les organisations sportives de leurs compétences réglementaires et disciplinaires et pour délimiter les pouvoirs de chacune des composantes du mouvement sportif. Dans les deux cas, ces principes deviennent des standards communs qui s’imposent à l’ensemble de la communauté sportive
The Court of arbitration for sport (CAS), an arbitration body in sport disputes, passes sentences which, thanks to the practice of the precedent, get enough coherence to constitute a jurisprudence. Through this jurisprudence, CAS contributes in the erection of a global and autonomous sports legal order. This support is the result of a double contribution, normative as well as structuring. First, the pretorian rules generated by CAS and formed mainly by the general principles commonly applied by the judges, constitute a source of law within the sports legal order. Some of these principles, namely those aimed at protecting the fairness of the competitions and the fundamental rights of athletes, stand out with regards to their intangibility to form the sport public order. Discarding state law in favor of the application of these principles as well as of sport regulations, guarantees the autonomy of the sports legal order. Thereafter, these principles are considered as a structuring factor of the sports legal order, in that their intervention favors the coherence of the system. This structuring results from the application of these principles in order to monitor the practices by the sport organizations of their regulatory and disciplinary competences and also to confine the power of each of the components of the sport movement. In both cases, these principles become common standards for the whole sport community to abide by
Existing legal literature would have us assume that espionage operations and "below-the-threshold" cyber operations are doctrinally distinct. Whereas one is subject to the scant, amorphous, and ...under-developed legal framework of espionage law, the other is subject to an emerging, ever-evolving body of legal rules, known cumulatively as cyber law. This dichotomy, however, is erroneous and misleading. In practice, espionage and cyber law function as communicating vessels, and so are better conceived as two elements of a complex system, Information Warfare (IW). This paper therefore first draws attention to the similarities between the practices - the fact that the actors, technologies, and targets are interchangeable, as are the knee-jerk legal reactions of the international community. In light of the convergence between peacetime Low-Intensity Cyber Operations (LICOs) and peacetime Espionage Operations (EOs) the two should be subjected to a single regulatory framework, one which recognizes the role intelligence plays in our public world order and which adopts a contextual and consequential method of inquiry. The paper proceeds in the following order: Part 2 provides a descriptive account of the unique symbiotic relationship between espionage and cyber law, and further explains the reasons for this dynamic. Part 3 places the discussion surrounding this relationship within the broader discourse on IW, making the claim that the convergence between EOs and LICOs, as described in Part 2, could further be explained by an even larger convergence across all the various elements of the informational environment. Parts 2 and 3 then serve as the backdrop for Part 4, which details the attempt of the drafters of the Tallinn Manual 2.0 to compartmentalize espionage law and cyber law, and the deficits of their approach. The paper concludes by proposing an alternative holistic understanding of espionage law, grounded in general principles of law, which is more practically transferable to the cyber realm.
Protection of legitimate expectations is a general principle of European Union law that has been developed through the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are several ...unresolved issues that have been pointed out by the analysis of the said case-law. These are inter alia: When is the European Union legislator bound by legitimate expectations generated by a preceding piece of (changed) legislation, when does the preceding administrative practice generate legitimate expectations; the issue of the lack of legitimacy in case of speculative activities, the issue of differentiation between unlawful decisions and unlawful representations in generating legitimate expectations. Other issues concern the relation between the European Union law and the Member States’ legal autonomy concerning the possibilities for unlawful administrative acts to generate legitimate expectations and the expiration of the time-period prescribed by national law for revocation of unlawful administrative decisions beneficial for a party concerned. In the latter case, a Member State may not plead national administrative rules in order to justify its failure to comply with the principle of effectiveness of European Union law. The aim of this paper is to analyse these issues and determine whether the regulatory framework of the European Union can be improved in order to avoid potential problems in practice. The analysis is based on the case- law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and legal acts of the European Union along with Croatian and foreign literature on administrative, constitutional and European law. These issues illustrate the deficiencies of the current legal framework of the European Union with a number of applicable legal sources and ate the same time they emphasise the need for a codification of administrative procedure on the Union level. There have been several initiatives in this respect but with no real effect, even though there is a legal basis for such an endeavour prescribed by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Such a codification should prohibit unlawful administrative acts from generating legitimate expectations. This would also resolve the issue of different treatment of national administrative decisions that may not generate legitimate expectations. Furthermore, unclear and arbitrary interpretations should be avoided, as in the case of speculative activities the existence of which is not easy to determine. Finally, application of different criteria in different areas of law should be avoided if there is no basis therefor in the Treaties.
Dégagés de façon prétorienne par la Cour de justice, les principes généraux du droit de l’Union occupent dans la jurisprudence administrative française une place que peut expliquer la notion de ...dédoublement fonctionnel. D’une part, ce sont des normes obligatoirement appliquées par le juge national dans le champ du droit de l’Union.D’autre part, en dehors du champ, ils constituent une source d’inspiration pour le Conseil d’Etat dans la création et l’interprétation des principes généraux du droit français. Dans le premier cas, le juge administratif est garant du respect de ces principes.Fidèle aux exigences de la Cour de justice, il assume pleinement son rôle de juge de droit commun de l’application des principes du droit de l’Union. Dans le second cas, il devient acteur de la circulation des principes en Europe. Toutefois la coexistence des principes peut engendrer des tensions, accentuées par la difficulté à délimiter le champ du droit de l’Union, incertain et en pleine expansion. C’est pourquoi la thèse propose le déploiement d’une politique jurisprudentielle de convergence, dans laquelle le juge administratif affirmerait explicitement son souci de s’inspirer des principes du droit de l’Union. Ces derniers, combinés avec les principes issus de la Charte des droits fondamentaux, de la CEDH et des ordres nationaux, semblent donner naissance à une nouvelle catégorie de source matérielle : les principes européens communs. L’originalité de celle-ci, qui la différencie de toute autre source, est de constituer une oeuvre collective des juges en Europe, dans laquelle ces derniers puisent leur inspiration pour créer de nouveaux principes ou interpréter les principes existants.
The general principles of EU law, which are a judicial creation of the Court of Justice, play a role in French administrative case law that can be explained by the notion of functional duplication (“dédoublement fonctionnel”). On the one hand, the general principles of EU law are rules that are mandatorily applied by the national courts within the scope of EU law. On the other hand, beyond that scope, they constitute a source of inspiration for the Conseil d’Etat in creating and interpreting general principles of French administrative law. In the first case, the administrative courts are the primeguarantors of compliance with these principles. In line with the requirements of theCourt of Justice, they entirely fulfill their role as the ordinary courts applying principles of EU law. In the second case, they become one of the protagonists of the movement of principles in Europe. However, the coexistence of principles could trigger tensions,heightened by the difficulties in delineating the scope of principles of EU law, which is uncertain and rapidly expanding. That is why the thesis proposes the development of a judicial convergence policy, in which the administrative courts would more clearly affirm their concern to take inspiration from the general principles of EU law. These latter, combined with the principles stemming from the Charter of Fundamental Rights,the ECHR and the national orders, seem to give rise to a new category of material source: the common European principles. The originality of this category, which differentiates it from any other source, is that it constitutes a collective work of judges inEurope, from which they draw their inspiration to create new principles or interpret the existing ones.
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