Is Israel’s policy of targeted killing synonymous with assassination? Can it be legally or morally justified?
Israel is often criticized for its policy of targeted killing, which has escalated following the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian communications of October 2000. Although Israel defends this policy, claiming that it can be both legally and morally justified, it has failed to provide an adequate definition.
United Nations Peacekeeping and the Question of Reform
Since the first peacekeeping operation was deployed some sixty years ago, peacekeeping has developed to become one of the most important areas of UN responsibility. The rapid growth of UN peacekeeping has meant that this development has often happened in an ad hoc and relatively unguided manner. As a result mistakes and failures have occurred.
Is it futile to attempt to prevent torture using international law?
Although breaches to the torture ban could suggest the uselessness of international human rights law when national interests and politics are involved, it has an undeniable role in the development of legal condemnation against torture
Protecting Civilians in Conflict: Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
The principle of distinction and discrimination of combatants and non-combatants is the cornerstone of international humanitarian law. Humanitarian and human rights law build on two very distinct perspectives of protection of civilians during armed conflicts; and therefore, present two independent legal regimes, which were not necessarily designed to coexist.
Conquering Nature: the implications of assigning monetary values to global commons
The atmosphere, forests and other forms of ‘natural capital’ come under the concept of the commons and increasingly these are being ‘managed’, through enclosure, carbon markets and other economic methods. This stance is, in many ways, at fault for the ecological issues faced today.
“Hopenhagen” to “Nopenhagen”? The Role of Public Expectation at the Copenhagen Summit.
It can be said that the expectations at COP15 were not so high that they were unattainable. However, domestic pressures in key countries, procedural difficulties, insufficient pre-cooking and the “ClimateGate” scandal certainly played a role in why a comprehensive agreement was not reached.
The 21st Century Challenges to Article 51
A narrow application of Article 51 would allow keeping control on unilateral use of force, at least given the awareness by states of the political costs of unlawful actions. Widening the scope of self-defence could bring the erosion of the basic purpose of the UN Charter regime, i.e. the ban of military force in inter-state relations and the promotion of peace.
The UN during the Cold War: “A tool of superpower influence stymied by superpower conflict”?
Rather than acting as a collective security system, the UN Security Council mostly remained divided throughout the Cold War and efficient UN action was often hindered by superpower conflict. Yet, undoubtedly the Cold War world was better off with the UN than without it.
Internationalized Sovereignty: Erosion or Extension?
The Kosovo intervention was the first in history to be justified solely on the basis of human rights breaches by a sovereign state within its territory, which were judged to present threat to international order. The bottom line remains that Belgrade’s sovereignty over Kosovo was first breached and then completely removed by the international community.
Wolfgang Friedmann and the Major Developments in International Law: 1945-1964
In the “Changing Structure of International Law” Friedmann begins by considering the main changes that have taken place in international law: its vertical extension to new fields such as economic collaboration and welfare, its horizontal expansion to take in all the civilizations and cultures of the world as well as the influence of various ideologies.
