scholarly journals Parliamentary war powers and the role of international law in foreign troop deployment decisions: The US-led coalition against “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Ruys ◽  
Luca Ferro ◽  
Tim Haesebrouck
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
War Powers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Troop Deployment

Law and contestation in international negotiations

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 672-690
Author(s):  
Kyle Rapp
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
International Negotiations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Grounds

AbstractWhat is the role of rhetoric and argumentation in international relations? Some argue that it is little more than ‘cheap talk’, while others say that it may play a role in persuasion or coordination. However, why states deploy certain arguments, and why these arguments succeed or fail, is less well understood. I argue that, in international negotiations, certain types of legal frames are particularly useful for creating winning arguments. When a state bases its arguments on constitutive legal claims, opponents are more likely to become trapped by the law: unable to develop sustainable rebuttals or advance their preferred policy. To evaluate this theory, I apply qualitative discourse analysis to the US arguments on the crime of aggression at the Kampala Review Conference of the International Criminal Court – where the US advanced numerous arguments intended to reshape the crime to align with US interests. The analysis supports the theoretical propositions – arguments framed on codified legal grounds had greater success, while arguments framed on more political grounds were less sustainable, failing to achieve the desired outcomes. These findings further develop our understanding of the use of international law in rhetoric, argumentation, and negotiation.

The Diminishing Acts of the State. Or, Is It?

2012 ◽  
pp. 687-717
Author(s):  
Francis N. Botchway
Keyword(s):  
International Economic ◽  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
International Economic Law ◽  
The Us

The Act of state doctrine essentially serves to truncate or end proceedings against a state in the court of another state for actions attributed to or owned by the first state. Originally, the actions against which the defense could be raised were wide and all encompassing. It included exercise of police powers, takings, maritime and commercial acts. However, starting with cases such as Bernstein, Dunhill and others, and goaded in part by legislation such as the second Hickenlooper Amendment in the US, a number of exceptions have been carved into the doctrine. It is such that some academics have called for the end of the doctrine. This paper argues that although the doctrine is now limited, compared to its original compass, it is resilient. That resilience, this paper contends, is predicated on its International law pedigree. It is further argued that the swings in the role of the state in economic matters accounts for the growth, downturn and upturn in the viability of the doctrine as a defense in international economic law.

The principle of subsidiarity as a constitutional principle in international law

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREAS FOLLESDAL
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Constitutional Principle ◽  
The Us ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
State Consent

AbstractThis paper explores subsidiarity as a constitutional principle in international law. Some authors have appealed to a principle of subsidiarity in order to defend the legitimacy of several striking features of international law, such as the centrality of state consent, the leeway in assessing state compliance and weak sanctions in its absence. The article presents such defences of state-centric aspects of international law by appeals to subsidiarity, and finds them wanting. Different interpretations of subsidiarity have strikingly different institutional implications regarding the objectives of the polity, the domain and role of subunits, and the allocation of authority to apply the principle of subsidiarity itself. Five different interpretations are explored, drawn from Althusius, the US federalists, Pope Leo XIII, and others. One upshot is that the principle of subsidiarity cannot provide normative legitimacy to the state-centric aspects of current international law on its own. It stands in need of substantial interpretation. The versions of subsidiarity that match current practices of public international law are questionable. Many crucial aspects of our legal order must be reconsidered – in particular the standing and scope of state sovereignty.

scholarly journals International Law of State Responsibility and COVID-19: An Ideology Critique

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
Robert Knox ◽  
Ntina Tzouvala
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
International Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Ideology Critique ◽  
Capitalist Production ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Us ◽  
The One

Abstract Despite minimal prospects of success, international lawyers spent the first few months of the global pandemic discussing whether the rules of state responsibility could be invoked against states, especially China, for their acts and omissions regarding COVID-19. In this piece, we take these debates seriously, if not necessarily literally. We argue that the unrealistic nature of these debates does not make them irrelevant. Rather, we propose an ideology critique of state responsibility as a legal field. Our approach is two-fold. First, we argue these debates need to be situated within the rise of geopolitical competition between the US and its allies on the one hand and China on the other. In this context, state responsibility is always laid at the feet of one’s opponents. Secondly, we posit that my emphasising the role of states, recourse to state responsibility renders invisible the role of transnational processes of capitalist production and exchange that have profound effects on nature and set the stage for the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Drawing from the work of the geographer Neil Smith, we argue against the ‘naturalisation’ of disasters performed much of the international legal discourse about COVID-19.

scholarly journals PERAN WTO DALAM MEMBANGUN PENEGAKAN HUKUM INTERNASIONAL TERHADAP PROTEKSIONISME (STUDI KASUS: SENGKETA DAGANG ROKOK KRETEK INDONESIA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahdiba Rahma Bachtiar
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Trade Dispute ◽  
Domestic Trade ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World

Indonesia’s objection to the United States (US) over a clove ban in 2010 was one of the most difficult trade dispute cases that Indonesia has ever submitted. The dispute between both countries in the clove cigarettes negotiations was actually completed in 2014 after the two countries agreed on mutual understanding (MoU) related to cigarettes. Indonesia's victory over the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) by the World Trade Organization (WTO) shows the enforcement of international law in intervening in a country's domestic policies.Although it took great deal of time, Indonesia's victory over US becomes a lesson learned. This victory proves the role of the WTO in resolving trade dispute cases and refutes the notion of a superpower in particular the US being immune to the international law. US domestic trade policies that impose a ban on clove cigarettes have deviated from WTO rules and have harmed Indonesia as a producer

scholarly journals The Role of the UN International Drug Control Conventions in Facilitating Law Enforcement Cooperation in the Policing of Transnational Drug Trafficking

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 172-191
Author(s):  
Scarlet Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
International Law ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Illicit Drugs ◽  
Drug Control ◽  
Major Player ◽  
The Us ◽  
High Concern ◽  
The Subject

Transnational policing is an increasingly important issue in today’s globalised world. Transnational crime is an expanding industry and when crime crosses borders, cooperation between states is key. Arguably, this is most important in illegal drug trafficking, a crime of high concern to many states which almost always involves multiple countries. To this end, the UN Drug Control Conventions, introduced to tackle drug trafficking across the world, contain a number of provisions regarding law enforcement cooperation. This piece, by examining legal instruments and existing literature, will explore the role of the conventions regarding cooperation in policing the transnational trafficking of illicit drugs with a particular focus on the US, a major player in the field. Law enforcement cooperation between states existed for many years without international law obligations, however, it was often plagued by political and cultural differences and suffered when international relations were tense. By implementing obligations within the UN conventions, existing practices were codified into international law, meaning that cooperation should be a smoother, and legally-backed, process regardless of the political situation. This piece argues that, although the UN International Drug Control Conventions may not have added completely novel principles or practices to transnational law enforcement, they remain an important tool in facilitating transnational police cooperation and have made a valuable contribution to jurisprudence on the subject.

scholarly journals A criminal tribunal and a wide-ranging reparation programme is necessary for the victims of sexual violence and torture in Iraq

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-124
Author(s):  
Bojan Gavrilovic ◽  
Stephanie Schweininger
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Law ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
International Discourse ◽  
Forced Prostitution ◽  
Legal Frameworks

The frequency and extreme nature of sexual violence committed in Iraq, primarily by the self-declared Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from 2014 onwards, has shocked the international community. Now, four years later, victory over ISIL has been proclaimed but addressing past atrocities and their consequences has barely begun. There is a wide discrepancy between Iraq’s human rights obligations, stressed by the United Nations (UN), and the reality on the ground, shaped by the Iraqi authorities. The present paper aims to highlight this discrepancy by providing an overview of the crimes committed, their qualification under international law, and the efforts of Iraqi authorities to punish those responsible. It will also discuss legal frameworks and the role of the UN, before positing some possible solutions. Object of the inquiry. The primary object of this inquiry is the conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) that has taken place in Iraq since 2014. The term CRSV is used in the international discourse to designate sexual violence occurring during or following armed conflict. UN bodies have set a gravity threshold for defining CRSV—incidents or patterns of acts of sexual violence such as “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity” (UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2011, p. 3)

scholarly journals ISIL in Iraq: A Critical Analysis of the UN Security Council’s Gendered Personification of (Non)States

Laws ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Faye Bird
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
Legal Subjects

Legal feminist theories have troubled dominant conceptions of statehood, revealing the threat of the ‘Other’ as integral to the hegemonic masculinity of powerful states. In this paper I provide a critical gendered discourse analysis of the UN Security Council’s response to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL). I consider the role of personification in constituting legal subjects as states (persons) and excavate this from the Council’s resolutions concerning Iraq. In constituting ISIL as a barbaric, hypermasculine terror group in relational opposition to the state of Iraq, the Council draws on gendered normativities ordinarily veiled by seemingly objective legal criteria as to the creation of states. Whilst the state of Iraq is constituted through the hegemonic model of statehood, one premised upon democratic, liberal Westphalian ideals, it is still subject to the paternalism of the Security Council. In this way, the state of Iraq is framed as failing to reach a particular masculine standard of statehood, and is thus subject to the continuation of ‘civilising’ discourses. Thus, instead of asking whether ISIL is or is not a state under international law, it is revealing to consider how responses to it work to maintain and (re)produce a graded, hierarchical international community of states.

scholarly journals 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UN: HOPES AND REALITIES

2021 ◽  
pp. 38-52
Author(s):  
E. L. Kuzmin
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Us ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Special Rules

Examining the history of the UN creation in the first part of the article, the author focuses on an exceptionally significant issue settled in 1945 during the Crimean Conference of the Heads of the Three Great Powers, namely: the order of voting in the UN Security Council. Various appeals to renounce the “veto” of permanent members of the UN Security Council enshrined in the UN Charter have become the main leitmotif of numerous attempts of the United States and their closest allies to revise the UN Charter. Reviewing such proposals, the author notes that populist ideas the essence of which constitutes the call to replace, based on the principles of equality of all States, an international Organization by a supranational structure whose activities would actually be based on the principle of “who has force, has power” have been disseminated in Western political and scientific circles.The author goes on to consider the crucial question: whether the Organization have been able to cope with its main mission: to maintain international peace and security?Listing the outstanding universal documents of our time developed in the bowels of the UN, the author calls the most notable, in his opinion, achievement of the Organization — a real liberation of dozens of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America from colonial oppression. Analyzing the activities of the UN, the author acknowledges that the Organization in many respects is still far from its unifying convergent essence: the US and its NATO allies lead the policy aiming at crashing the system of international relations, based on the central role of the UN in world politics; the US promote a concept that implies the creation of closed alliances to develop and implement measures bypassing the UN. Amid such realities, Russia, seeking to strengthen multilateral principles in international affairs, emphasizes the creation of a self-regulating international system, which requires collective leadership of the leading States that is represented geographically and civilizationally, and exercised with full respect for the central and coordinating role of the United Nations.The article also draws attention to the fact that modern reality identifies more and more intractable problems, which often lead to the “autonomization” of international law: “niches” that are not filled with legal material inevitably give rise to situations where the gaps concerned are governed by particular and special rules based on bilateral or regional foundations, The author sees the empowerment of international law in the approval of principles of intercivilizational communication, the pursuance of synthesis of various legal systems, ideologies, cultures, religions and other spiritual values, which would provide a reliable basis for strengthening the importance and influence of international law.

scholarly journals Global privatized power

Focaal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (73) ◽  
pp. 114-124
Author(s):  
Maria Theresia Starzmann
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
State Organizations ◽  
The Military

The practice of archaeologists and other heritage specialists to embed with the US military in Iraq has received critical attention from anthropologists. Scholars have highlighted the dire consequences of such a partnership for cultural heritage protection by invoking the imperialist dimension of archaeological knowledge production. While critical of state power and increasingly of militarized para-state actors like the self-proclaimed Islamic State, these accounts typically eclipse other forms of collaboration with non-state organizations, such as private military and security companies (PMSCs). Focusing on the central role of private contractors in the context of heritage missions in Iraq since 2003, I demonstrate that the war economy's exploitative regime in regions marked by violent conflict is intensified by the growth of the military-industrial complex on a global scale. Drawing on data from interviews conducted with archaeologists working in the Middle East, it becomes clear how archaeology and heritage work prop up the coloniality of power by tying cultural to economic forms of control.

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