Which human rights violations or war crimes allegations result in exclusion from the refugee regime? What human rights protections apply to someone declared an unlawful combatant? Which human rights obligations apply to the actions of armed forces acting abroad? Over the past ten years the content and application of international law in armed conflict has changed dramatically. An authoritiative and comprehensive study of the role of international law in armed conflicts, this Oxford Handbook engages in a broad analysis of international humanitarian law, human rights law, refugee law, international criminal law, environmental law, and the law on the use of force. With an international group of expert contributors, this book has a global, multi-disciplinary perspective on the place of law in war.
The Handbook consists of 35 Chapters in seven parts. Part A provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part B considers the relevant sources of international law. Part C describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air war fare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part D introduces crucial concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the concepts of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, and internal armed conflict. Part E looks at fundamental rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, the human rights of the members of the armed forces, and the protection of children. Part F covers important issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, refugee law, and the issues of gender in times of armed conflict. Part G deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies and armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts and issues related to transitional justice.

This book describes how international development works, its shortcomings, its theoretical and practical foundations, along with prescriptions for the future. International Development Law provides the reader with new perspectives on the origins of global poverty, identifies legal impediments to sustainable economic growth, and provides a better understanding of the challenges faced by the international community in resolving global poverty issues. The text is structured into two basic parts: the first part deals with the theoretical and philosophic foundations of the subject, and the second part sets forth issues relating to the international financial architecture, namely, international borrowing practices, privatization, and emerging economies. In particular, the book provides new, innovative analysis on corruption as an impediment to sustainable development. The three interlocking facets of corruption are examined: transnational organized crime, Islamic-based international terrorism, and corruption within emerging economies and the international banking system. Thus fresh new analysis adds depth and clarity to a field that heretofore has been scattered and superficial. Finally, the "right to development" within the international human rights discourse is critically reviewed, particularly in light of new jurisprudence emerging from the African context.This book offers a fresh, new and balanced legal perspective on the development process. The text has been rigorously researched and has many practical facets based on the author's professional experience within the international development field. It is an invaluable research and teaching tool since it takes a multidisciplinary approach to putting complex issues, legal trends and political questions into a clear, new perspective that is highly analytical as well as accessible to the reader. The author's elegant legal prose is both powerful and persuasive.

The book looks at the role of states and international organisations in their attempts to prevent the genocide in Darfur (2003-2005); from early warning to limited action in the field of humanitarian assistance, mediation, sanctions and peace-keeping. The book uses several theories to explain how decisionmaking led to the (absence) of international responses.

This book addresses the forms of legal protection extended to people displaced due to the consequences of climate change, and who have either become refugees by crossing international borders or are climatically displaced persons (CDPs) in their own homelands. It explores the legal response of the South Asian Jurisdictions to these refugee-like situations, and also to what extent these people are protected under current international law. The book critically examines and assesses whether States have obligations to protect people displaced by climate change under international refugee law (IRL) and international climate change law (ICCL). It discusses the issue of climate migration in South Asia, analyzes the legal and judicial response initiated by South Asian nations, and also investigates the role of SAARC in relation to climate change and climate refugees. Drawing on the International Legal Standards and States' Practices in South Asia regarding climate refugees, the book shows how IRL, ICCL, and IHRL (international human rights law) have been used to address and identify the gaps in the global legal protection framework concerning the contours of the normative debate on climate refugees, climate change displacement, migration, forced migration, susceptibility to climate change, typology of climate change-induced displacement, role of the SAARC and its municipal legal systems, approaches to climate change, human mobility and developing a hybrid regional law, or advocating a legal alternative of equal measure in a region characterized by diversity and multiculturalism. The book offers valuable takeaways for students, researchers, consultants, practitioners and policymakers alike.

Armed groups have played a predominant role in the violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed in conflict settings. The increase in the number of non-international armed conflicts during the past decades has emphasised the need to address the multiple legal challenges posed by the actions of armed groups. In particular, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the framework of responsibility for armed groups in international law. While much has been written regarding their international (primary) obligations, the possibility of developing a responsibility framework for armed groups under international law has been underexplored. Consequently, the aim of this book is to examine how the principles of international responsibility could be developed and adjusted to account for armed groups as collective entities. This general aim has been divided into three specific objectives. First, the book analyses the concept of responsibility in international law and assesses the legal and practical reasons in favour of developing such a regime for armed groups. Second, it examines the viability of establishing a responsibility regime for armed groups based on rules of attribution. Third, it explores the possible legal consequences of responsibility applicable to armed groups, with a particular focus on the obligation to provide reparations to victims. In doing so, this book will argue that certain non-traditional sources of international law could be used to interpret and adapt international law to the current conditions of contemporary armed conflict.

This volume analyses the legal grounds, premises and extent of pecuniary compensation for violations of human rights in national legal systems. The scope of comparison includes liability regimes in general and in detail, the correlation between pecuniary remedies available under international law and under domestic law, and special (alternative) compensation systems. All sources of human rights violations are embraced, including historical injustices and systematical and gross violations. The book is a collection of nineteen contributions written by public international law, international human rights and private law experts, covering fifteen European jurisdictions (including Central and Eastern Europe), the United States, Israel and EU law. The contributions, initially prepared for the 19th International Congress of Comparative law in Vienna (2014), present the latest developments in legislation, scholarship and case-law concerning domestic causes of action in cases of human rights abuses. The book concludes with a comparative report which assesses the developments in tort law and public liability law, the role of the constitutionalisation of the right to damages as well as the court practice related to the process of enforcement of human rights through monetary remedies. This country-by-country comparison allows to consider whether the value of protection of human rights as expressed in international treaties, ius cogens and in national constitutional laws justifies the conclusion that the interests at stake should enjoy protection under the existing civil liability rules, or that a new cause of action, or even a whole new set of rules, should be created in national systems.

Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents: Dispute Regarding Navigational and Related Rights (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) Volume V

The global community, dependent as always on the cooperation of nation states, is gradually learning to address the serious threats to the cultural heritage of our disparate but shared civilizations. The legacy of conquest, colonialization, and commerce looms large in defining and explaining these threats. The essays contained in this challenging volume are based on papers presented at an international conference on cultural heritage issues that took place at Willamette University . The conference sought to generate fresh ideas about these cultural heritage issues; offer a good sense of their nuances and complexities; and reveal how culture, law, and ethics can interact, complement, diverge, and contradict one another. This book seeks to accomplish these purposes. What it explores is the fact that, allong with an emerging blend of adversarial and collaborative processes to address cultural heritage issues, has come a substantial broadening of the normative framework in recent years. This framework now spans a welter of issues ranging from the creation of cultural safety zones during armed conflict, to the ongoing rectification of genocidal conquest during the European Holocaust and World War II, to the treatment of shipwrecks and their cargo, to the protection of folklore and other intangibles, to the promotion of traditional knowledge in the interest of biological diversity. All of these topics are controversial, as are the legal instruments that incorporate them, but the issues they embrace are vital to us all, whether our viewpoint is in the global arena, a national legislature, a courtroom, a classroom, an archaeological site, or a museum.

This revised and updated collection is intended to serve as a thematic textbook on the institutions and procedures devoted to the national implementation of human rights and to the international monitoring of State performance. Albeit not exhaustive, the coverage extends to most of the monitoring instances available at intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations: complaints, fact-finding and investigative procedures, State reporting obligations, good offices actions, dialogue functions, human rights education, dissemination of human rights information, letter campaigns, and technical co-operation. The target audience of the book is students of international human rights law, but the book can also serve as a guide for both officials and activists involved in the realization of human rights.The success of the first edition has allowed for this second edition. It demonstrates that there is a important demand for literature with a focus on human rights monitoring and follow-up activities.

This collective volume draws on the themes of intersectionality and overlapping policy universes to examine and evaluate the shifting functions, frames and multiple actors and instruments of an ongoing and revitalized cooperation in EU external migration and asylum policies with third states. The contributions are based on problem-driven research and seek to develop bottom-up, policy-oriented solutions, while taking into account global, EU-based and local perspectives, and the shifting universes of EU migration, border and asylum policies. In 15 chapters, we explore the multifaceted dimensions of the EU external migration policy and its evolution in the post-crisis, geopolitical environment of the Global Compacts.

In Rwanda's Genocide , Kingsley Moghalu provides an engrossing account and analysis of the international political brinkmanship embedded in the quest for international justice for Rwanda's genocide. He takes us behind the scenes to the political and strategic factors that shaped a path-breaking war crimes tribunal and demonstrates why the trials at Arusha, like Nuremberg, Tokyo, and the Hague, are more than just prosecutions of culprits, but also politics by other means. This is the first serious book on the politics of justice for Rwanda's genocide. Moghalu tells this gripping story with the authority of an insider, elegant and engaging writing, and intellectual mastery of the subject matter.

This book documents and analyzes the experiences of the United Nation's first Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. It highlights the conceptual advances in the legal understanding of the right to food in international human rights law, and analyzes key practical challenges through experiences in 11 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Ali Alatas, Christiane Amanpour, Aung San Suu Kyi, Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Waris Dirie, Mikhail Gorbachev, Vaclav Havel, Seamus Heaney, Rigoberta Manchu Tum, Joni Mitchell, Mary Robinson, Helmut Schmidt, Wis?awa Szymborska, Lech Wa sa, and others - these unique and powerful voices have come together to make "Reflections on the" "Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Fiftieth Anniversary" "Anthology" a work of lasting, unparalleled significance. Launched on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this unmatched anthology includes inspirational essays by 50 prominent, varied members of the world community, moving poems reflecting a wide range of renowned voices, and full-colour illustrations of each article of the Universal Declaration. "Reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" also includes a foreword by the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs. The importance and variety of the voices united in this work, the monumental occasion it marks, and the beauty and quality showcased on its pages make it an essential addition to the personal and professional libraries of anyone interested in human rights. "Reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" is the kind of work whose lasting resonance makes it worthy of being handed down from generation to generation. All royalties from "Reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human" "Rights" are being donated to the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and the UNFPA Trust Fund for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation.

Existing international law is capable to govern the "war on terror" also in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The standards generally applicable to targeted killings are those of human rights law. Force may be used in order to address immediate threats, preventive killings are permitted under strict preconditions but targeted killings are prohibited. In the context of armed conflicts, these standards are complemented by international humanitarian law as "lex specialis." Civilians may only be targeted while directly taking part in hostilities and posing a threat to the adversary. Also in Israel and the Occupied Territory, these standards apply. Contrary to the Israeli Supreme Court's view, international humanitarian law is not complemented by human rights law, but human rights law is - to some degree - complemented by international humanitarian law. According to these standards, many killings which would be legal according to the Israeli Supreme Court violate international law.

One of the most comprehensive examinations of US torture policy, from the Cold War to the War on Terror to the debate over accountability Waterboarding. Sleep deprivation. Sensory manipulation. Stress positions. Over the last several years, these and other methods of torture have become garden variety words for practically anyone who reads about current events in a newspaper or blog. We know exactly what they are, how to administer them, and, disturbingly, that they were secretly authorized by the Bush Administration in its efforts to extract information from people detained in its war on terror. What we lack, however, is a larger lens through which to view America's policy of torture-one that dissects America's long relationship with interrogation and torture, which roots back to the 1950s and has been applied, mostly in secret, to "enemies," ever since. How did America come to embrace this practice so fully, and how was it justified from a moral, legal, and psychological perspective? The United States and Torture opens with a compelling preface by Sister Dianna Ortiz, who describes the unimaginable treatment she endured in Guatemala in 1987 at the hands of the the Guatemalan government, which was supported by the United States. Then a psychologist, a historian, a political scientist, a philosopher, a sociologist, two journalists, and eight lawyers offer one of the most comprehensive examinations of torture to date, beginning with the CIA during the Cold War era and ending with today's debate over accountability for torture. Ultimately, this gripping, interdisciplinary work details the complicity of the United States government in the torture and cruel treatment of prisoners both at home and abroad and discusses what can be done to hold those who set the torture policy accountable. Contributors: Marjorie Cohn, Richard Falk, Marc D. Falkoff, Terry Lynn Karl, John W. Lango, Jane Mayer, Alfred W. McCoy, Jeanne Mirer, Sister Dianna Ortiz, Jordan J. Paust, Bill Quigley, Michael Ratner, Thomas Ehrlich Reifer, Philippe Sands, Stephen Soldz, and Lance Tapley.

Underlying the protection of human rights in Europe is a complex network of overlapping legal systems - domestic, EU, and ECHR. This book focuses on the potential for conflict to emerge between the systems where rights overlap and interpretations in different courts begin to diverge.
From the perspective of EU law, where the interpretation of rights differs national courts are asked to renounce the constitutional scope of protection, and the interpretations of the European Court of Human Rights, in favor of the scope defined by the European Court of Justice. From the perspective of the ECHR, the European Court of Human Rights is the ultimate authority on rights protection in Europe. This work presents a theory of supranational judicial authority to confront this problem, grounded in an ideal of judicial dialogue. It represents the first attempt to provide a thorough theoretical account of the value of judicial dialogue, and its potential for legitimating judicial decision-making at an international level.
Combining theoretical rigor with attention to the practicalities of European human rights law, the book will be accessible to a broad readership of legal theorists, EU lawyers and judges involved in building inter-judicial dialogue.

In The Relationship between Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Humanitarian Law, Amrei Muller offers a detailed analysis of the legal consequences of the parallel application of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) to non-international armed conflicts. With a focus on health related issues, the book covers important topics like the scope of limitations to and derogations from ESC rights, questions related to the integration of the right to health in military-target decisions, states' obligations to mitigate the adverse public health impact of armed conflicts and obligations relating to the provision of humanitarian assistance. It moves the discussion about the parallel application of IHL and human rights to a new level, highlighting its potential to enhance the protection of people affected by armed conflicts but also the difficulties involved.

The imperatives of sovereignty, human rights and national security very often pull in different directions, yet the relations between these three different notions are considerably more subtle than those of simple opposition. Rather, their interaction may at times be contradictory, at others tense, and at others even complementary. This collection presents an analysis of the irreducible dilemmas posed by the foundational challenges of sovereignty, human rights and security, not merely in terms of the formal doctrine of their disciplines, but also of the manner in which they can be configured in order to achieve persuasive legitimacy as to both methods and results. The chapters in this volume represent an attempt to face up to these dilemmas in all of their complexity, and to suggest ways in which they can be confronted productively both in the abstract and in the concrete circumstances of particular cases.

Volume 56 of "Studies in Law, Politics, and Society" presents the latest scholarship on human rights. The work contained in this volume examines both the theoretical dimensions and dilemmas of human rights in the modern world and particular cases in which the problems and possibilities of human rights are examined. Taken together the contributions point to a need for more searching examination of the way human rights work and highlight the contribution of human rights to the advancement of claims for justice. "Studies in Law, Politics, and Society" is a leading socio-legal publication that truly embraces innovative, theoretically informed, interdisciplinary legal scholarship.

This book deals with human rights in European criminal law after the Lisbon Treaty. Doubtless the Lisbon Treaty has constituted a milestone in the development of European criminal justice. Not only has the reform following the Treaty given binding force to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, but furthermore it has paved the way for unprecedented forms of supranational legislation. In this scenario, the enforcement of individual rights in criminal matters has become a core goal of EU legislation. Alongside these developments, new interactions between national and supranational jurisprudences have emerged, which have significantly contributed to a human rights-oriented approach to European criminal law. The book analyses the main developments of this complex phenomenon from an interdisciplinary perspective. Criminal and procedural law, constitutional law and comparative law must thus be combined to achieve a full understanding of these developments and of their impact on national law.

There is a broad consensus among scholars that the idea of human rights was a product of the Enlightenment but that a self-conscious and broad-based human rights movement focused on international law only began after World War II. In this narrative, the nineteenth century's absence is conspicuous--few have considered that era seriously, much less written books on it. But as Jenny Martinez shows in this novel interpretation of the roots of human rights law, the foundation of the movement that we know today was a product of one of the nineteenth century's central moral causes: the movement to ban the international slave trade. Originating in England in the late eighteenth century, abolitionism achieved remarkable success over the course of the nineteenth century. Martinez focuses in particular on the international admiralty courts, which tried the crews of captured slave ships. The courts, which were based in the Caribbean, West Africa, Cape Town, and Brazil, helped free at least 80,000 Africans from captured slavers between 1807 and 1871. Here then, buried in the dusty archives of admiralty courts, ships' logs, and the British foreign office, are the foundations of contemporary human rights law: international courts targeting states and non-state transnational actors while working on behalf the world's most persecuted peoples--captured West Africans bound for the slave plantations of the Americas. Fueled by a powerful thesis and novel evidence, Martinez's work will reshape the fields of human rights history and international human rights law.

This comprehensive and in-depth study on the understanding and interpretation of the child's right to survival and development provides a compact assessment of article 6(2) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in light of its drafting history, the reports of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and other relevant sources appropriate to the discipline of international human rights law.The author analyses the travaux prparatoires of the CRC and the academic work of some of its drafters. The book includes an interview with one of the drafters and explores the literature of the Committee on the Rights of the Child with respect to article 6(2) and how its understanding and interpretations of this article have developed over time. It examines the weaknesses and strengths in relation to the observations it has made and explores the legal effects of the Committee's classifications and makes suggestions for others as well.Importantly, the book also discusses the relationship between the right of the child to survival and development and his/her dignity. It provides an understanding of the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and cognitive development in the context of his/her right to survival and development. In addition, the author discusses various State obligations aiming at the enjoyment of the right to survival and development and also touches on global warming and its relationship with the right of the child to survival and development.The reader will gain an understanding of different approaches to the interpretation of human rights treaties in general, and attitudes towards the assessment of the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. He will also learn about the connection between the right to development and the economic and social rights of the child on the one hand, and the right of the child to survival and development on the other hand. Moreover, the book introduces the concept of comprehensiveness and individuality of the right of the child to survival and development and fundamentally argues that there is still more to add to the understanding and interpretations of article 6(2) of the CRC.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Human Rights and the Law examines the responsibilities of business enterprises for human rights from a legal perspective. It analyses the legal status of the 'corporate responsibility to respect human rights' as articulated by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This concept currently reflects an international consensus and is promoted by the UN. The book contemplates the various founding perspectives of the UNGPs, and how the integration of notions such as 'principled pragmatism' and 'polycentric governance' within its framework provides insights into the future course of law and policy, compliance, and corporate respect for human rights. The book thus takes a global focus, examining the interaction of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), human rights, and the law in a broader global governance context. Setting out a possible future scenario for the legalization of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights that is informed by the UNGPs' founding perspectives and reflects current realities in the human rights landscape, this book will be of great interest to scholars of business ethics, international human rights law, and CSR more broadly.