Africa has experienced a number of territorial disputes over land and maritime boundaries, due in part to its colonial and post-colonial history. This book explores the legal, political, and historical nature of disputes over territory in the African continent, and critiques the content and application of contemporary International law to the resolution of African territorial and border disputes. Drawing on central concepts of public international law such as sovereignty and jurisdiction, and socio-political concepts such as colonialism, ethnicity, nationality and self-determination, this book interrogates the intimate connection that peoples and nations have to territory and the severe disputes these may lead to. Gbenga Oduntan identifies the major principles of law at play in relation to territorial, and boundary disputes, and argues that the predominant use of foreign based adjudicatory mechanisms in attempting to deal with African boundary disputes alienates those institutions and mechanisms from African people and can contribute to the recurrence of conflicts and disputes in and among African territories. He suggests that the understanding and application of multidisciplinary dispute resolution mechanisms and strategies can allow for a more holistic and effective treatment of boundary disputes. As an in depth study into the legal, socio-political and anthropological mechanisms involved in the understanding of territorial boundaries, and a unique synthesis of an African jurisprudence of international boundaries law, this book will be of great use and interest to students, researchers, and practitioners in African and Public International Law, International Relations, and decision-makers in need of better understanding the settlement of disputes over territorial boundaries in both Africa and the wider world.

Drawing on a postcolonial legal history of the United States' territorial expansionism, this book provides an analysis of the foundations of its global empire. Charles R. Venator-Santiago argues that the United States has developed three traditions of territorial expansionism with corresponding constitutional interpretations, namely colonialist, imperialist, and global expansionist. This book offers an alternative interpretation of the origins of US global expansion, suggesting it began with the tradition of territorial expansionism following the 1898 Spanish-American War to legitimate the annexation of Puerto Rico and other non-contiguous territories. The relating constitutional interpretation grew out of the 1901 Insular Cases in which the Supreme Court coined the notion of an unincorporated territory to describe the 1900 Foraker Act's normalization of the prevailing military territorial policies. Since then the United States has invoked the ensuing precedents to legitimate a wide array of global policies, including the 'war on terror'. Puerto Rico and the Origins of US Global Empire: The Disembodied Shade combines a unique study of Puerto Rican legal history with a new interpretation of contemporary US policy. As such, it provides a valuable resource for students and scholars of the legal and historical disciplines, especially those with a specific interest in American and postcolonial studies.

"Beyond Occupation" looks at three contentious terms that regularly arise in contemporary arguments about Israel's practices towards Palestinians in the occupied territories - occupation, colonialism and apartheid - and considers whether their meanings in international law truly apply to Israel's policies. This analysis is timely and urgent - colonialism and apartheid are serious breaches of human rights law and apartheid is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The contributors present conclusive evidence that Israel's administration of the Palestinian territories is consistent with colonialism and apartheid, as these regimes are defined in human rights law. Their analysis further shows that these practices are deliberate Israeli state policies, imposed on the Palestinian civilian population under military occupation.
These findings raise serious implications for the legality and legitimacy of Israel's continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the responsibility of the entire international community to challenge practices considered contrary to fundamental values of the international legal order.

The issue of state succession continues to be a vital and complex focal point for public international lawyers, yet it has remained strangely resistant to effective articulation. The formative period in this respect was that of decolonization which marked for many the time when international law came of age and when the promises of the UN Charter would be realized in an international community of sovereign peoples. Throughout the 1990s a series of territorial adjustments placed succession once again at the centre of international legal practice, in new contexts that went beyond the traditional model of decolonization: the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, and the unifications of Germany and Yemen brought to light the fundamentally unresolved character of issues within the law of succession. Why have attempts to codify the practice of succession met with so little success? Why has succession remained so problematic a feature of international law? This book argues that the answers to these questions lie in the political backdrop of decolonization and self-determination, and that the tensions and ambiguities that run throughout the law of succession can only be understood by looking at the historical relationship between discourses on state succession, decolonization, and imperialism within the framework of international law.

Drawing on a postcolonial legal history of the United States' territorial expansionism, this book provides an analysis of the foundations of its global empire. Charles R. Venator-Santiago argues that the United States has developed three traditions of territorial expansionism with corresponding constitutional interpretations, namely colonialist, imperialist, and global expansionist. This book offers an alternative interpretation of the origins of US global expansion, suggesting it began with the tradition of territorial expansionism following the 1898 Spanish-American War to legitimate the annexation of Puerto Rico and other non-contiguous territories. The relating constitutional interpretation grew out of the 1901 Insular Cases in which the Supreme Court coined the notion of an unincorporated territory to describe the 1900 Foraker Act's normalization of the prevailing military territorial policies. Since then the United States has invoked the ensuing precedents to legitimate a wide array of global policies, including the 'war on terror'. Puerto Rico and the Origins of US Global Empire: The Disembodied Shade combines a unique study of Puerto Rican legal history with a new interpretation of contemporary US policy. As such, it provides a valuable resource for students and scholars of the legal and historical disciplines, especially those with a specific interest in American and postcolonial studies.

This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance. It seeks to understand the interests of new players in Antarctic affairs such as China, India, Korea and Malaysia, and how other key players such as Russia and the USA or claimant states such as New Zealand or France are coping in the new global order. Antarctica is the world's fifth largest continent and its territories are claimed by seven different states. Since 1961 Antarctica has been managed under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), a regime which, according to its critics, by the terms of its membership effectively excludes most of the nations of the world. This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance, and is organized thematically into three sections: Part 1 considers the role of Antarctic politics in the current post-Cold War, post-colonial era and the impact this new political environment is having on the ATS. Part 2 looks at the competing foreign policy objectives of a representative range of countries with Antarctic activities. Part 3 examines issues that have the potential to destabilise the order of the Antarctic Treaty System, such as unrestricted tourism and new advances in science and technology. The Emerging Politics of Antarctica will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, polar studies and foreign policy studies.

Among the examples of civil wars, armed secessionist movements and minority uprisings in the world today, many involve conflict between a minority group's aim for political self-determination, and the nation state's resistance to any diminution of sovereignty. With the expansion of the international regime of human rights, minority groups have reconceptualised their struggle with the understanding that a minority which is linguistically, religiously or ethnically distinctive is entitled to self-determination if their aspirations cannot be met. This book explores the relationship between minority rights, self-determination and secession within international law, by contextualising these issues in a detailed case study of the rise of Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka. Welhengama and Pillay show how Tamil communalism hardened into secession and assess whether the Sri Lankan government has met its obligations with respect to the right to self-determination short of secession. Focusing on the legal and human rights arguments for secession by the Tamil community of the North and East of Sri Lanka, the book demonstrates how the language of international law and international human rights played a major role in the development of the arguments for secession. Through a close examination of the case of the Tamil's secessionist movement the book presents valuable insights into why modern nation states find themselves threatened by separatist claims and bids for independence based on ethnicity.

The current jurisdictional status of the Mediterranean Sea is remarkable. Nearly 50 per cent of the Mediterranean waters are high seas and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of coastal States. This situation means that there are no points in the Mediterranean Sea where the coasts of two States would be more than 400 nautical miles apart. Such a legal situation generally prevents coastal States from adopting and enforcing their laws on the Mediterranean high seas, in respect of many important fields such as the protection and preservation of the marine environment, as well as the conservation of marine living resources. The jurisdictional landscape of the Adriatic Sea as a sub-sea and sub-region of the Mediterranean, is even more interesting. Croatia has proclaimed an Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, Slovenia has proclaimed a Zone of Ecological Protection, while Italy has adopted a framework law for the proclamation of its Zone of Ecological Protection without proclaiming its regime in the Adriatic. It is noteworthy that if all Mediterranean and Adriatic States would proclaim an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), there would not be a single stretch of high seas left in the entire Mediterranean Sea. Both the Adriatic and Mediterranean fall in the category of enclosed or semi-enclosed seas regulated by Part IX of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This book assesses the legal nature of Part IX of UNCLOS and discusses potential benefits of the extension of coastal State jurisdiction (proclamation of EEZs and/or similar sui generis zones), particularly in light of the recent calls towards an integrated and holistic approach to the management of different activities in the Mediterranean Sea. It examines the actual or potential extension of coastal State jurisdiction in the Adriatic Sea, against the background of similar extensions elsewhere in the Mediterranean and against the background of relevant EU policies. It additionally explores whether Part IX of UNCLOS imposes any duties of cooperation in relation to the extension of coastal State jurisdiction in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas, and puts forward practical suggestions as to how the issue of extension of coastal State jurisdiction could be approached in a way which would enhance States existing cooperation and improve the overall governance in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. This book will be of interest to policymakers and academics and students of international law, and the law of the sea.

This book discusses the increasing tendency in certain government quarters to incorporate struggles by peoples for their self-determination into the wider anti-terrorist agenda of the post-9/11 era. This tendency distorts the laws of armed conflict and of peace alike. As inter-state anti-terrorist co-operation becomes more extensive, the transaction costs of international peace and security between states increase. Modes of domestic state governance are left increasingly to the vagaries of inter-state non-interference in the domestic affairs of each other. The 'war on terror' and an increasingly strict, domestic state law-and-order approach to silence political opponents increases the dangers for civilians, eliminates rights, and generates suspect communities. At the same time, public institutions and private corporations are harnessed into the mechanics of a broad project of prevention and control. Distinctively, the book considers the impact of the recent 'war on terror' on the politics of the self-determination of peoples. It draws together issues related to governmental forceful action, an increasing intolerance towards non-state violent acts, the content of international and regional codifications, expansions in state discretion, the encroachment of surveillance powers, and the interaction and overlap between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Self-Determination in the Post-9/11 Era will be of interest to students and scholars of public international law, criminology, comparative criminal justice, terrorism and national security, politics, international relations, human rights, governance and public policy.

This study is about the ambit of national criminal law. Can a country prosecute and punish a foreigner for a crime committed abroad against another foreigner? Reydams first identifies the international legal issues which arise when a State exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction generally. He then brings together detailed accounts of universal jurisdiction in fourteen countries: Australia; Austria; Belgium; Canada; Denmark; France; Germany; Israel; the Netherlands; Senegal; Spain; Switzerland; the United Kingdom; and the United States.

This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance. It seeks to understand the interests of new players in Antarctic affairs such as China, India, Korea and Malaysia, and how other key players such as Russia and the USA or claimant states such as New Zealand or France are coping in the new global order. Antarctica is the world's fifth largest continent and its territories are claimed by seven different states. Since 1961 Antarctica has been managed under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), a regime which, according to its critics, by the terms of its membership effectively excludes most of the nations of the world. This book examines the post-Cold War challenges facing Antarctic governance, and is organized thematically into three sections: Part 1 considers the role of Antarctic politics in the current post-Cold War, post-colonial era and the impact this new political environment is having on the ATS. Part 2 looks at the competing foreign policy objectives of a representative range of countries with Antarctic activities. Part 3 examines issues that have the potential to destabilise the order of the Antarctic Treaty System, such as unrestricted tourism and new advances in science and technology. The Emerging Politics of Antarctica will be of interest to students and scholars of international politics, polar studies and foreign policy studies.

This book examines the application of UK Criminal and Human Rights Law to people and circumstances outside the United Kingdom. Building upon previous analyses which have focused on a single aspect of extraterritorially, this book examines the fields of Criminal and Human Rights law as the two main areas of non-private law which are frequently applied across borders. Both fields are placed in context before being drawn together in a coherent and systematic way. The book examines recent law and practice, as well as historic developments and explores the concept of enforcement. The author's analysis includes coverage of topics such as the criminalisation of sex-tourism, the extradition of white-collar criminals and the application of human rights law to Iraq following American and British intervention in the region. Law Across Borders goes on to point the way forward in the development of the extraterritorial application of public law, and suggests ways in which greater coherence can be achieved. This book will be of particular interest to practitioners, academics and scholars of International Law, Human Rights Law and Criminal Law. It is unique in its ambition to offer a comprehensive description and analysis of the extra-territorial application of UK Human Rights Law and Criminal Law in a single text.

Law lies at the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Jews sought a national home by 'Public Law' while Palestinians reject the project as illegal. Britain, the League of Nations and the United Nations all mobilised international law to justify their interventions. After the 1967 war, Israel organised an occupation with excessive legalism that most of the world viewed, in fact, as illegal. Partitioning Palestine focuses on three key moments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: the League of Nations Mandate, the United Nations partition plan and the Oslo agreements. None of these documents are neutral but, rather, encode a variety of meanings. The book traces the way in which these legal narratives have both shaped national identity and sharpened the conflict. In this pioneering text, John Strawson argues that a committed attachment to the belief in legal justice has hampered the search for a settlement. Law, far from offering conflict resolution, has reinforced the trenches from which Palestinians and Israelis confront one another.

This book discusses the increasing tendency in certain government quarters to incorporate struggles by peoples for their self-determination into the wider anti-terrorist agenda of the post-9/11 era. This tendency distorts the laws of armed conflict and of peace alike. As inter-state anti-terrorist co-operation becomes more extensive, the transaction costs of international peace and security between states increase. Modes of domestic state governance are left increasingly to the vagaries of inter-state non-interference in the domestic affairs of each other. The 'war on terror' and an increasingly strict, domestic state law-and-order approach to silence political opponents increases the dangers for civilians, eliminates rights, and generates suspect communities. At the same time, public institutions and private corporations are harnessed into the mechanics of a broad project of prevention and control. Distinctively, the book considers the impact of the recent 'war on terror' on the politics of the self-determination of peoples. It draws together issues related to governmental forceful action, an increasing intolerance towards non-state violent acts, the content of international and regional codifications, expansions in state discretion, the encroachment of surveillance powers, and the interaction and overlap between intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Self-Determination in the Post-9/11 Era will be of interest to students and scholars of public international law, criminology, comparative criminal justice, terrorism and national security, politics, international relations, human rights, governance and public policy.

This collection of thirteen essays explains and analyzes the conflict between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Authority over the granting of sovereignty to Palestinians from the point of view of international law. The dispute - emotional, so far intractable, often violent - is of global, not merely Middle Eastern concern. The essays cover two general topics: the political nature of the conflict and the economic issues. The collection includes eight respected contributions previously published and five newly written essays. The contributors represent a range of political alignments and differing perspectives, providing the widest possible scope for understanding the issues and beliefs relating to the conflict. It includes an up-to-date bibliography; and is fully indexed.

The new edition of this market-leading textbook includes a revised introduction and updated chapters with new research and insights. Four new case studies of twenty-first-century genocides bring this horrific history up to the present moment: the genocide perpetrated by the government during Argentina's "Dirty War," the genocide of the Yazidis by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), genocidal violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar, and China's genocide of the Uyghurs. Powerful survivor testimonies bring the essays to life and help readers grapple with the difficult lessons presented throughout the book.

For many years, Greece and Turkey have been involved in aggressive rivalry over large areas of the Aegean Sea as well as Cyprus. Their conflicts endanger the peace between these two NATO allies and have even brought the two nations to the brink of war, but no agreement has been reached despite their mutual assistance in the aftermath of the earthquakes suffered by both countries in the summer of 1999. This work provides an in-depth discussion of how the conflicts began, the matter of Cyprus and international law, disputes and near-war situations over the Aegean, the dynamics of and prospects for a new Greek-Turkish partnership, and current developments in disputes and relations.

The Cyprus Question has been and remains one of the more intractable problems in world affairs. This important book-first published in 1989-differs from the many other writings on the subject by setting out the Turkish (rather than the Greek) case. It is written principally from a legal standpoint, but also uses significant historical, political, and diplomatic sources. The newly revised second edition includes an up to date chronology and a new postcript incorporating the many new developments which have taken place since the book was originally written in 1988, including a large number of diplomatic negotiations, and intergovernmental conferences and exchanges. The book also deals with the current efforts to find an agreed settlement through the good offices mission of the UN Secretary-General, and the present position of the parties.

Synthesizing primary and technical data, this book focuses on the legal and political aspects of Israeli administration in the West Bank and the international attempt to resolve the dispute over the territories. The author assesses the present situation and provides guidelines for future action.

First published in 1986, this book considers the nature of international interest in Antarctica and the positions of those involved. It looks at the significance of the historical dimension, the development of the treaty system, the management of marine and mineral resources, the role of the United Nations and the impact of such non-governmental organisations as Greenpeace International. The Antarctic implications of the Falklands War of 1982 are also discussed, as well as the underlying relationship between America and the Soviet Union during the 1980s. With a truly international scope, this reissue will be of particular relevance to students with an interest in the political, legal, economic and environmental concerns surrounding the Antarctic region, both in the present and historically.

Lethal autonomous weapons are weapon systems that can select and destroy targets without intervention by a human operator. Fighting Machines explores the relationship between lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS), the concept of human dignity, and international law. Much of this analysis speaks to three fundamental and related problems: When a LAWS takes a human life, is that killing a violation of human dignity? Can states and non-state actors use LAWS in accordance with international law? And are there certain responsibilities of human decision-making during wartime that we should not delegate to machines? In the book, Dan Saxon argues that the use of LAWS to take human life constitutes a violation of human dignity. Rather than concentrating on the victims of the use of lethal force, Saxon instead focuses on the technology and relevant legal principles and rules to advance several propositions. First, as LAWS operate at increasingly greater speeds, their use will undermine the opportunities for, and the value of, human reasoning and judgment. Second, by transferring responsibility for reasoning and judgment about the use of lethal force to computer software, the use of LAWS violates the dignity of the soldiers, commanders, and law enforcement officers who historically have made such decisions, and, therefore, breaches international law. Third, weapon designs that facilitate teamwork between humans and autonomous systems are necessary to ensure that humans and LAWS can operate interdependently so that individuals can fulfil their obligations under international law—including the preservation of their own dignity—and ensure that human reasoning and judgment are available for cognitive functions better suited to humans than machines. Fighting Machines speaks to the fields of international humanitarian law, human rights, criminal law, and legal philosophy. It will also be of interest to non-lawyers, especially military officers, government policy makers, political scientists, and international relations scholars, as well as roboticists and ethicists.

This book analyzes and discusses the sovereignty of the Nansha Islands, combining legal and historical perspectives, traditional international law theories, and empirical studies based on an extensive body of historical maps from around the globe to do so. Ultimately, the book argues that China has sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the surrounding waters, either on the basis of historical claims or modern realities. In recent years, the Nansha disputes have attracted considerable attention. Far from being resolved, they have instead become even more heated. The only reasonable way to solve the problem, as argued here, is on the basis of relevant history and legislation. Addressing this highly topical issue, the book also provides an English-speaking audience with access to essential content on the sovereignty, history, and legislation concerning the Nansha Islands.

Like many countries around the world, Chile is undergoing a political moment when the nature of democracy and its political and legal institutions are being challenged. Senior Chilean legal scholar and constitutional historian Pablo Ruiz-Tagle provides an historical analysis of constitutional change and democratic crisis in the present context focused on Chilean constitutionalism. He offers a comparative analysis of the organization and function of government, the structure of rights and the main political agents that participated in each stage of Chilean constitutional history. Chile is a powerful case study of a Latin American country that has gone through several threats to its democracy, but that has once again followed a moderate path to rebuild its constitutional republican tradition. Not only the first comprehensive study of Chilean constitutional history in the English language from the nineteenth-century to the present day, this book is also a powerful defence of democratic values.

This collection of essays is written by some of the world's leading experts in international human rights law, and corresponds to the main junctures in the professional life of Professor David Kretzmer, a leading human right academic and practitioner. The different essays focus on contemporary human rights protection challenges. They address conceptual problems such as differences between limits and restrictions, and application of human rights standards to businesses and international organisations; legal doctrinal responses to changing realities in the field of surveillance and identity politics; the weakness of monitoring institutions engaged in standard setting; and the practical difficulties in applying international human rights law to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a manner sensitive to gender dimensions and the particular political dynamics of the situation. Collectively, the essays offer a rich picture of the current potential shortcomings of international human rights law in addressing complex problems of law, politics and ethics.

This book analyzes and discusses the sovereignty of the Nansha Islands, combining legal and historical perspectives, traditional international law theories, and empirical studies based on an extensive body of historical maps from around the globe to do so. Ultimately, the book argues that China has sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the surrounding waters, either on the basis of historical claims or modern realities. In recent years, the Nansha disputes have attracted considerable attention. Far from being resolved, they have instead become even more heated. The only reasonable way to solve the problem, as argued here, is on the basis of relevant history and legislation. Addressing this highly topical issue, the book also provides an English-speaking audience with access to essential content on the sovereignty, history, and legislation concerning the Nansha Islands.