A companion volume to the author's seminal textbook War, Aggression and Self-Defence, Third Edition, Cambridge (2001), this book focuses on issues arising in the course of hostilities between States, ...with an emphasis on the most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The main themes considered by Yoram Dinstein are lawful and unlawful combatants, war crimes, including command responsibility and defences, prohibited weapons, the distinction between combatants and civilians, legitimate military objectives, and the protection of the environment and cultural property. Numerous specific topics that have attracted much interest in recent hostilities are addressed, such as human shields, feigned surrenders, collateral damage and proportionality, belligerent reprisals and weapons of mass destruction.
This book explores the contentious topic of how collective and community issues should be protected and enforced in international law. Elena Katselli Proukaki takes a detailed look at the issue of ...third-State countermeasures, and considers the work the International Law Commission has done in this area. The volume addresses both the theory and practice of third-State countermeasures within international law. Critically reviewing the conclusions of the International Law Commission on the non-existence of a right to third-State countermeasures, it includes consideration of examples of State practice not previously covered in the literature of this topic. In taking a thorough view of the issues involved the author identifies concerns about third-State countermeasures which remain unanswered, and considers the possible legal ramifications arising from a clash between a right to third-State countermeasures and obligations arising from other international norms. The Problem of Enforcement in International Law explores questions evolving around the nature, integrity and effectiveness of international law and the role it is called to play in a contemporary context. This book is of great interest and value not only for specialists in this area of international law, but also human rights, trade and EU lawyers, practitioners, legal advisers, and students.
Recognizing States Fabry, Mikulas
2010, 2010-02-05, 2010-02-25, 20100101
eBook
This book examines recognition of new states, the practice historically employed to regulate membership in international society. The last twenty years have witnessed new or lingering demands for ...statehood in different areas of the world. The claims of some, like those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eritrea, Croatia, Georgia, and East Timor, have achieved general recognition; those of others, like Kosovo, Tamil Eelam, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Somaliland, have not. However, even as most of these claims gave rise to major conflicts and international controversies, the criteria for acknowledgment of new states have elicited little systematic scholarship. Drawing upon writings of English School theorists, this study charts the practice from the late eighteenth century until the present. Its central argument is that for the past 200 years state recognition has been tied to the idea of self-determination of peoples. Two versions of the idea have underpinned the practice throughout most of this period – self-determination as a negative and a positive right. The negative idea, dominant from 1815 to 1950, took state recognition to be acknowledgment of an achievement of de facto statehood by a people desiring independence. Self-determination was expressed through, and externally gauged by, self-attainment. The positive idea, prevalent since the 1950s, took state recognition to be acknowledgment of an entitlement to independence in international law. The development of self-determination as a positive international right, however, has not led to a disappearance of claims of statehood that stand outside of its confines. Groups that are deeply dissatisfied with the countries in which they presently find themselves continue to make demands for independence even though they may have no positive entitlement to it. The book concludes by expressing doubt that contemporary international society can find a sustainable basis for recognizing new states other than the original standard of de facto statehood.
This book explores the historical interrelations between international law and revolution, with a focus on how international anti-capitalist struggle plays out through law. The book approaches the ...topic by analysing the meaning of revolution and what revolutionary activity might look like, before comparing this with legal activity, to assess the basic compatibility between the two. It then moves on to examine two prominent examples of revolutionary movements engaging with international law from the twentieth century; the early Soviet Union and the Third World movement in the nineteen sixties and seventies. The book proposes that the ‘form of law’, or its base logic, is rooted in capitalist social relations of private property and contract, and that therefore the law is a particularly inhospitable place to advance revolutionary breaks with established distributions of power or wealth. This does not mean that the law is irrelevant to revolutionaries, but that turning to legal means comes with tendencies towards conservative outcomes. In the light of this, the book considers the possibility of how, or whether, international law might contribute to the pursuit of a more egalitarian future.
International Law and Revolution fills a significant gap in the field of international legal theory by offering a deep theoretical reflection on the meaning of the concept of revolution for the twenty-first century, and its link to the international legal system. It develops the commodity form theory of law as applied to international law, and explores the limits of law for progressive social struggle, informed by historical analysis. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of public international law, legal history, human rights, international politics and political history.
This open access book explores the complexity of the lex sportiva, the transnational legal regime governing international sports. Pioneering in its approach, it maps out the many entanglements of the ...transnational governance of sports with European legal processes and norms. The contributors trace the embeddedness of the lex sportiva within national law, European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights. While the volume emphasizes the capacity of sports governing bodies to leverage the resources of national law to spread the lex sportiva globally, it also points at the fact that European legal processes are central when challenging the status quo as illustrated recently in the Semenya and Superleague cases. Ultimately, the book is also a vantage point to start critically investigating the Eurocentricity and the complex materiality underpinning the lex sportiva. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swedish Studies Network.
The study and teaching of international human rights law is dominated by the doctrinal method. A wealth of alternative approaches exists, but they tend to be discussed in isolation from one another. ...This collection focuses on cross-theoretical discussion that brings together an array of different analytical methods and theoretical lenses that can be used for conducting research within the field. As such, it provides a coherent, accessible and diverse account of key theories and methods. A distinctive feature of this collection is that it adopts a grounded approach to international human rights law, through demonstrating the application of specific research methods to individual case studies. By applying the approach under discussion to a concrete case, it is possible to better appreciate the multiple understandings of international human rights law that are missed when the field is only comprehended through the doctrinal method. Furthermore, since every contribution follows the same uniform structure, this allows for fruitful comparison between different approaches to the study of our discipline.
This book addresses conflicts involving different normative orders: what happens when international law prohibits behavior, but the same behavior is nonetheless morally justified or warranted? Can ...the actor concerned ignore international law under appeal to morality? Can soldiers escape legal liability by pointing to honor? Can accountants do so under reference to professional standards? How, in other words, does law relate to other normative orders? The assumption behind this book is that law no longer automatically claims supremacy, but that actors can pick and choose which code to follow. The novelty resides not so much in identifying conflicts, but in exploring if, when and how different orders can be used intentionally. In doing so, the book covers conflicts between legal orders and conflicts involving law and honor, self-regulation, lex mercatoria, local social practices, bureaucracy, religion, professional standards and morality.
The chapters in this volume address international legal issues impacted by the legacy of the Asian region's historical experience with colonialism and its current standing in the international ...system. This volume provides a perspective on these issues from Asian legal scholars who have embarked on an analysis and discussion of the various ways in which international law and the international legal process can resolve these issues in a manner that is appropriate for the region.
The book examines the interconnections between diverse topics, such as current territorial disputes over maritime areas (which includes disputes over maritime delimitation) and the scope of exclusive economic zones in East and Southeast Asia, both of which are aspects of some of the critical political, economic, and legal issues presently confronting the region. These territorial and maritime disputes are partially due to the geography of the region, but the editors make a convincing argument for the genesis of these disputes being rooted in the legacy of the region's colonial past; a legacy which has confounded attempts at resolution of these disputes and still deeply influences international relations in the region.
Asian Approaches to International Law and the Legacy of Colonialism will be of particular interest to academics and students of International Law, Maritime Law and Asian Studies.
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