A Radical Transformation?

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-30
Author(s):  
Rotem Giladi

The Introduction notes the tendency of international law and Jewish history scholars to read the international law engagement of Jewish scholars as a cosmopolitan project yet limit inquiry to the period preceding Israel’s establishment and the ‘sovereign turn’ in modern Jewish history; as well as the emphasis, in scholarship on Israel’s foreign policy, on the ‘Jewish aspect’ of the Jewish state’s international outlook. Against this backdrop, the Introduction presents the object, scope, and underlying argument of the book: a study of Israel’s early ambivalence towards three post-war international law reform projects, at the United Nations arena, given voice by two Ministry of Foreign Affairs legal advisers. The Introduction points to ideology as the force driving the protagonists’ ambivalence towards international law. It argues that how Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne approached international law was determined by pre-sovereign sensibilities expressing the creed of the Jewish national movement and its political experience.

Author(s):  
Asha Bajpai

This chapter deals with those children in especially difficult circumstances that are vulnerable, marginalized, destitute, and neglected and deprived of their basic rights. It commences with a history of the Juvenile Justice legislation in India right from the Children’s Act of 1960s to the current Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The barriers faced in the administration and implementation of the Juvenile Justice legislation throughout its evolution to its present stage is discussed in detail. How the law deals with children in need of care and protection and children in conflict with law are discussed in this chapter. Landmark judgements by courts and suggestions for further law reform are included. This chapter also contains international law relating to administration of juvenile justice, and United Nations guidelines in matters in matters involving child victims and witnesses of crime including UN Guidelines on Alternative Care of Children. Some civil society interventions are also included.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-349
Author(s):  
Iliriana Islami ◽  
Remzije Istrefi

Kosovo declared its independence on 17 February 2008. Subsequently, one of the aims of Kosovo’s foreign policy was to further consolidate this position and to justify Kosovo’s prospective membership in the United Nations. This article examines the issue of recognition, elucidating how Kosovo is different from other countries and comparing it with the case of the former Yugoslavia. Other aspects in the state-building process such as ‘building constitutionalism’ will be presented as a step toward justifying recognition and membership. Furthermore, the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of 8 October 2008 will be presented as evidence of Kosovo’s strengthening international position in its quest for further recognition. Thus, the article will discuss and analyze the arguments in favor of Kosovo being admitted to the UN.


Author(s):  
Dimitar Tyulekov ◽  
Ilko Drenkov ◽  
Jani Nikolla

The League of Nations sets strict professional frameworks that are subordinate to scientific knowledge and international law and respect, without any differences between small and big powers. The first chairman, Eric Drummond, who headed up to 1934, established a huge international prestige of the organization and achieved a number of successes in peace building. The League’s policy in the Balkans is revealed mainly through its relations with Albania and Bulgaria, which both joined the League in December 1920. The two countries rely on the international organization for the peaceful resolution of their political, minority and social problems. Under the supervision of the League of Nations, a number of agreements for voluntary and mutual exchange of people between Greece and Bulgaria are being concluded, which aims to soothe the Macedonian problem in Aegean Macedonia. Under her patronage are the agreements between Greece and Albania regulating the protection of Greek minorities and schools, as well as settling the border dispute between the Serb-Croat-Slovene Kingdom and Albania in 1921. The rapid intervention of the United Nations suspended the Greek aggression on Bulgarian territory in the autumn of 1925 and prevented a possible new war. Dimitar Shalev's petitions from Skopje to the United Nations aim to achieve the Yugoslav state's humane treatment towards Bulgarian minorities within its borders, but political dependencies and overlapping contradictions are an obstacle to peaceful and sustainable political outcomes. In the second half of the 1930s, the League lost its initial prestige, and in the course of the emerging new global conflict it fell into political dependence, marking its collapse. Unresolved issues and contradictions, along with the harsh political post-war realities, quickly bury the League’s noble impetus.


Author(s):  
Andrew Clapham

How are human rights put into practice? What does it mean when governments announce that their foreign policy is concerned with promoting and protecting human rights? Where is the enforcement of these rights? ‘Human rights foreign policy and the role of the United Nations’ considers human rights in terms of foreign policy and international law and examines the UN’s Universal Periodic Review process and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is only recently that governments have actively involved themselves in how another state treats its nationals, but enthusiasm for human rights in foreign policy ebbs and flows.


1959 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 383-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon V. Aspaturian

Ever since the constitutional improvisations of February 1, 1944, one of the enigmatic and obscure aspects of Soviet diplomacy has been the precise role of the Union Republics in its execution, administration and procedures. Aside from the participation of the Ukraine and Byelorussia in the work of the United Nations and its affiliated bodies and conferences, little attention has been paid to the role or potential of the Union Republics in Soviet foreign policy. Their apparent diplomatic inertia, however, is misleading, for in marked contrast to their meager formal participation in external affairs is their increasing implication in the quasi-diplomatic maneuvers of the Soviet Government. Furthermore, the juridical capacity of the Republics to embark on diplomatic adventures meets the formal canons of internal and international law, and remains intact in spite of the past dormancy of their diplomatic organs. At opportune moments it may be transmuted into concrete diplomatic benefits.


2021 ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Susan Page

It is easy for Americans to think that the world’s most egregious human rights abuses happen in other countries. In reality, our history is plagued by injustices, and our present reality is still stained by racism and inequality. While the Michigan Journal of International Law usually publishes only pieces with a global focus, we felt it prudent in these critically important times not to shy away from the problems facing our own country. We must understand our own history before we can strive to form a better union, whether the union be the United States or the United Nations. Ambassador Susan Page is an American diplomat who has faced human rights crises both at home and abroad. We found her following call to action inspiring. We hope you do too.


1980 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-179
Author(s):  
Nathan Feinberg

Numerous and complex problems relating to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations have arisen in the protracted Arab-Israel conflict. One of these—and certainly not the least important—is whether there exists any foundation, from a legal point of view, to the claim by the Arab States that the Charter of the United Nations and general international law entitled them to resort to armed force in order to take back the territories occupied by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967. This claim to a right to a military option has been put forward not only in slogans flaunted in fiery speeches by second-rate politicians or extreme party leaders, but by the Heads of State responsible for the formulation of their countries' foreign policy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Rotem Giladi

The Prologue tells the story of the Jewish Yearbook of International Law, published in Jerusalem in 1949. It highlights the sense of time of those involved: an end to Jewish objecthood and the beginning of Jewish subjecthood brought by the sovereign turn in Jewish history—a radical transformation in the international legal status of Jews. The volume sought to ‘sum up’, ‘with an eye to the past’, the terms of past Jewish engagements with international law. The editors refrained from predicting the shape of things to come—the terms on which the Jewish state would now approach international law; this book explores that future. The Prologue also introduces the dramatis personae, including Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne, Foreign Ministry legal advisers and the book’s main protagonists. It also tells of their effort to assume ownership of the project which was to be renamed the Israel Yearbook of International Law.


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