Seventy Years of the International Law Commission


Book Description

Seventy Years of the International Law Commission: Drawing a Balance for the Future brings together voices from academia and practice to celebrate and critically evaluate the work of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC) over the past seventy years. The edited volume draws on the events commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the Commission, which took place in New York and Geneva in May and July 2018. At a time when multilateral law-making has become increasingly challenging, the edited volume appraises the role of one the most important driving forces behind the codification of international law and discusses the ILC’s future contribution to the development of international law.







Law Reforms around the World


Book Description

Encapsulating Law Reform requires the creation of a discreet space occupied with normative self-generation, self-correction, and self-adaptation in the very anatomy of law and the architecture of legal systems. This ‘living dynamic trait’ should be a hallmark of the genetic material in the modern-day institution of law. This edited volume sheds light on Law Reform in its domestic, comparative, regional, and international settings. It examines the process of Law Reform and explains the need for a constant appraisal to keep its wheels optimally operational. The book takes a holistic approach to understanding Law Reform and calls for such an approach in the very process of Law Reform. It begins by looking at Law Reform processes from a theoretical perspective. Thereafter, it sheds light on domestic Law Reform processes in civil and common law legal systems. This is followed by a focus on Law Reform at the international level with a critical appraisal of the International Law Commission (ILC), drawing on its performance in international economic and environmental law. Included in this consideration is also the role played in Law Reform by the IMF, World Trade Organization/World Intellectual Property Organization, Multilateral Development Banks, and the African Union Commission on International Law. This volume should appeal to students, serious scholars, policy makers, judges, and the community of national and international lawyers interested in bringing effective reform in the national and international arenas.







The Evolution of International Criminal Procedure


Book Description

This book examines the evolution of international criminal procedure from the 1945–1946 Nuremberg and Tokyo trials to the present period. It is largely based on a normative-jurisprudential approach to the procedural rules, comparing both norms and case law of the relevant courts and tribunals. The book shows the possibility of classifying “international criminal procedure” as an autonomous concept and field of study, which is constantly evolving due to the interaction of different legal cultures that characterizes this subject matter and is derived from the varied procedures as established in both statutory law and jurisprudence. Far from being an autonomous entity, international criminal procedure now represents a great compromise between the legal traditions of different ICC member States. What emerges is the historical evolution of an international criminal procedure with a unique identity, a very real “third way” between the traditional dichotomy of common law and civil law, between the Anglo-Saxon and the European Roman Law-oriented legal traditions. The book will be of interest to academics, scholars, and researchers working in the areas of international criminal law, comparative law, criminal procedure, and legal history, as well as judges and international legal professionals.




Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes


Book Description

In this book, the author outlines three independent bases for the existence of legal limits to the veto by UN Security Council permanent members while atrocity crimes are occurring. The provisions of the UN Charter creating the veto cannot override the UN's 'Purposes and Principles', nor jus cogens (peremptory norms of international law). There are also positive obligations imposed by the Geneva and Genocide Conventions in situations of war crimes and genocide - conventions to which all permanent members are parties. The author demonstrates how vetoes and veto threats have blocked the Security Council from pursuing measures that could have prevented or alleviated atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes) in places such as Myanmar, Darfur, Syria, and elsewhere. As the practice continues despite regular condemnation by other UN member states and repeated voluntary veto restraint initiatives, the book explores how the legality of this practice could be challenged.




Gender Equality in the Mirror


Book Description

The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. By taking an innovative perspective, Gender Equality in the Mirror aims to advance the debate on gender equalities and to engage with the complexities of their practical implications in everyday life. Through the voice of women who are contributing with their life and work to the pursuit of the collective task of inclusion, the volume develops an original analysis of the socio-economic and political dimension of gender parity to frame implementing pathways of aspirational human rights principles. Gender Equality in the Mirror explores these dimensions with the ultimate aim of raising broad awareness of the need to invest in women’s empowerment for the construction of our society.




The International Law Commission


Book Description




Responsibility of International Organizations


Book Description

In December 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the International Law Commission's articles on the responsibility of international organizations, bringing to conclusion not only nearly ten years of reflection by the Commission, governments and organizations on this specific topic, but also decades of study of the wider subject of international responsibility, which had initially focused on State responsibility. Parallel to this reflection by the Commission, diplomats and public officials, the body of international case-law and literature on the many facets of the topic has steadily been growing. Responsibility of International Organizations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie contributes to the body of international literature by collecting a broad spectrum of different and sometimes differing perspectives from well-known experts in the field, ranging from the bench to the Commission, academia, and the world of in-house counsel. The book is also a memorial to the renowned Sir Ian Brownlie, himself a former Chairman of the International Law Commission who, as a leading scholar and practitioner, greatly contributed to the reflection on international responsibility, including the responsibility of international organizations. Edited by Maurizio Ragazzi, a former pupil of Sir Ian, the book is an ideal companion to International Responsibility Today, a collection of essays on international responsibility which the same editor presented in 2005 in memory of Oscar Schachter, and to which Sir Ian Brownlie had contributed. The essays collected in Responsibility of International Organizations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie, conveniently grouped by the editor under broad areas for the reader's benefit, will be relevant not only to all those interested in this specific subject but also, more generally, to all those engaged in the field of international law and the law of international organizations.




Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence


Book Description

This Commentary provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention). It offers a complete article-by-article guide to the Convention with reference to the explanatory report, the findings of the monitoring body (GREVIO) and relevant State practice.