America’s Exceptionalist Tradition: From the Law of Nations to the International Criminal Court

How might we explain the reticence that the United States has towards the International Criminal Court, especially when one considers that the Rome Statute, the Court’s governing treaty, contains many of the legal protections afforded under the US legal system? This article will argue that the US’ relationship with the ICC is part of a longer pattern of US behaviour that can be best explained through the lens of exceptionalism. In making this argument, the article has two interrelated objectives: first, to provide an historical overview of how the US has behaved vis-à-vis treaty-based international legal institutions designed to moderate warfare; and second, to provide a critique of arguments that present the United States’ relationship with said legal institutions as nothing more than an expression of narrowly informed national interests.     

Humanitarian Emergencies and the International Criminal Court (ICC): Toward a Cooperative Arrangement between the ICC and UN Security Council

Erratum . International Studies Perspectives 6:4, 431-466
This article analyzes the role of humanitarian intervention in bringing together the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Security Council. It argues that a framework for cooperation between the ICC and Security Council is needed to facilitate a coordinated response to humanitarian emergencies. One of the concepts explored is a mutual legitimacy push, or how the ICC and Security Council can lend effective assistance to one another when responding to humanitarian emergencies. Such a push will not only serve to enhance a response to humanitarian disasters but also close the "critical gap" between the moral legitimacy of international humanitarian action and the legality of the UN Charter. The article concludes that a cooperative relationship will not politicize the ICC, and that the ICC and the Security Council, can, through institutional re-engineering, achieve mutual political benefits.     

Reaching Inside the State: International Law and Superior Liability

With the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), the international community has taken the most decisive steps yet to reach inside the state to protect individuals from and prosecute individuals for violations of international humanitarian law. After outlining the key developments in international law on this subject, I turn to the heart of the paper—an analysis of how these developments in international law should affect theory and research in international relations and comparative politics. To what extent should we expect that the international community would hold individuals accountable? Will individual leaders comply with international law? Most importantly, what factors will influence the level of enforcement of and compliance with international law? I conclude with suggestions as to how research on international law on individual liability should advance.     

The Deterrent Effects of the International Criminal Court: Evidence from Libya

ABSTRACT

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was designed to try the worst war criminals for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other instances of mass human suffering. By providing a permanent, international mechanism to hold perpetrators of mass human rights abuse accountable, the ICC is also meant to be a deterrent—to prevent potential genocidaires from committing systematic human rights abuses in the first place. But what if the effect is actually quite the opposite? While advocates of international justice have made conjectures about the effect of the ICC on stopping human rights abuses, the existing scholarship does not empirically test assumptions about the relationship between international criminal justice and violence. This article outlines the causal mechanisms by which the ICC could affect ongoing violence and tests these assumptions using event count models of the relationship between the ICC and the level of violence against civilians in Libya during the 2011 crisis. These analyses suggest that the ICC’s involvement in conflict does have a dampening effect on the level of mass atrocities committed. The results also call for a broad and sustained research agenda on the effect of international accountability efforts on ongoing violence.     

Victim participation at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: are retributive and restorative principles enhancing the prospect for justice?

This article assesses the utility of victim participation in the trials before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, in fostering reconciliation and realizing restorative justice. Specifically, it investigates the parameters of a legal mechanism designed to give ‘victims of atrocity’ a voice, whilst striking a vital balance between rights of victims and rights of defendants to a fair trial. Where participation affords victims the opportunity to present their views and observations, thereby enhancing prospects for retributive and restorative justice, this article submits that participation affords the international community an historic opportunity to meet Rome Statute objectives to ‘not only to bring criminals to justice but also to help the victims themselves obtain justice’ (See Victims Witness Section at the ICC Victims Witness Section at the ICC, < http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Victims>  [Google Scholar], < www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC/Structure+of+the+Court/Victims>). Indeed while concrete benefits of participation remain to be seen, victim participation in the ECCC's case offers promise for breaking new ground, setting international standards and establishing precedence for other ad hoc and hybrid tribunals as well as the permanent International Criminal Court.     

The United States and the ICC: the force and farce of the legal arguments

The article outlines US dissatisfaction with the International Criminal Court (ICC), before assessing the strengths and weaknesses of US objections from the point of view of international law. It concludes that most of the concerns expressed by the United States are either overstated or legally flawed but that there is good reason to object to the abrogation, for the purposes of trial before the ICC, of the immunities conferred by international law on at least certain US personnel.     

欧盟法对意大利行政法的影响

一、欧盟法体系中的意大利行政法欧洲共同体法是在早期关于建立欧洲煤钢共同体、欧洲经济共同体和欧洲原子能共同体的《巴黎条约》和《罗马条约》以及后期关于建立欧洲联盟的《马斯特里赫条约》等国际条约的基础上 ,逐步发展起来的适用于欧洲联盟成员国的一种特殊类型的法律制度 ,是关于欧洲联盟机构设置、职能及其经济货币联盟与政治联盟的条约、条例、指令、决定和判例等法律规范的总称①。欧盟法是欧洲一体化进程的产物 ,其建立在最高权威(primacy)原则 ②和直接效力原则(directeffect)③的“双支柱基础上的法律制度” ④,是欧洲法律一体…     

Surveillance and International Terrorism Intelligence Exchange: Balancing the Interests of National Security and Individual Liberty

Using the revelations Edward Snowden passed over to the press regarding the actions of the U.S.’s National Security Agency and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters and their use of the Prism project, this article examines the law surrounding intelligence gathering in the U.S. and UK. Underpinning the analysis is the legal principle of proportionality as applied to balancing the interests of national security and individual liberties. After examining intelligence exchange procedures, which for the UK is through negotiated agreements between national security agencies and through the European Union’s policing agency, Europol, the main part of the article discusses legal challenges that have been made regarding surveillance and the use of anti-terror laws on citizens and the rationale behind the judicial decisions made in both the U.S. and UK jurisdictions. The argument forwarded is that there is a requirement for wide preventative powers being granted to counter-terrorism agencies and that the interests of national security and individual liberty are inclusive and, as shown by the cases covered in this article, we should rely on the judiciary to perform their function in applying proportionality to each case on its own merits.     

Security and Freedom on the Fulcrum

ABSTRACT

Counterterrorist arguments that justify the erosion of individual rights frequently depend on the claim a balance can—and should—be struck between security and freedom. But this analogy, under both consequentialist and rights-based analysis, is at best misleading and at worst structurally wrong. Calculations from utility resting on the immediate dangers posed by terrorism do not give appropriate weight to (a) the long-term effects of inroads into individual rights, (such as individual harm, blocked political, social, and legal mechanisms), and (b) precedent-setting in a tightly-interwoven structure of individual rights and state power. Constitutive rules further delimit the types of measures that can be introduced, regardless of the “tradeoffs” considered in balancing security and freedom. In the rights-based realm, arguments related to expanded state powers, distributive justice, and practical effect undermine the analogy.     

古巴的社会保障制度:发展、挑战与改革

古巴社会保障制度经历了不断发展、充实、扩大和完善的历程.由国家主导的社保制度有许多独特性,制度统一,保障全面,作用特殊,以充分就业为基石.社会保障是古巴社会主义制度的重要组成部分,具有维护政治和社会稳定的作用.在新的历史条件下,古巴社保制度面临许多困难,国家已没有能力继续大包大揽.2008年12月古巴全国人大通过新社会保障法,对社保制度进行改革,建立劳动者缴费的制度,完善社会救助体系.古巴传统的社保模式将发生变化,但社保制度统一,以及全民保障和全面保障的特征没有改变.     

What's in a Name? The Nature of the Individual in Refugee Studies

The category of refugee has been problematic for both practitionersand social scientists because it is difficult to define an objectivecategory that satisfactorily brings the real world, ethics,and theory into harmony. In recent years many critiques havebeen made of the assumptions built into the legal refugee frameworkand efforts have been made to refine the concept from multipledisciplinary perspectives. This paper examines several underlyingassumptions of these discussions, including the category offorced migration, through a discussion of the example of Salvadoransin the United States in the 1980s. One assumption has been notedbut insufficiently theorized: the centrality of the individual.The person assumed by both the refugee and human rights regimesof the United Nations is a culturally-specific construct definingthe relationship between the individual and society in a waythat precludes an adequate understanding of refugees.     

Mediation and Culture: The Example of the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition

The International Commercial Mediation Competition is organized by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, which held the event for the eighth time in February 2013. As the competition has grown, participation has become more and more diverse and thus mediation and negotiation have become more and more cross‐cultural. This led the ICC to invite external research on culture at the competition in February 2011. In this article, I discuss this student competition, the external research project question, and the culture of the competition. I also identify some of the further cultural issues raised by referring to relevant research on conflict and mediation across cultures, and conclude with some thoughts on how better to conceptualize the field of cross‐cultural mediation in terms of a systems approach.     

Hitting the right target: EU and Security Council pursuit of terrorist financing

This article analyses one specific instance of the use of targeted sanctions to combat the financing of terrorism by the European Union on behalf of the United Nations Security Council. The case raised a number of issues involving the use of sanctions against non-state actors and provoked a legal challenge at the European Court of Justice. These European court cases have been portrayed as a challenge to the use of targeted sanctions by the Security Council to maintain international peace and security. The fundamental critique here is that targeted sanctions must adhere to due process and the rule of law in order to protect individual human rights.     

论GMS生物安全保护中的国际合作法律机制——兼论中国生物安全法律制度的完善

GMS生物安全保护合作法律机制既有世界性的,又包括区域性的法律渊源,基本内容包含了信息交流法律机制、生态补偿法律机制、能力建设法律机制、利益共享法律机制等方面。中国应出台国家层次的生物安全法律规范,制定专项性的生物安全法律规范,实现GMS国际间生物安全法律机制的成功对接。     

新加坡国际航运中心法律服务体系研究

航运中心法律服务体系是以港口、航运立法为基础,涵盖贸易、金融、保险、旅游、环境等法律体系,拥有行政执法、海事仲裁、司法诉讼、海事法律人才培养、海事法律咨询服务等法律软环境与之配套的一个规模庞大、综合性极强的系统工程。本文通过对新加坡国际航运中心法律服务体系成功经验的介绍,以期为建立和发展广西泛北部湾(泛北)区域国际航运中心法律服务体系提供法律方面的启示。     

Working with street children

In September 1990 we became involved with the Centre for the Defence of the Child (CDM) in Brazil, hoping to participate in a survey of the lives of street children that was being conducted by the group. The CDM, a branch of its parent organisation The Young Street Vendors' Association, takes on individual cases of street children, providing crisis management with social, psychological, and legal support. It was decided to start a project of regularly taking a team of staff on to the streets and into the areas where the street children were, with the aim of providing a programme of support and self-esteem building, principally for the street girls. This project proved a success with the street children and remains so following our departure from Brazil.     

简论经济全球化对世界法制发展的影响及中国的对策

目前,经济全球化已成为当今世界不可否认的客观现实和发展潮流。经济全球化对世界各国的经济、政治、法律、文化都产生了深刻的影响,我国作为一个在世界上有重要影响的大国当然也不例外。随着我国的入世,我国与世界的联系更加密切,经济全球化对我国的影响问题必须引起我们的高度重视。本文试图通过研究经济全球化与世界法制发展的关系,揭示世界法制发展的总体趋势,提出全球化时代中国法制的应对策略,希望能对我国的法制建设有所裨益。一、经济全球化的历史进程与世界法制发展按照目前多数学者的观点,经济全球化是指生产、贸易、投资、金融等…     

Does participation in international organizations increase cooperation?

Recent research asserts that public commitments to international institutions promote behavior that is consistent with institutional purposes. Evidence for this proposition is based almost entirely on studies that compare the behavior of states that have and have not ratified treaties. This paper evaluates instances in which some member states temporarily experience increased entanglement with an IO because they or their nationals serve in a position of authority. Unlike selection into IOs, selection into positions of authority is often governed by a common, observable, and partially exogenous process. I exploit exogenous exit, random assignment to different term lengths, and competitive elections in three contexts: the International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), and the UN Security Council (UNSC). The evidence implicates that acquiring a position of authority can make states more willing to reject U.S. advances to sign non-surrender agreements, adopt domestic legislation that changes the penal code (ICC case), ratify legally binding treaties (UNHRC case), and contribute to peacekeeping missions (UNSC case). On the other hand, there is no evidence that UN institutions successfully select more cooperative states for positions of authority. Similar research designs can gainfully be employed to identify the causal effects of other forms of institutional participation.     

Frontier Justice: Legal Aid and UNHCR Refugee Status Determination in Egypt

Where UNHCR conducts refugee status determination (RSD), itsreactions to legal aid for asylum-seekers have been mixed. Statisticalevidence collected from Egypt in 2002 indicates a correlationbetween receiving some form of legal aid service and an asylum-seeker'sincreased chances of gaining refugee protection from UNHCR.Unconventional forms of legal aid, including limited servicesby supervised non-lawyers (including volunteers from the refugeecommunity) showed a positive impact on first instance cases,while traditional legal aid models showed an impact at the appealstage. Legal aid should form an essential part of UNHCR's RSDprocedures, and NGOs should work to expand both traditionaland innovative forms of legal aid for asylum-seekers.