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Books > Law > International law > Public international law > International humanitarian law
This book considers who should undertake humanitarian intervention
in response to an ongoing or impending humanitarian crisis, such as
found in Rwanda in early 1994, Kosovo in 1999, and Darfur more
recently. The doctrine of the responsibility to protect asserts
that when a state is failing to uphold its citizens' human rights,
the international community has a responsibility to protect these
citizens, including by undertaking humanitarian intervention. It is
unclear, however, which particular agent should be tasked with this
responsibility. Should we prefer intervention by the UN, NATO, a
regional or subregional organization (such as the African Union), a
state, a group of states, or someone else? Humanitarian
Intervention and the Responsibility To Protect answers this
question by, first, determining which qualities of interveners are
morally significant and, second, assessing the relative importance
of these qualities. For instance, is it important that an
intervener have a humanitarian motive? Should an intervener be
welcomed by those it is trying to save? How important is it that an
intervener will be effective and what does this mean in practice?
Georg Nolte Excellencies, dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to our colloquium on the occasion of the sixtieth an- versary of the International Law Commission. The Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich and the Humboldt University of Berlin are happy that you have followed our invitation. We are particularly proud that a majority of the members of the Int- national Law Commission have accepted our invitation. The presence of one former member of the Commission deserves special mention: Bruno Simma is now not only a Judge at the International Court of J- tice but also, if I may say so, the "local hero," having held the wond- ful Chair for International Law at the University of Munich for more than thirty years. He is still living in Munich when he is not in The Hague. We are glad that participants have come from nearby, from neighbouring regions and countries, as well as from countries as far away as Brazil and China. I am personally very content that our group represents a fine mixture of experienced international lawyers and younger colleagues and students. This composition gives us the opp- tunity for fruitful exchanges, and for the ILC to reach out and to - ceive feedback. The International Law Commission needs no introduction. Like a few happy persons, at age sixty it can look back onto a largely successful - reer.
The book makes a comprehensive analysis of the basic principles and theories of military law, restructuring the theoretic framework of military law. It also puts forwards the new concepts of "core military law" and "international military law" for the first time in China, and even the world. The book could help legal scholars and lawyers, especially military lawyers and research fellows in military law, to have a new approach to study military law.
1.1 Opening Remarks and Objectives Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law 2 be enforced. This is, perhaps, the most renowned citation from the judgment of the Int- national Military Tribunal at Nuremberg ("IMT"). In the six decades which have passed since the IMT judgment was handed down, the recognition of the c- cept of individual criminal responsibility for core international crimes has been significantly reinforced and developed, particularly since the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ("ICTY") and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ("ICTR") in the 1990's and most recently the International Criminal Court ("ICC"). The media has, of course, played a crucial role in increasing awareness of this concept, especially amongst the general populace. Indeed, the concept has, arguably, a much higher profile today, than ever before in its history. However, the concept of individual criminal responsibility for core inter- tional crimes is neither as straightforward nor as single-facetted, as might appear on first glance. While the general principle behind the concept does not generate too many difficulties, it is in its practical application that the more challenging aspects of the concept are brought to the fore. Each of these 'challenging - pects' can also be described as a 'pertinent issue' of the concept of individual criminal responsibility for core international crimes.
International human rights law grants individuals both rights and responsibilities. In this respect international criminal and international humanitarian law are no different. As members of the public international law family they are charged with the regulation, maintenance and protection of human dignity. The right and duty to disobey manifestly illegal orders traverses these three schools of public international law. This book is the first systematic study of the right to conscientious objection under international human rights law. Understanding that rights and duties are not mutually exclusive but complementary, this study analyses the right to conscientious objection and the duties of individuals under international law from various perspectives of public international law.
The book is a critical review of accountability conducted under the authority of the United Nations Security Council, by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). It is centred on two case studies: the 1999 events in Rwanda, and the 1999 mayhem in East Timor. The books subjects to testing cross-examination tools to hold accountable persons with the greatest responsibility" for serious international humanitarian law violations.
Recent armed conflicts, whether international or non-international in character, are in many respects characterized by a variety of asymmetries. These asymmetries may be overstressed, sometime even abused, and ultimately virtually meaningless. Still, either as such or in conjunction with other developments, they seem to challenge the law of armed conflicts or: international humanitarian law. These challenges may very well compromise the very function of that body of law, which is to mitigate as far as possible the calamities of war. Thus, the law of armed conflict may be deprived of its fundamental function as an order of necessity because its legally binding directives will increasingly be disregarded for the sake of allegedly superior values. In order to discuss these and other questions a most distinguished group of experts in the field of the law of armed conflicts gathered in Berlin in June 2005. The goal of that colloquium, which marked the 70th birthday of Knut Ipsen, was to find operable solutions for problems and challenges the contemporary law of armed conflict is confronted with. With contributions by Bill Boothby, Michael Bothe, Yoram Dinstein, Knut Dormann, Charles J. Dunlap Jr., Volker Epping, Dieter Fleck, Steven Haines, Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, Hans-Joachim Heintze, Rainer Hofmann, Frits Kalshoven, Stefan Oeter, W. Hays Parks, Michael Schmitt, Torsten Stein, and Andreas Zimmermann."
This book examines the history of declaring war from the early modern era up to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. In the late middle ages, formal declarations of war were highly ritualistic acts, but by the early seventeenth century, they had changed into a practice whereby an ambassador presented a printed declaration to an enemy king. Key issues covered here include determining how and when the medieval practices of declaring war gave way to the more modern ones, and the extent to which American framers accepted or rejected the practices of their era. While the debate over recent congressional resolutions authorizing use of the armed forces overseas has generated many publications, the wider history of declaring war has been far less a topic of study, and the early modern era has been all but ignored. This book's primary sources include ambassadorial reports, especially those from Venetian ambassadors, declarations of war, published works by noted contemporary thinkers, and several early modern literary works that depict the high drama of declaring war.
How, despite the enormous investment of blood and treasure, has the West's ten-year intervention left Afghanistan so lawless and insecure? The answer is more insidious than any conspiracy, for it begins with a profound lack of understanding of the rule of law, the very thing that most dramatically separates Western societies from the benighted ones in which they increasingly intervene. This volume of essays argues that the rule of law is not a set of institutions that can be exported lock, stock and barrel to lawless lands, but a state of affairs under which ordinary people and officials of the state itself feel it makes sense to act within the law. Where such a state of affairs is absent, as in Afghanistan today, brute force, not law, will continue to rule.
Ideas of collective responsibility challenge the doctrine of individual responsibility that is the dominant paradigm in law and liberal political theory. But little attention is given to the consequences of holding groups accountable for wrongdoing. Groups are not amenable to punishment in the way that individuals are. Can they be punished - and if so, how - or are other remedies available? The topic crosses the borders of law, philosophy and political science, and in this volume specialists in all three areas contribute their perspectives. They examine the limits of individual criminal liability in addressing atrocity, the meanings of punishment and responsibility, the distribution of group punishment to a group's members, and the means by which collective accountability can be expressed. In doing so, they reflect on the legacy of the Nuremberg Trials, on the philosophical understanding of collective responsibility, and on the place of collective accountability in international political relations.
In order to ensure its absolute authority, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (1946-1948), the Japanese counterpart of the Nuremberg Trial, adopted a three-tier structure for its interpreting: Japanese nationals interpreted the proceedings, second-generation Japanese-Americans monitored the interpreting, and Caucasian U.S. military officers arbitrated the disputes. The first extensive study on the subject in English, this book explores the historical and political contexts of the trial as well as the social and cultural backgrounds of the linguists through trial transcripts in English and Japanese, archival documents and recordings, and interviews with those who were involved in the interpreting. In addition to a detailed account of the interpreting, the book examines the reasons for the three-tier system, how the interpreting procedures were established over the course of the trial, and the unique difficulties faced by the Japanese-American monitors. This original case study of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal illuminates how complex issues such as trust, power, control and race affect interpreting at international tribunals in times of conflict.
This volume is a collection of the key writings of Professor Ramesh Thakur on norms and laws regulating the international use of force. The adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle by world leaders assembled at the UN summit in 2005 is widely acknowledged to represent one of the great normative advances in international politics since 1945. The author has been involved in this shift from the dominant norm of non-intervention to R2P as an actor, public intellectual and academic and has been a key thinker in this process. These essays represent the author's writings on R2P, including reference to test cases as they arose, such as with Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008. Comprising essays by a key thinker and agent in the Responsibility to Protect debates, this book will be of much interest to students of international politics, human rights, international law, war and conflict studies, international security and IR in general.
In 2005, the international community made a landmark commitment to prevent mass atrocities by unanimously adopting the UN's "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) principle. As often as not, however, R2P has failed to translate into decisive action. Why does this gap persist between the world's normative pledges to R2P and its ability to make it a daily lived reality? In this new book, leading global authorities on humanitarian protection Alex Bellamy and Edward Luck offer a probing and in-depth response to this fundamental question, calling for a more comprehensive approach to the practice of R2P - one that moves beyond states and the UN to include the full range of actors that play a role in protecting vulnerable populations. Drawing on cases from the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, they examine the forces and conditions that produce atrocity crimes and the challenge of responding to them quickly and effectively. Ultimately, they advocate both for emergency policies to temporarily stop carnage and for policies leading to sustainable change within societies and governments. Only by introducing these additional elements to the R2P toolkit will the failures associated with humanitarian crises like Syria and Libya become a thing of the past.
This dispassionate analysis of the legal implications of non-international armed conflicts explores the rules regulating the conduct of internal hostilities, as well as the consequences of intervention by foreign States, the role of the UN Security Council, the effects of recognition, State responsibility for wrongdoing by both Governments and insurgents, the interface with the law of human rights and the notion of war crimes. The author addresses both conceptual and specific issues, such as the complexities of 'failing' States or the recruitment and use of child soldiers. He makes use of the extensive case law of international courts and tribunals, in order to identify and set out customary international law. Much attention is also given to the contents of available treaty texts. This new updated edition takes into account the latest events in terms of the practice of States, judicial pronouncements and UN Security Council resolutions.
The Status of Refugees in Asia surveys some of the key issues of law and policy affecting refugees in the Asian region. The movement and presence of refugees in different parts of the region is surveyed, and the general legal position - ranging from multilateral treaties to regional and national initiatives - evaluated. A selection of country profiles to illustrate the implementation of law and policy at the national level is provided, and the performance of three Asian countries which have acceded to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol is assessed: namely, China, Japan, and the Philippines. Attention is given to the five other countries which have not acceded to these instruments - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand - and current critical refugee problem areas such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka examined. The book concludes by examining current difficulties with state practice in the region and presents possible solutions and new directions for the future.
Newly revised and updated, The Law of Armed Conflict, introduces students to the law of war in an age of terrorism. What law of armed conflict (LOAC) or its civilian counterpart, international humanitarian law (IHL), applies in a particular armed conflict? Are terrorists bound by that law? What constitutes a war crime? What (or who) is a lawful target and how are targeting decisions made? What are 'rules of engagement' and who formulates them? How can an autonomous weapon system be bound by the law of armed conflict? Why were the Guantanamo military commissions a failure? Featuring new chapters, this book takes students through these topics and more, employing real-world examples and legal opinions from the US and abroad. From Nuremberg to 9/11, from courts-martial to the US Supreme Court, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, the law of war is explained, interpreted, and applied with clarity and depth.
Seit 2003 hat sich die Europaische Union in mehr als zwanzig militarischen und zivilen Operationen engagiert. Spezifika der Europaischen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik (ESVP) sind zum einen ihre starke politische Pragung und zum anderen ihre Einbettung in das europaische Mehrebenensystem. Die Arbeit untersucht die verschiedenen Ebenen der europaischen Verteidigungsstrukturen vom Ausgangspunkt der Operation "Artemis." Die erste Problemlage "Streitkrafte im europaischen Verfassungsrecht" behandelt Fragen in Bezug auf die "Gewaltenteilung" im Rahmen der ESVP und die (parlamentarische) Legitimation von Streitkraften, die im Bereich solcher Operationen eingesetzt werden. Die zweite Ebene untersucht Befehlsketten und die Zurechnung von Verantwortung fur Entscheidungen, die in der ESVP gefallt werden. Die dritte Ebene geht der Frage nach, inwieweit die EU inhaltlich an das Volkerrecht gebunden ist, und welche Rolle sie im "conflict-management" der Vereinten Nationen spielt.
This publication assists readers (be they academics, students, practitioners, experts or migrants themselves) to better orientate themselves in the web of norms and principles existing at the international level. The focus of the compendium is on bringing together a comprehensive compilation of universal instruments with varying degrees of legal force from authoritative international treaties, through customary international law, to the sets of principles and guidelines, which, although non-binding, are nonetheless of clear contemporary relevance and can contribute to the progressive development of law in areas not covered by 'hard' norms.
Preventing Torture comprises a documentary and empirical study - of a kind rare in the field of international human rights law - of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and the work of the Committee (the CPT) established under it. The authors chart the international human rights background to the Convention (including the historical and contemporary use of torture), describe the travaux préparatoires, analyse the composition and modus operandi of the Committee and set the standards formulated and applied by the CPT against those developed by other human rights bodies. They also assess, on the basis of visits throughout Europe, the reactions to the Committee's work in member states and consider the implications of an enlarged Council of Europe for the CPT in the future.
The world's only annual publication devoted to the study of the laws of armed conflict, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law provides a truly international forum for high-quality, peer-reviewed academic articles focusing on this highly topical branch of international law. Ease of use of the Yearbook is guaranteed by the inclusion of a detailed index. Distinguished by its topicality and contemporary relevance, the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law bridges the gap between theory and practice and serves as a useful reference tool for scholars, practitioners, military personnel, civil servants, diplomats, human rights workers and students.
The book explores recent developments in the international and national prosecution of persons accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. It considers the relationship between national and international law, science and practice, with emphasis on the emerging principle of universial jurisdiction and the effect of "the war on terror" on legal norms.
This book deals with the prosecution of core crimes and constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of the horizontal and vertical systems of enforcement of international criminal law and of their inter-relationship. It provides a global jurisprudential exposition in assessing the grounds for refusal of surrender to the International Criminal Court and of extradition to another State. It also offers insights into legal perspectives which improve the prevailing enforcement regimes of various models of criminal justice, including hybrid criminal tribunals, special criminal courts, judicial panels and partnerships, and other budding sui generis judicial and/or prosecutorial institutions. The book espouses a human rights law-oriented critique to the enforcement of domestic, regional and international criminal justice and is aimed at legal practitioners (prosecutors, defence lawyers, magistrates and judges), jurists, criminal justice experts, penologists, legal researchers, human rights activists and law students. Christopher Soler lectures Maltese criminal law, international criminal law and public international law at the University of Malta. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
Since the mid-1950s, the international community has sought to ban all nuclear testing. In 1996, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty emerged after three years of intense international negotiations. However, after nearly a decade, there is no sign that the treaty will ever enter into force. Despite the general support for and adherence to a series of national moratoria on nuclear explosive testing, it is important to understand why the effort to achieve a permanent ban on nuclear testing has experienced such difficulties and continues to travel such a problematic road. The author of this book is neither a promoter nor a critic of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, but rather he provides a brief historical and analytical understanding of the events surrounding its negotiation and implementation. The author's analysis, based on his personal involvement in the CTBT negotiations, provides one insider's view of how the critical events unfolded and how they are likely to affect future nonproliferation initiatives.
This dispassionate analysis of the legal implications of non-international armed conflicts explores the rules regulating the conduct of internal hostilities, as well as the consequences of intervention by foreign States, the role of the UN Security Council, the effects of recognition, State responsibility for wrongdoing by both Governments and insurgents, the interface with the law of human rights and the notion of war crimes. The author addresses both conceptual and specific issues, such as the complexities of 'failing' States or the recruitment and use of child soldiers. He makes use of the extensive case law of international courts and tribunals, in order to identify and set out customary international law. Much attention is also given to the contents of available treaty texts. This new updated edition takes into account the latest events in terms of the practice of States, judicial pronouncements and UN Security Council resolutions.
The Advanced Introduction by Robert Kolb to IHL is a concise and brilliantly written journey through the most challenging aspects of the contemporary laws of war: the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts, between combatants, fighters and civilians in asymmetric warfare and the so-called 'war on terror', the complex relationship between IHL and international human rights law, the geographical scope of the battlefield in times of cyber warfare and targeted killings by armed drones.' - Manfred Nowak, Vienna University, Austria and Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture'A fascinating and inspiring presentation and discussion of the most crucial and controversial features of international humanitarian law with respect to its application in contemporary armed conflicts' - Professor Fausto Pocar, President, International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Sanremo, Italy and Judge and Former President, ICTY, The Hague, the Netherlands 'Robert Kolb considers that this is not an introduction for the beginner. Indeed, those seeking a descriptive summary of all the rules of humanitarian law should consult another book or the applicable conventions. For all others, however, this also an inductive, refreshing, committed, yet nuanced introduction, focusing in depth on a few, central issues, and written by one who does not only master this branch of international law, but also the relevant legal, political and historical contexts.'- Marco Sassoli, University of Geneva, Switzerland Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This innovative book provides a thought-provoking introduction to international humanitarian law. Robert Kolb explores the field through questions - which are at times challenging and controversial - in order to get to the very essence of the subject and give a fresh perspective. The result is an exposition both of the law as it stands, through its written and unwritten rules, and also of the uncertainties, gaps, controversies and practical problems which have arisen. IHL is revealed as a living tool, an ever-adapting means to an ever-remaining need of protection during times of armed conflict. Key features include: - Focus on key questions, exploring the whole system of law and its practical working - Covers the main principles, sources of law and implementation - Leads the reader to think through the topic - Concise and accessible, whilst taking a rigorous approach. Reflecting on current questions regarding the structure of the law, this concise and readable book offers a thought-provoking view of the system as a whole and its practical working. It covers the main principles, applicability issues and implementation of humanitarian law, as well as shedding light on the challenges ahead. This thoughtful introduction will provide unique insights for academics, advanced students, government officials and practitioners interested in the legal construction of international humanitarian law. |
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