Academic literature on the topic 'International law and relations. Necessity (International law)'

Exigent circumstances can extinguish or suspend a wide range of legal obligations. They may empower governments to seize property or quarantine individuals. They may excuse the nonperformance of private or public contractual obligations. And, of especial interest here, they may permit governments to deviate from their obligations under treaties or customary international law (CIL).

AbstractWith the gradual emergence of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), there arises a necessity to examine its utility as an academic endeavour, particularly within the context of international human rights law. Questions need to be asked as to what benefits – if any – the adoption of TWAIL (either as a method of inquiry or as a subject of inquiry) offers researchers in the field of human rights law. In the same vein, the time is also ripe for scholars to engage with the important question of whether there are some shortcomings that TWAIL needs to address in order for it to be of more benefit to the human rights discourse.

AbstractHumanitarian actors sometimes have to decide whether to render assistance in situations that put them at risk of liability for aiding and abetting under international criminal law. This is the problem of the virtuous accomplice—the idea that knowingly contributing to the wrongdoing of others might, exceptionally, be the right thing to do. This article explains why the problem arises and clarifies its scope, before turning to criminal law in England and Wales and Germany to assess potential solutions. It argues that the best approach is to accept a defence of necessity—of justified complicity—and shows that such an argument works in international criminal law.

The article is devoted to the examination of the formation of new vectors for international relations development within the global format of cooperation. The establishment and unification of BRICS in the international legal sphere through a wide range of common interests and views of its members towards issues facing the modern world reflect objective tendencies of world development to the formation of amultipolar international relations system and determination of particular large country actors of broad integration and having many dimensions. The authors reveal particular characteristics of the international-legal status of BRICS, which make it possible to have an effective impact on challenges facing the modern world. The legal BRICS status differs crucially from traditional legal approaches to international organizations. Acting as a special subject of world politics, creating more trusted interaction conditions, BRICS focuses its attention on the alternative world order principles within the new model of global relations. Such a format of multilateral cooperation, as well as more trusted and additional mechanisms of international interaction, gives the members an opportunity to demonstrate their geopolitical and geoeconomic world significance, and in addition their demanded humanitarian role, which, as the analysis of the mentioned actor demonstrates, is aimed at forming its own interaction model. The logic of the BRICS agenda extension to the level of an important global management system element demonstrates the goal in the field of action and, accordingly, intensive progress of humanitarian imperatives. For these humanitarian imperatives, the issues of international peacekeeping, security, protection, encouraging human rights and providing stable development are an objective necessity, especially for active demonstration of the members’ viewpoints on the international scene. For understanding the process of the alignment of international security humanitarian imperatives it is necessary to study the existing objective needs in conjunction with each country, member of BRICS.

AbstractThe traditional distinction between military and law enforcement operations is increasingly difficult to uphold. This gives rise to a number of difficult and complicated challenges in regard to the handling of detainees. Legal ambiguity may lead to operational uncertainty, which may hamper the efficiency of a given United Nations (UN)-mandated international military operation. It is in the interest of no one, not least the detained individual. The author argues that the Copenhagen Process on the Handling of Detainees in UN-mandated international military operations is a necessity to ensure the full protection of any individual detained during an UN-mandated international military operation and thereby ensuring the efficiency of the efforts of the international community to bring stability and peace to States and regions in dire need. On the key legal question concerning the relationship between international humanitarian law and human rights law, it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of the relevant provisions of both bodies of international law in context. When this is done, most of the claimedincongruities between the two bodies of law disappear – and thereby also the basis for the sometime heateddiscussions between the advocates of one or the other body of law.

In reassessing the evolution of the post-1945 human rights movement, the paper identifies three “waves” or genres of human rights, generally representing the divisions between the Western and non-Western nations on the subject. A number of serious problems are raised, such as “double standards” maintained by some countries concerning human rights. This is followed by an evaluation of the possible clash between two perspectives: (a) the Third World's advocacy of such collective economic rights as a developing nation's right to sustained development (with its attendant demand that the West has to pay for its past colonization); and (b) the West's obstinancy regarding the individuals' rights to be asserted against their governments. In the age of intensified complex interdependence, a growing feature is the interpenetration of the economies of nations. That by necessity makes the migrant workers an “interface” between rich and poor economies. As economic interdependence deepens, both labor-importing and labor-sending countries have common stakes in the protection of the migrant workers.

The paper questions the extraterritorial nature of foreign private law applied by the national law enforcement body in the regulation of cross-border private law relations. In view of the use of common terms “exterritorial” and “extraterritorial” in the framework of international public and private law regulation, it seems necessary to study the extraterritorial effect of foreign private law provisions through the prism of the substantive characteristics of extraterritoriality, formulated in the context of public international law. To this end, the author refers to the definition of extraterritorial jurisdiction as an international legal category and raises the question of how appropriate it is to admit, within the framework of a single definition, “extraterritorial” both the presence and absence of the manifestation of the sovereign will of the state on the territory of which any of the types of jurisdiction of a foreign state is exercised. Taking into account that the manifestation of the extraterritorial jurisdiction of one state in relation to another is realized in the absence of the latter’s sanction for its implementation, the author debates the admissibility of designation as extraterritorial foreign private law, the admissibility and limits of application of which are sanctioned by the national state.

AbstractThis article examines the initially cooperative but increasingly tense relationship between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Africa. It assesses the various legal and political reasons for the mounting criticisms of the ICC by African governments, especially within the African Union (AU), following the indictment of incumbent Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir. The author situates the ICC within broader African efforts to establish more peaceful societies through the continent-wide AU. He submits that the ICC, by prosecuting architects of serious international crimes in Africa's numerous conflicts, could contribute significantly to the continent's fledgling peace and security architecture which aims to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts and to anticipate and avert crimes against humanity. On the other hand, the author suggests that the ICC also has much to gain from Africa, especially in these early years when it is seeking to become a functional court of law with global legitimacy. By undertaking independent, fair and credible prosecutions without alienating States Parties, the world criminal court is more likely to fulfill its mandate and to win over powerful hold outs, such as the United States, China, and India. This will help it co-opt the support necessary for its universal reach and future success. However, he cautions that given Africa's sensitive historical experience with foreign interventions, including the slave trade and colonialism, the international criminal justice regime anchored on the ICC may be undermined, or perhaps even falter, if it is perceived as having a biased, politicized or insensitive application to a single region of the world.

Preemption comes in many forms and what we think of it depends on the circumstances. One state may not strike another merely because the second might someday develop an ability and desire to attack it. Yet few would criticize a strike in the midst of an ongoing war against a second state’s program to develop new types of weapons. Between these two examples lie countless fact patterns.In the end, each use offeree must find legitimacy in the facts and circumstances that the state believes have made it necessary. Each should be judged not on abstract concepts, but on the particular events that gave rise to it. While nations must not use preemption as a pretext for aggression, to be for or against preemption in the abstract is a mistake. The use of force preemptively is sometimes lawful and sometimes not.