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The material in this section is arranged according to the system employed in the annual Digest of United States Practice in International Law, published by the Department of State.

The material in this section is arranged according to the system employed in the annual Digest of United States Practice in International Law, published by the Department of State.

AbstractWriting 62 years ago, Georg Schwarzenberger posited that international criminal law did not exist. As long as some States, those larger or more powerful, were held to a different standard, or, in fact, not held to account at all, it was premature to speak of such a thing. For Schwarzenberger, international criminal law was a misnomer withoutuniversalcriminal justice. This article considers whether that same criticism can be made of international criminal law today. Indeed, it asks whether this is a realistic expectation in the first place. The recently concluded Review Conference of the International Criminal Court in Kampala, Uganda is seen as an ideal juncture at which to do so. This article analyses what is meant by the term international criminal law and then selects two models; the International Criminal Court and the exercise of universal jurisdiction, to gauge the success, or failure, of international criminal law in satisfying Schwarzenberger's criterion.

AbstractAs a consequence of the state unity theory, the conduct of all state organs is attributed to the state in an undifferentiated manner. It follows that, in both international and European Union law, state liability can be based on the substance of judicial decisions despite the independence of the judicial branch. However, beyond the matter of attribution, there is a significant divergence between the two legal systems. In international law, the judicial origin of challenged decisions does not influence the application of liability criteria, whereas, in EU law, the liability criteria can be applied to judicial decisions in a tightened manner. This article has the twofold aim of establishing and explaining this difference.

Introducing the international legal protection of vulnerable groups -- The legal protection of vulnerable groups as an integral component of the scope of international human rights law -- The practice of UN Treaty bodies and thematic UN special procedures relevant to the protection of vulnerable groups -- The practice of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child relevant to the protection of vulnerable groups -- Regional trends in the protection of vulnerable groups and their members -- The vulnerability paradigm of the European Court of Human Rights -- The practice of domestic courts relevant to vulnerable groups and persons -- Conclusive reflections.

International socialism's campaign of peace on the eve of World War I mobilized up to one million European workers to protest against the insanity of a European bloodletting. Yet the skewed image of "all" Europeans rallying to their fatherland in a patriotic frenzy is alive and well. The knowledge of this expansive peace movement largely has been marginalized and its nature misunderstood or interpreted ideologically. This article revisits the peace crusade of international socialism on the eve of World War I so that its size, complexity, and accomplishments can be appreciated fully. Instead of emphasizing the divisions and weaknesses of the movement—the conventional approach—the article attempts to describe and to explain how European socialist parties were able to stitch together an expansive international peace movement in spite of ideological, legal, and logistical challenges. The article starts with a brief overview of the peace activism of the Second International from 1889 to 1912 and then focuses on the spectacular antiwar campaign of "War against War!" and its concomitant International Socialist Congress of Basle in the autumn of 1912 to demonstrate three points: first, to shed new light on the peace movement of international socialism; second, to explain how the 1912 antiwar campaign informed socialist peace strategies on the eve of World War I (and thereby to dispel the myth of "war celebration" among Europe's working classes); and finally, to consider briefly the importance of this history for peace activists of today.

International institutions that include an escape clause generate more durable and stable cooperative international regimes and are easier to achieve ex ante. The escape clause is endogenous in a model of repeated trade-barrier setting in the presence of symmetric, two-sided, political uncertainty. They permit, along the equilibrium path, countries to temporarily deviate from their obligations in periods of excessive, unexpected political pressure at some prenegotiated cost. The architects of international agreements optimally choose a cost so that escape clauses are neither too cheap to use (encouraging frequent recourse, effectively reducing the benefits of cooperation) nor too expensive (making their use rare and increasing the chance of systemic breakdown). The international institution's crucial role is to provide information, verifying that the self-enforcing penalty has been paid (voluntarily), rather than to coerce payment. Escape clauses also make agreements easier to reach initially. Their flexibility reassures states that the division of the long-term gains from the agreement is not immutable.

The XXIVth International Conference of the Red Cross,considering that, in several situations of armed conflict, the identification of members of the armed forces killed on the battle-field is made extremely difficult for lack of identification documents,recalling that Articles 16 and 17 of the First Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 provide for identity discs to be worn by members of the armed forces to facilitate their identification in case they are killed and the communication of their deaths to the Power on which they depend,1. urges the Parties to an armed conflict to take all necessary steps to provide the members of their armed forces with identity discs and to ensure that the discs are worn during service,2. recommends that the Parties to an armed conflict should see that these discs give all the indications required for a precise identification of members of the armed forces such as full name, date and place of birth, religion, serial number and blood group; that every disc be double and composed of two separable parts, each bearing the same indications; and that the inscriptions be engraved on a substance as resistant as possible to the destructive action of chemical and physical agents, especially to fire and heat,3. reminds the Parties to an armed conflict that one half of each disc must, in case of death, be detached and sent back to the Power on which the member of the armed forces depended, the other half remaining on the body,4. notes that the International Committee of the Red Cross is prepared to provide models to States asking for them.

The article examines the conceptual aspects of the responsibility of certain categories of persons for the actions that led to bankruptcy. According to the practice that exists in the world, the personal responsibility of the officials of the debtor, whose actions affected the property status of the legal entity in the period preceding the bankruptcy, is part of the relevant legislation in many countries of the world. In the legislation of Ukraine, the responsibility of certain categories of persons for the deterioration of the debtor's property is set forth in the Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offences, and the consequences of non-fulfillment of the obligation are provided for in the Civil Code. One of the directions of the research on the property liability of the officials of the debtor is the study of the existing theoretical basis for the use of such a mesures in bankruptcy cases, as well as the state of consistency of the norms of bankruptcy legislation and the general provisions of the Civil Code of Ukraine and the norms of other laws. In this article the meaning of the recommendations for building effective bankruptcy systems are the World Bank Principles for Effective Bankruptcy Systems and Protection of Creditors/Debtors, the UNCITRAL Guide for Legislators on Insolvency Law, and the European Restructuring and Insolvency Directive has been disclosed. It is important to use them in the process of reforming the bankruptcy legislation in order to bring national legislation closer to the best world practice. When conducting the research, the method of systematic analysis of similar provisions of a number of laws was used, comparative analysis was utilized to clarify the conformity of the norms of the current legislation of Ukraine with the provisions of international documents, and the use of the functional method helped to draw conclusions of a practical nature. The article provides an analysis of general concepts in the field of bankruptcy and legal theory in general, which should help the Legislator to improve the provisions of the mentioned laws, and the courts to issue more reasoned decisions.

"In diesem Beitrag wird ein neues Instrument zur Implementierung von Unternehmensethik in international tätigen Unternehmen vorgestellt und kritisch evaluiert Es handelt sich um die Zertifizierung nach Social Accountability 8000. Unternehmen sollen aktiv ethische Verantwortung übernehmen, indem sie weltweit gültigen Sozialstandards folgen und dies durch unabhängige Prüfer zertifizieren lassen. Das Konzept weist bei der operativen Umsetzung in Unternehmen eine Vielzahl praktischer Vorteile auf. Eine theoretische Analyse zeigt allerdings, dass es dem Compliance-Ansatz folgt und insofern keinen Akt freiwilliger dialogischer Willensbildung (Integritäts-Ansatz) darstellt." (Autorenreferat)