26. International Refugee and Migration Law

This chapter explores the definition of refugee status in international law, its scope and limitations and consequent protection gaps for those forcibly displaced, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), who have crossed no international border. There is no equivalent definition for migrants, but like refugees, asylum-seekers, and IDPs, international human rights law provides a framework for their protection. The chapter explains the difference between refugee status and asylum, focusing on non-refoulement in international law. It discusses the rights that are guaranteed during displacement, particularly those pertaining to detention and humanitarian relief. Given that refugee status is intended to be temporary, the final section looks at cessation and durable solutions, either following voluntary return, through local integration, or resettlement in some third State.

25. International Human Rights Law

This chapter considers the background to, and current developments concerning the manner in which international law has engaged with the protection of human rights, including both civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. It looks at historical, philosophical, and political factors which have shaped our understanding of human rights and the current systems of international protection. It focuses on the systems of protection developed by and through the United Nations through the ‘International Bill of Rights’, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN human rights treaties and treaty bodies, and the UN Special Procedures as well as the work of the Human Rights Council. It also looks at the systems of regional human rights protection which have been established.

23. International Investment Law

This chapter discusses the development and current state of international investment law, which encompasses international finance law, international trade law, international investment law, and regional economic trade agreements. Recent progressions in the area of international financial law, international trade law, and investment law demonstrate that other areas of international regulation have a decisive influence on international investment law. Moreover, international investment law is more increasingly focused on development concerns. International investment law is currently going through an exciting phase in its development. It has now become one of the fastest changing areas of international law with exciting and far-reaching implications for both investment-receiving and investment-exporting countries, thanks to enterprising claimants and innovative interpretations and expansive approaches adopted by international investment tribunals. This chapter seeks to capture the law and the recent trends in both State practice and jurisprudence in this area of international law.

10. Jurisdiction

This chapter focuses on the principles of international law that govern the right of States to apply their laws to conduct and events occurring within or outside their own territories; the resolution of disputes arising from overlapping jurisdictional claims; and the problems of enforcing national laws. The discussions cover the meaning of ‘jurisdiction’; the significance of the principles of jurisdiction; doctrinal analysis of jurisdiction; the territorial principle; the national principle; the protective principle; the universal principle; treaty-based extensions of jurisdiction; controversial bases of prescriptive jurisdiction; types of jurisdiction; limitations upon jurisdiction; inadequacies of the traditional approach; and the fundamental principle governing enforcement jurisdiction.

9. The Individual and the International Legal System

This chapter examines the role of the individual in the international legal system. It considers the direct rights and responsibilities of individuals under the international legal system; their capacity to bring international claims; and their ability to participate in the creation, development, and enforcement of international law. Particular examples from a wide range of areas of international law, including international human rights law, international criminal law, and international economic law, are used to illustrate the conceptual and practical participation of individuals in the international legal system. It is argued that individuals are participants in that system, and are not solely objects that are subject to States’ consent, though their degree of participation varies depending on the changing nature of the international legal system.

6. The Practical Working of the Law of Treaties

This chapter examines key structural questions and fundamental problems relating to the law of treaties. These structural matters include: the concept of a treaty; the anatomy of treaties (including the making of treaties; authority to conclude treaties; expression of consent to be bound; invalidity of treaties (non-absolute grounds for invalidity of treaties, absolute grounds for invalidity of treaties, amendment, and modification); suspension and termination). The key issues addressed include the scope of legal obligation (the principle pacta sunt servanda, treaties, and third States); interpretation and reservation to treaties (including interpretative declarations); and finally, problems concerning the grounds for termination (supervening impossibility and material breach). The chapter also considers the theory and practice of the law of treaties, with broad analysis of the case law of various international courts and tribunals, with special emphasis on jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice.

3. A View of Delft: Some Thoughts About Thinking about International Law

This chapter first explains the concept of theory and what it does. It then illustrates the formative power of theory by contrasting two very different accounts of international law: the New Haven School, which was elaborated principally by Myres McDougal and Harold Lasswell in Yale Law School; and the pre-perestroika Soviet theory of international law propounded by GI Tunkin. The chapter argues that despite their differences, the New Haven and Soviet schools share a common approach: both are instrumental theories of law, aimed at guiding and informing practice. It also considers hegemonic theory, which views international law through the prism of a variant of United States constitutional theory that is rooted in a conservative, if not libertarian, democratic doctrine.

24. International Criminal Law

This chapter examines the material and mental aspects of four offences that are directly criminalized by international law: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression. The discussions also cover some of the general principles of liability and defences that are of particular relevance to international crimes. Firstly, joint criminal enterprise, co-perpetration, command responsibility, and the defence of obedience to superior orders are considered. The chapter then looks at international and national prosecution of international crimes, including the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, the International Criminal Tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court. As prosecution is not the only, or predominant, response to international crimes, the chapter concludes with a discussion of alternatives and complements to prosecution, such as amnesties, and truth and reconciliation commissions.

18. The Means of Dispute Settlement

This chapter discusses the various methods available for the peaceful settlement of international disputes. These include diplomatic methods (negotiation, mediation, inquiry, and conciliation), and legal methods (arbitration, the International Court of Justice, other courts and tribunals, and the place of legal methods). The role of the United Nations and regional organizations is also considered. Discussion covers the role of international law and its place in international relations, and dispute settlement generally. The text is illustrated with analysis of current and past disputes in which the various methods have been used—either successfully or unsuccessfully. The historical record shows first, that over the last two hundred years huge progress has been made in developing and refining the methods for handling international disputes, and secondly, that despite, or perhaps because of, differences between the various methods, their interaction and use in combination are often important factors in determining their effectiveness in practice.

16. The Responsibility to Protect

This chapter discusses the responsibility to protect, which has become the primary conceptual framework within which to consider international intervention to prevent crimes against humanity; it provides the background to the new doctrine’s appearance with a survey of the existing law and practice with respect to humanitarian intervention. It traces the doctrine’s intellectual and political development both before and after the adoption of the World Summit resolutions that embodied it. Debate about the doctrine has been characterized by significant differences of opinion and interpretation between nations of the North and the South. In that context, the chapter concludes with a detailed consideration of the contemporary standing of the doctrine in international law.