Governments now face complex dilemmas regarding the promotion of human rights, the punishment of crimes against humanity, and the scope for humanitarian intervention. This book offers a theoretical and empirical analysis of these issues. The contributors explore the meaning of "ethical foreign policy" and look at potential or actual instruments of ethical foreign policy-making. Finally, three case studies examine more closely developments in the foreign policies of the U.S., the U.K., and the European Union, to assess the difficulties raised by the incorporation of ethical considerations into foreign policy.

"Whitty, Murphy and Livingstone on Civil Liberties Law is a new and innovative student text which looks at all the major areas of civil liberties law. The text deals with fair trial, public order, terrorism, prisoners, the secret state, privacy, equality and hate speech and includes the Human Rights Act 1998. It is ideal for students taking the proliferating number of civil liberties or human rights courses, as well as those studying constitutional and public law courses."

This book, winner of an ASIL Certificate of Merit 2002, critically examines the right of humanitarian intervention, asserted most spectacularly by NATO during its 1999 air strikes over Kosovo. The UN Charter prohibits the unilateral use of force, but there have long been arguments that such a right might exist as an exception to this rule, or linked to the changing role of the Security Council. Through an analysis of these questions, the book puts NATO's action in Kosovo in its proper legal and historical perspective.

Chivalry, one of Shakespeare's central themes, retains its pertinence and topicality in our rules for international humanitarian law and the conduct of war. Against a background of Medieval and Renaissance sources as well as Shakespeare's historical and dramatic realms, Professor Meron considers the ways in which law, chivalry, morality, conscience, and state necessity are deployed in Shakespeare to promote a society in which soldiers behave humanely and leaders are held to high standards of civilized behavior. In doing so, he illustrates the literary genealogy of contemporary international humanitarian concerns such as the treatment of prisoners and of women and accountability for war crimes.

This book examines human rights provisions in peace agreements and through them the role of human rights protection in peace processes. It focuses on peace agreements in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and Bosnia, and also draws on a review of peace agreements in over 40 countries. It compares the realpolitik of what parties agree to in peace agreements with international law provisions relating to human rights.

The book examines current debates about the emergence of an international legal norm of democratic governance and also considers some of the wider theoretical issues to which those debates give rise. It asks should international law seek to promote democratic political arrangements? If so, on what basis, and using which of the many competing conceptions of democracy?

This is the first of a three-volume set. Together, they will collect the full texts of the Law Commission's final draft Articles and Commentaries, and other final reports, on all the topics on which it has completed work during its first fifty years, up to and including 1998.

In 2015, the United States Department of Defense published its long-awaited Law of War Manual making a significant statement on the position of the US government on important military matters. Whilst readers recognise the Manual's legal and strategic importance, they may question whether particular statements of law are legally accurate or complete. This book offers a unique in-depth review of the complete Manual, including revisions, on a paragraph-by-paragraph, line-by-line and word-by-word basis. The authors offer their personal assessment of the DoD's declared view as to the law that regulates the conduct of warfare, a subject of unparalleled current importance. William H. Boothby and Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg offer a balanced, articulate and authoritative critique for readers perusing the Manual in whatever capacity.

In 2021, the International Committee of the Red Cross released its Commentary on the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs). The new document updated the 1960 "Pictet Commentary." As a result, the attention of the law-of-armed-conflict community was refocused on the designation and treatment of POWs. The Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at West Point launched a project to further examine the subject. The result is this book. Sadly, world events have made that examination especially timely. Unlike the ICRC's updated Commentary, this book is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the international law relating to POWs. Rather, it is a collection of capita selecta identified by the contributors as meriting further examination - either because they are unsettled, inadequately addressed in the literature, or operationally problematic. The work is in three parts. Part I examines qualification for POW status. Discussion then moves in Part II to the treatment to which POWs are entitled. Part III concludes with a consideration of the historical relevance of, and perspectives on, the international law governing POWs. As the drafters of the Third Geneva Convention emphasized over seventy years ago, the aim of the law is "to mitigate as far as possible, the inevitable rigours [of a war] and to alleviate the condition of prisoners of war." It is through that lens that scholars and practitioners should consider the rules governing POWs, and with which they should approach this book.

The San Remo Manual is a contemporary restatement - together with some progressive development - of the law applicable to armed conflicts at sea, and has been drafted by an international group of specialists in international law and naval experts convened by the International Institute of Humanitarian Law. The last such restatement was undertaken by the Institute of International Law in 1913, and for the most part treaty law has not incorporated developments in the law since 1907. The accompanying Explanation is written in the form of a commentary and indicates the sources used by the experts for each of the provisions of the Manual and the discussion that led to their adoption. The work is based on treaty law of continuing validity and State practice and takes into account developments in related areas of international law, in particular, the effect of the UN Charter, the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, air law and environmental law. The Manual and Explanation represent a unique effort of experts from different parts of the world to establish the present state of the law. This document will be of major contemporary, future and historical importance, and will help shape generally accepted international law regulating armed conflicts at sea. There is no other book like it.

War devastates the lives of those who are caught up in it. For thousands of years, reparations have been used to secure the end of war and alleviate its deleterious consequences. More recently, human rights law has established that victims have a right to reparations. Yet, in the face of conflicts that last for decades with millions of victims, how feasible are reparations? And what are the obstacles to delivering them? Using interviews with hundreds of victims, ex-combatants, government officials, and civil society actors from six post-conflict countries, Reparations and War examines the history, theoretical justifications, and practical challenges of implementing reparations after war. It examines the role of non-state armed groups in making reparations, the role of victim mobilisation, the evolving use of reparations, and the political instrumentalization of redress. Luke Moffett offers a measured and honest account of what reparations can and cannot do. This book sheds new light on how reparations can be politically manipulated, or used to reward those loyal to the State, rather than to achieve justice for the victims who suffer.

In the last two decades there has been a meteoric rise of international criminal tribunals and courts, and also a strengthening chorus of critics against them. Today it is hard to find strong defenders of international criminal tribunals and courts. This book attempts such a defense against an array of critics. It offers a nuanced defense, accepting many criticisms but arguing that the idea of international criminal tribunals can be defended as providing the fairest way to deal with mass atrocity crimes in a global arena. Fairness and moral legitimacy will be at the heart of this defense. The authors take up the economic and political arguments that have been powerfully expressed, as well as arguments about sovereignty, punishment, responsibility, and evidence; but in the end they show that these arguments do not defeat the idea of international criminal courts and tribunals.

How relevant is the concept of war today? This book examines how notions about war continue to influence how we conceive rights and obligations in national and international law. It also considers the role international law plays in limiting what is forbidden and legitimated in times of war or armed conflict. The book highlights how, even though war has been outlawed and should be finished as an institution, states nevertheless continue to claim that they can wage necessary wars of self-defence, engage in lawful killings in war, imprison law-of-war detainees, and attack objects which are said to be part of a war-sustaining economy. The book includes an overall account of the contemporary laws of war and delves into whether states should be able to continue to claim so-called 'belligerent rights' over their enemies and those accused of breaching expectations of neutrality. A central claim in the book is as follows: while there is general agreement that war has been abolished as a legal institution for settling disputes, the time has come to admit that the belligerent rights that once accompanied states at war are no longer available. The conclusion is that claiming to be in a war or an armed conflict does not grant anyone a licence to kill people, destroy things, and acquire other people's property or territory.

The international law of occupation is the body of law, under international humanitarian law, that regulates the actions of states that gain effective control over territory during armed conflict. This body of law seeks to balance between several interests, which are often in tension with one another. Its most fundamental principle is that occupation does not confer sovereignty, and that the powers of the occupant are limited to that of a temporary trustee. What empowers the occupant to maintain public order and safety, including that of its own forces? How are the rights of the absent sovereign protected, as well as the right to self-determination, and the individual rights of the local population? In this new volume of the Elements of International Law series, Eyal Benvenisti and Eliav Lieblich seek to provide an entry point to the topic by elaborating on general principles and key rules. The book explores the tensions and dilemmas which characterize the modern law of occupation, while highlighting, when needed, interpretations which best conform with the law's object and purpose. All in all, this book aims to guide relevant actors - whether states, academics, NGOs, or individuals under occupation - when seeking to assess or to challenge state actions in occupied territories.

The international law of occupation is the body of law, under international humanitarian law, that regulates the actions of states that gain effective control over territory during armed conflict. This body of law seeks to balance between several interests, which are often in tension with one another. Its most fundamental principle is that occupation does not confer sovereignty, and that the powers of the occupant are limited to that of a temporary trustee. What empowers the occupant to maintain public order and safety, including that of its own forces? How are the rights of the absent sovereign protected, as well as the right to self-determination, and the individual rights of the local population? In this new volume of the Elements of International Law series, Eyal Benvenisti and Eliav Lieblich seek to provide an entry point to the topic by elaborating on general principles and key rules. The book explores the tensions and dilemmas which characterize the modern law of occupation, while highlighting, when needed, interpretations which best conform with the law's object and purpose. All in all, this book aims to guide relevant actors - whether states, academics, NGOs, or individuals under occupation - when seeking to assess or to challenge state actions in occupied territories.

The focus of this edited volume is the often-overlooked importance of secondary rules of international law. Secondary rules of international law-such as attribution, causality, and the standard and burden of proof-have often been neglected in scholarly literature and have seen fragmented application in international legal practice. Yet the systemic nature of international law entails that coherent and consistent application of such rules is a key element in reinforcing the legitimacy of decisions of international courts and tribunals. Accelerated development of international law and international litigation, coupled with the fragmented nature of the adjudicatory terrain calls for theoretical scrutiny and systemic analysis of the developments in the judicial treatment of secondary rules. This publication makes three important contributions to the study of secondary rules. First, it offers a comprehensive, expert doctrinal analysis of how standard of review, causation, evidentiary rules, and attribution operate in the case law of international courts or tribunals in fields spanning human rights, trade, investment, and humanitarian law. Second, it comparatively evaluates the divergent layers of meanings and normative expectations attached to secondary rules in international law scholarship as well as in the judicial practice of international courts and tribunals. Finally, the book investigates the role that secondary rules play in the development of the primary rules in international law and for the legitimacy of the decisions of international courts and tribunals. Earlier scholarly works have not problematized the role of secondary rules of international law in adjudication thoroughly. Secondary Rules of Primary Importance in International Law seeks to fill this gap by emphasizing the consequential nature of these secondary rules and argues that the outcome of litigation is fundamentally shaped by the exact standard of proof, standard of review, or attribution basis that is chosen by adjudicators. As such, the book offers an important resource for the study and practice of international law against the backdrop of the wide-ranging and fragmented nature of international adjudication.

The most commonly cited justification for international criminal law is that it addresses crimes of such gravity that they "shock the conscience of humanity." From decisions about how to define crimes and when to exercise jurisdiction, to limitations on defences and sentencing determinations, gravity rhetoric permeates the discourse of international criminal law. Yet the concept of gravity has thus far remained highly undertheorized. This book uncovers the consequences for the regime's legitimacy of its heavy reliance on the poorly understood idea of gravity. Margaret M. deGuzman argues that gravity's ambiguity may at times enable a thin consensus to emerge around decisions, such as the creation of an institution or the definition of a crime, but that, increasingly, it undermines efforts to build a strong and resilient global justice community. The book suggests ways to reconceptualize gravity in line with global values and goals to better support the long-term legitimacy of international criminal law.

Famine is an age-old scourge that almost disappeared in our lifetime. Between 2000 and 2011 there were no famines and deaths in humanitarian emergencies were much reduced. The humanitarian agenda was ascendant. Then, in 2017, the United Nations identified four situations that threatened famine or breached that threshold in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Today, this list is longer. Each of these famines is the result of military actions and exclusionary, authoritarian politics conducted without regard to the wellbeing or even the survival of people. Violations of international law including blockading ports, attacks on health facilities, violence against humanitarian workers, and obstruction of relief aid are carried out with renewed impunity. Yet there is an array of legal offenses, ranging from war crimes and crimes against humanity to genocide, available to a prosecutor to hold individuals to account for the deliberate starvation of civilians. However, there has been a dearth of investigations and accountability for those violating international law. The reasons for this neglect and the gaps between the black-letter law and practice are explored in this timely volume. It provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes and cases required to catalyze a new approach to understanding the law as it relates to starvation. It also illustrates the complications of historical and ongoing situations where starvation is used as a weapon of war, and provides expert analysis on defining starvation, early warning systems, gender and mass starvation, the use of sanctions, journalistic reporting, and memorialization of famine.

Commemorating Morton Deutsch's 95th birthday, this book presents ten major texts by this highly respected social psychologist on war and peace. This first volume presents Deutsch in his role as a leading social science activist on issues of war and peace - writing papers, making speeches and participating in demonstrations. After serving in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and being awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross medals, as a psychologist he was determined to work for a more peaceful world. Influenced by Kurt Lewin, who believed that nothing was as practical as a good theory, Deutsch pursued theoretical work on such issues as cooperation-competition, conflict resolution and social justice with regard to issues of war and peace. As President of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the International Society of Political Psychology, he helped to foster social science efforts to make for a more peaceful world.

The adage 'ignorance of the law is no excuse' is significantly inaccurate. Ignorance and mistake of law do, under certain circumstances, exclude responsibility both in national and international criminal law. This monograph updates the existing reviews of law and practice on the topic, aiming to go a step further: it takes the analysis of mistake of law as a starting point for systematic observations about international criminal law in general. First, the volume defines the contours of the defence of mistake of law in general theory of criminal law, distinguishing it from cognate defences and highlighting, most notably, its connection with superior orders. Secondly, it gives an overview of the possible approaches to the defence, offering examples from national law as terms of reference for the subsequent analysis of international criminal law. Thirdly, it surveys the relevant law and practice of international criminal tribunals, with a focus on the International Criminal Court, and it contemplates offences for which a defence of mistake of law may potentially succeed. Finally, the author tries to interpret what the rules on mistake of law applicable before international criminal tribunals imply about the purpose of punishing individuals and to the legitimacy of such punishment. Whilst the discourse on international criminal law is more and more concerned with global politics, The Defence of Mistake of Law in International Criminal Law brings back the focus on the appropriateness of imposing a guilty verdict on the individual defendant, a human being constituting the basic unit of each society.

Belligerent occupations existed in both World Wars and have occurred more recently in all parts of the world (including Iraq, Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, Congo, Northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia, Eritrea and Ethiopia). Owing to its special length - exceeding half a century and still in progress - and the unprecedented flow of judicial decisions, a special focus is called for as regards to the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel. International law addresses the subject of belligerent occupation in some detail. This second, revised edition updates the text (originally published in 2009) in terms of both State practice and doctrinal discourse. The emphasis is put on decisions of the Security Council; legislation adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; and predominantly case law: international (Judgments of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the European Court of Human Rights; Advisory Opinions and Arbitral Awards) as well as domestic courts.

For decades a bitter civil war between the Colombia government and armed insurgent groups tore apart Colombian society. After protracted negotiations in Havana, a peace agreement was accepted by the Colombian government and the FARC rebel group in 2016. This volume will provide academics and practitioners throughout the world with critical analyses regarding what we know generally about the post-war peace building process and how this can be applied to the specifics of the Colombian case to assist in the design and implementation of post-war peace building programs and policies. This unique group of Colombian and international scholars comment on critical aspects of the peace process in Colombia, transitional justice mechanisms, the role of state and non-state actors at the national and local levels, and examine what the Colombian case reveals about traditional theories and approaches to peace and transitional justice.

The expectation of reciprocity continues to be an important factor when states' consider their legal obligations in armed conflicts. In this monograph, Peeler looks at the text and negotiations around the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions from 1977 to demonstrate the many places where international humanitarian law maintains expectations of reciprocity. This complements an examination of US policy regarding its Prisoner of War obligations in both the Vietnam War and the Global War on Terror, demonstrating how states make use of the expectation of reciprocity found in international humanitarian law to respond to continued non-compliance by an enemy.

National Human Rights Institutions: Rules, Requirements, and Practice is an authoritative guide to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) in their important role as promoters and protectors of human rights at the national level. This book serves as both the first ever 'casebook' on the findings of the SCA, as well as a comprehensive reference for the requirements for compliance of NHRIs with the Paris Principles, and is a vital source of information on the actual practice of NHRIs. Since its earliest assessments of NHRIs in 1998, the Global Alliance of NHRIs' (GANHRI) Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) has developed a substantive body of work that has examined the operation and practice of over 128 institutions in countries and territories from every part of the globe. Analysed and catalogued in their entirety into an accessible format for the first time, and covering all aspects of NHRIs' structure and functioning, as well as providing a thorough overview of how the SCA works in practice, this book is an indispensable resource for scholars and practitioners who wish to understand and learn how NHRIs operate at the national level, as well as what problems they face and ultimately, how they can be strengthened. Benefitting from the unique insight of David Langtry, a member of the SCA for 11 years, this book is an essential source for all those interested in the role of NHRIs, and more broadly, of all state-established institutions intended to function independently.

Arms control and disarmament are key elements in promoting international peace and security. In recent decades the scope of disarmament law has broadened from a traditional focus on weapons of mass destruction to encompass conventional weapons. In this new volume in the Elements series, Stuart Casey-Maslen provides a concise and objective appraisal of international arms control and disarmament law. In seven concise chapters, he traces the history of arms control and disarmament in the modern era, addressing the issues surrounding biological and chemical weapons, the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and conventional weapon and arms transfer regimes. He concludes by considering how, in order to remain relevant, disarmament and arms control will need to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies that defy traditional means of verification and control. Arms Control and Disarmament Law is an accessible, go-to source for practicing international lawyers, judges and arbitrators, government and military officers, scholars, teachers, and students.