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  • Series: Melland Schill Studies in International Law x
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This book quantifies international organizations’ affiliation with particular values in their constitutions, like cooperation, peace and equality. The statistical and legal analyses tease out from the data the actual values contained in international organizations’ constitutions and their relationship with one another. Values like cooperation, representation and communication often appear together in international organizations’ constitutions. However, divide these organizations into groups – like regional versus universal organizations – and a kaleidoscope of different patterns in these values emerges. In the kaleidoscope, the reader clearly can see distinct groupings of organizations and values. With data pointing the way, many new – and seemingly contradictory – interpretations of international organizations law emerge. Not only does this book provide a map of international organizations’ values, it provides a healthy start towards fully understanding that map, thereby helping global governance take a quantum leap forward.

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The book explores the relationship between violence against women on one hand, and the rights to health and reproductive health on the other. It argues that violation of the right to health is a consequence of violence, and that (state) health policies might be a cause of – or create the conditions for – violence against women. It significantly contributes to feminist and international human rights legal scholarship by conceptualising a new ground-breaking idea, violence against women’s health (VAWH), using the Hippocratic paradigm as the backbone of the analysis. The two dimensions of violence at the core of the book – the horizontal, ‘interpersonal’ dimension and the vertical ‘state policies’ dimension – are investigated through around 70 decisions of domestic, regional and international judicial or quasi-judicial bodies (the anamnesis). The concept of VAWH, drawn from the anamnesis, enriches the traditional concept of violence against women with a human rights-based approach to autonomy and a reflection on the pervasiveness of patterns of discrimination (diagnosis). VAWH as theorised in the book allows the reconceptualisation of states’ obligations in an innovative way, by identifying for both dimensions obligations of result, due diligence obligations, and obligations to progressively take steps (treatment). The book eventually asks whether it is not international law itself that is the ultimate cause of VAWH (prognosis).

Silence speaks
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While espionage among nations is a long-standing practice, the emergence of the internet has challenged the traditional legal framework and has resulted in the intensification of intelligence activities. In fact, espionage was subject to indirect regulation, which applied where a spy was (often at their own risk) trespassing on foreign territory or sent behind enemy lines. With the emergence of cyber-espionage, however, agents may collect intelligence from within their own jurisdictions, with a great deal of secrecy and less risk. This monograph argues that – save for some exceptions – this activity has been subject to normative avoidance. It means that it is neither prohibited – as spying does not result in an internationally wrongful act – nor authorised, permitted or subject to a right – as States are free to prevent and fight foreign cyber-espionage activities. However, States are aware of such status of law, and are not interested in any further regulation. This situation did not emerge by happenstance but rather via the purposeful silence of States – leaving them free to pursue cyber-espionage themselves at the same time as they adopt measures to prevent falling victim to it. To proceed, this monograph resorts to a first-class sample of State practice and analyses several rules and treaties: territorial sovereignty, collective security and international humanitarian law (i.e. the rules applicable between belligerent and neutral Powers, as well as between belligerents themselves), the law of diplomatic relations, human rights law, international law and European economic law. It also demonstrates that no specific customary law has emerged in the field.

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This book provides a critical exposition of the international law concerning child soldiers. It starts by looking at the situation of child soldiers in the world today, examining why children are recruited into armed forces and groups; why they volunteer for military service; and, once recruited, what treatment they receive. The book explores how perceptions of childhood and children's rights have changed, and how this has affected the ways in which child soldiers have been treated. It describes the activities of the United Nations with regard to the child soldier phenomenon. The book examines the legal regulation of the recruitment and use of children in hostilities. It shows that although international law comprehensively regulates the recruitment and use of child soldiers, owing to the plethora of treaties on the subject, states' obligations continue to differ and children can still lawfully be recruited and used to participate in armed conflict. The book discusses how, once recruited into armed forces and groups, international law treats child soldiers. It considers the status of child soldiers as combatants and as persons in the power of an adverse party in both international and internal armed conflicts, and states' obligations with regard the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of child soldiers. An unusual feature of how child soldiers are viewed is that they are often seen as both victims of human rights abuses and as human rights violators. Finally, the book examines the extent to which the recruitment and use of child soldiers is an international crime.

A study of the European Convention on Human Rights, Fourth edition

This book provides an expanded and up-to-date account of the European Convention on Human Rights and the evolution of its system of human rights protection. It explains the scope of the rights and freedoms which are guaranteed, then reviews the institutional arrangements, first as they functioned until November 1998, and now under Protocol No. 11. To put the Strasbourg system in perspective, the book begins with a short historical overview of the Convention and its progressive elaboration and describes the new European Court of Human Rights. It also mentions other arrangements which now exist for promoting and protecting human rights in Europe. The Council of Europe was set up as a peaceful association of democratic States which proclaimed their faith in the rule of law and 'their devotion to the spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of their peoples'. The 'Congress of Europe', convened by the International Committee of Movements for European Unity, was held at The Hague in May 1948. Articles 14-18 of the Convention relate to the scope and exercise of the rights guaranteed. They are therefore not intended to secure additional rights, but rather to ensure the effective exercise of the rights set out in the earlier provisions, or in certain situations to permit their limitation. Article 14 establishes the principle of non-discriminatory application, Article 15 allows for the exercise of emergency powers, and Article 17 is intended to prevent abuse of the Convention's freedoms.

Implementing international trade norms
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This book provides a basic guide to the new World Trade Organization (WTO) code of conduct, and then focuses on the problems and issues arising in relation to its implementation. It considers the institutional aspects of the WTO along with an explanation of the substantive provisions of the WTO code. The establishment of the WTO places the international trading system on a firm constitutional footing. The Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO sets out the purposes and objectives of the WTO and its institutional framework. The primary purposes of the WTO are twofold: to ensure the reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade, and the elimination of discriminatory treatment in international trade relations. The book presents an examination of the GATT 1994, and the various agreements arising from the Uruguay Round Of Multilateral Trade Negotiations. It consists of a general examination of the various techniques employed in order to ensure the implementation of the WTO code. The book presents the theory of the techniques of implementation and explores the various elements of the implementation techniques employed in the WTO code, other than the Trade Policy Review and Dispute Settlement Mechanisms. It focuses on dispute settlement which is an important technique of implementation and comprises an examination of the Trade Policy Review Mechanism. The book focuses on preconditions in the framework of implementation and on the issues and problems of implementation in so far as they relate to developing countries and trade 'blocs'.

A general history
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This book describes the general forces which have shaped the law over the centuries, beginning in the Middle Ages and continuing to the present day. The law of neutrality is the law regulating the coexistence of war and peace. Its history is the story of the competition between opposing right, those of belligerents against those of neutrals. Belligerents claim a right to take whatever steps are necessary to bring their foes to heel including, when necessary, interrupting their trade with neutral persons. Neutrals claim a right to carry on doing 'business as usual' with the warring sides, with whom they are at peace. The most striking feature of the treaty network of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was its liberality towards neutrals. The single most important sign of lenient treatment of neutral commerce concerned the carriage of enemy property at sea. The eighteenth century was particularly rich in armed-neutrality initiatives. France was frequently their sponsor, with varying degrees of overtness, even though it was belligerent itself. The Convention on Neutrality in Naval War was more complex than its land-warfare counterpart. It combined a number of prohibitions upon belligerents with affirmative policing duties on neutrals. Neutrality considerations featured in several of the other Hague Conventions as well. The code-of-conduct advocates naturally favoured continuing the pre-war programme of codifying the law of neutrality, to bring it up to date in the light of the harsh experiences of the recent conflict.

Towards international disciplines
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This book examines some of the challenges which globalisation throws up for the international community from a legal perspective. It focuses on two aspects of the treatment of foreign investment by states: the general rules concerning access, operation and expropriation of foreign investment and the lex specialis of international taxation. The book describes the implications for developing states which have in the past resisted the international law rules relating to expropriation of foreign investment and sought instead the development of a new international economic order including inter alia the establishment of binding rules addressing the behaviour of transnational corporations. It traces the development of new legal concepts and techniques in different contexts and locations: in bilateral relations, in multilateral conventions and negotiations and in regional economic integration systems. The wide scope of the Uruguay Round and the linking of the separate agreements in the WTO 'package' serve to illustrate how the battle between old and new ideological strands can be played out simultaneously in different ways in different locations and with different results; it serves to highlight how ideology drives the transfer and leakage of legal concepts and principles from one field to another. Many developing states have signed up to the WTO Agreements and have embraced the free trade orthodoxy in other areas. But recent and future developments in relation to the treatment and taxation of foreign investment will constitute in some areas an assault on long-held ideological constructs hitherto shielded from or accommodated within other free trade developments.

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This book examines the historical evolution of international humanitarian law, in particular the legal and political bases for the penalisation of infractions associated with this body of law. The interaction of law, politics and financial considerations have proved detrimental for staging criminal prosecutions, even to this day, but ultimately have not negated the criminal liability of perpetrators. The book explores the various forms of direct participation in humanitarian law offences and the concept of the doctrine of superior responsibility. It stipulates the liability of those persons who, being in a position of authority, fail to prevent or punish crimes committed by their subordinates. The book deals with the elaboration of a legal theoretical model, defined as the 'duty to control', which attempts to address the gap identified in the relevant law of causation. It traces the evolution of humanitarian law in the context of non-international armed conflicts, with the aim of determining the application of humanitarian and criminal norms therein. Although for the purposes of humanitarian law the distinction between non-international and international conflicts is becoming less significant, people must still be aware of the mechanism known as 'conflict classification'. The world's major powers, with the exception of the UK, have expressly or implicitly widened their judicial jurisdiction by penalising extraterritorial breaches committed in internal armed conflicts. The book focuses on the legislative and judicial efforts of developed nations, mainly from Europe and North America. For these countries, the suppression of extraterritorial crime is not of imminent importance.

The humanitarian dimension

This book presents the case of humanitarian intervention within a discursive theory of international law. It identifies and examines the philosophical and legal concepts which inform the case of humanitarian intervention and scrutinises the pertinent practice. The book explores how legal rules which vie to control humanitarian intervention are moulded by theory and how they inform the relevant practice in cases such as Kosovo, Rwanda or Somalia. It presents the legal and theoretical narrative and its agonising attempts to produce objective, true arguments, to introduce a modicum of morality when faced with hard cases but also to concede a leeway for moral or political relativists. For instance, humanitarian intervention within natural law appeals to modes of justification springing from theistic assumptions such as the moral standing of humans as God's mirror or Kantian ones as partakers of universal reason. The cases of Uganda and Kampuchea should be evaluated in the same way, not according to their effects on the governmental structures but according to how they secured human dignity. Kampuchea was not totally propitious in this regard. Humanitarian intervention stopped widespread massacres at a genocidal level and in this way secured human dignity, but the ensuing situation did not correspond to the standards of human dignity. Following the position developed, cases such as Entebbe and Liberia are included within the concept of humanitarian intervention. Operation 'Restore Hope' for Somalia is marked by the disagreements between the United Nations and the participant states concerning its purposes and means.