Suchergebnisse

The article offers a systematic analysis of the independence claim of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (hereinafter "Catalonia") from the standpoint of international law and includes a concise discussion of the key concepts of statehood, territorial integrity and recognition. It then examines the right of peoples to self-determination, which remains the crux of the matter, and defines its content in the colonial context and beyond it. It demonstrates that outside the colonial context and with the possible exception of remedial secession (which can be excluded in the case of Catalonia), there is no legal entitlement to secede. The right to self-determination must be implemented within the jurisdiction of Spain. It thus becomes essentially a matter of autonomy and powers distribution. It is within the current legal framework, based primarily on the Spanish Constitution and the Catalan Statute of Autonomy that the parties must hammer out a political solution, which must follow the road map designed by the Constitutional Court in a series of decisions rendered throughout the crisis. The Court has consistently upheld the unity and territorial integrity of Spain, the full enjoyment by Catalonia of all the powers contained in the Statute of Autonomy, and the right to Catalonia to project, within the constitutional and statutory limits, its activities at the international level. The article concludes that the current legal framework is sufficiently clear and flexible to accommodate the rights and responsibilities of the central government to preserve the unity of Spain as well as the legitimate ambitions of Catalonia to develop and pursue its policies in accordance with the Constitution and the Statute.

Les auteurs examinent les deux faces du principe de clarté, à savoir la clarté linguistiqueet la clarté normative, avant de détailler la clarté en matière de droitspolitiques. Ils constatent que l'ordre constitutionnel suisse contient déjà unetelle exigence et qu'il n'est ainsi pas besoin de développer un nouveau principeconstitutionnel indépendant. En revanche, en matière de droits politiques, ils relèventque la jurisprudence du Tribunal fédéral est imprécise et qu'elle mériteraitune clarification.

Devenu un des acteurs principaux en matière d'investissements internationaux, la Chine aujourd'hui influence l'évolution même du droit des investissements internationaux, avec son intense pratique conventionnelle en la matière. L'analyse juridique des modèles et des accords chinois sur les investissements démontre la recherche de clarté et prévisibilité, ainsi qu'une modernisation prudente des normes conventionnelles, progressivement plus proches de celles du modèles nord-américains. Cette évolution, amorcée en 2006 dans le chapitre sur les investissements de l'accord de libre-échange avec le Pakistan, s'est imposée par la conclusion ultérieure de deux accords majeurs avec la Nouvelle Zélande et l'ASEAN. Puis, en 2012, la Chine a conclu avec le Canada et le Chili les accords qui ont entériné cette nouvelle approche plus libérale, sans renoncer aux pierres angulaires de sa politique traditionnelle en la matière. Ce rapprochement des modèles chinois et nord-américain a permis de remettre sur les rails les négociations avec les Etats-Unis, et démarrer ce avec l'Union européenne.

In spite of the fact that international law has proclaimed that outer space is to be used for peaceful purposes, States continue to expand their military capacity beyond the bounds of the Earth's atmosphere. Recent testing of anti-satellite weaponry is a cause for concern that the term 'peaceful uses' is losing its meaning in an increasingly militarized outer space environment. The problem certainly stems from the fact that space law does not explicitly define said uses, thereby allowing States to provide a legal justification for their actions. This article will examine existing space law, as well as general international law, in an attempt to flesh out a more substantial meaning for the most oft-abused provisions of the relevant treaties in three distinct sections: first, we shall explore the notion of 'peaceful uses' as a general term; we shall proceed with an analysis of the prohibition of stationing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in outer space; finally, we shall see how the Liability Convention may be read as limiting States' potential advantages from militarizing space.

International organizations have been debating and monitoring the issue of nanotechnologies for several years. Five international organizations have been quite active in this respect: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the World Health Organization. Nevertheless, due to their different mandates, the actions of these international organizations have been rather fragmented. In particular, they have been unable to agree on whether a universal regulatory framework is necessary in order to better address the uncertain risks that may derive from nanotechnologies. Furthermore, they have not yet clearly identified the principles of international environmental law (e.g., sustainable development, precautionary principle) that should govern any action in the field of nanotechnologies. Despite this fragmentation, there are international efforts to foster coordination between international organizations, with the establishment of two important fora: the Inter‐organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals and the Inter‐governmental Forum on Chemical Safety.

My PhD aims to set a method of analysis evaluating the manner in which national courts enforce international humanitarian law in light of the core principles of the international rule of law (which require courts to be independent, impartial, accessible and effective). This methodology offers a useful tool for understanding the function of national courts and provides a mapping of courts' rulings, within which each category can then be legally (and politically) justified or delegitimized in light of the principles of the rule of law. The scale according to which the court's function is assessed varies from apology to judicial activism, and it identifies four functional roles: (1) the apologist role of courts, in which they serve as a legitimating agency of the state's actions; (2) the avoiding role of courts, in which they, for policy considerations, avoid exercising jurisdiction over a case; (3) the normative application role of courts, in which they apply international humanitarian law as required by the rule of law. In that category, a deferral technique is identified – courts may defer back to the other branches of the government the find an appropriate remedy; and (4) the judicial activism role of courts, in which they introduce moral judgments in favour of the protection of the individual, beyond the requirements of the law. Revealing the court's function in order to situate a decision on the utopian-judicial activism scale is carried out by a critical analysis of the court ruling, in which both the legal argument and the political context are examined. This is done through a technique of deconstruction, which aims to reveal the political character of what appears a priori, to be a neutral application of objective rules. As the research shows, the functional role of the courts is a combination of contradictions and mixed attitudes – sometimes they play an apologist role, in other cases a normative, activist, or an avoiding one. It would appear that national courts are in the process of defining their own role as enforcing organs of IHL.

La protection de l'intérêt collectif dans ses différentes manifestations, normatives, institutionnelles ou matérielles, se situe au centre de la réflexion et de l'action du Professeur Kalliopi Koufa, en tant qu'universitaire et praticienne du droit international. Son oeuvre est traversée par les équilibres à trouver entre action au plan régional et celle au plan universel, entre les dimensions juridiques et politiques, entre division et intégration. Que ces quelques propos soient un hommage à sa réflexion et à son action. L'objet de cette contribution a trait à la protection de l'environnement et à la promotion du développement durable.

Entgegen verbreiteten Argumenten ist das Völkerrecht nicht am Ende. Völkerrecht existiert seit der Antike und hat sich immer wieder angepasst und verändert; es hat auch schwerste Krisen überlebt und sich aus ihnen erneuert. Sein gegenwärtiger Stand muss aber behutsam bewertet werden: Weder Uberschwang noch Untergangsstimmung ist begründet. Das Gewaltverbot bleibt zentrales Anliegen, auch wenn es quantitativ einen kleinen Bruchteil seines Inhalts ausmacht.

Die Frage, inwieweit die alliierten Flächenbombardements über Deutschland während des zweiten Weltkrieges rechtmässig waren oder gar Kriegsverbrechen darstellten, wird seit einigen Jahren kontrovers diskutiert. Es ist zu begrüssen, dass auch Handlungen der «guten» Kriegspartei enttabuisiert werden und Gedanken über ihre Rechtmässigkeit nunmehr möglich sind. Im Folgenden wird die Frage aus völkerrechtlicher Sicht kurz skizziert.

Der Autor erinnert an die Charta der Vereinten Nationen und analysiert das Vorgehen der USA und ihrer Verbündeten im Irak-Krieg 2003 aus völkerrechtlicher Sicht. Die Frage der Legitimität dieses Krieges ist aus seiner Sicht klar zu verneinen.

L'article 2 du Traité sur l'Union européenne définit les valeurs sur lesquelles l'Union est fondée, parmi lesquelles l'État de droit. La question des valeurs au sein de l'UE n'apparaît dans les Traités qu'avec la révision de Maastricht (1993), et ne concerne initialement que les États membres, pas les institutions communautaires auxquelles ont succédé les institutions de l'Union. La présente contribution interroge, à partir notamment de la jurisprudence de la Cour de Justice de l'UE, cette notion d'État de droit au fondement de l'UE, pour parvenir à la conclusion que le concept de l'État de droit tel qu'il s'est développé dans des cadres étatiques fondés sur une philosophie politique contractualiste ne semble pas, de l'avis de la CJUE, adéquat pour une UE adossée à un principe de confiance mutuelle entre États, plutôt que sur un pacte de type fédéral par lequel les entités constitutives (les États membres) auraient transféré à un nouveau pouvoir central des compétences propres, à exercer dans le cadre des contrôles institués selon le modèle étatique et traditionnel de l'État de droit. Nous parvenons ainsi à la conclusion que l'État de droit sur lequel est fondé l'UE constitue une notion propre à l'UE, qui n'est pas la même que celle qui s'impose aux États membres.

Le droit international est-il efficace, est-il respecté? Ces questions sont souvent posées et on y répond généralement de manière négative. Ce bref article tente de remettre la question en perspective en scrutant sur le vif les acquis et les déconvenues du droit international. Outre qu´incontournable, ce droit s´avère de surcroît mieux respecté qu´on ne le croit.

This chapter analyses the norms and principles concerning the management of transboundary waters under international law, as well as the provisions of the Water Framework Directive on the same issue under European Union law. Then, the focus is moved to the hydrographical situation of Italy and the waters the country shares with neighbouring States. Even though, unlike other European countries, Italy does not share major watercourses or water bodies with other States, in at least a couple of cases (Lake Maggiore and Lake Lugano shared with Switzerland, and River Isonzo/Soča shared with Slovenia) joint management and control systems are in force, which pre-date the WFD by many years.

Amid frenzied national responses to COVID-19, the world could soon reach a critical juncture to revisit and strengthen the International Health Regulations (IHR), the multilateral instrument that governs how 196 states and WHO collectively address the global spread of disease.1, 2 In many countries, IHR obligations that are vital to an effective pandemic response remain unfulfilled, and the instrument has been largely side-lined in the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest global health crisis in a century. It is time to reimagine the IHR as an instrument that will compel global solidarity and national action against the threat of emerging and re-emerging pathogens. We call on state parties to reform the IHR to improve supervision, international assistance, dispute resolution, and overall textual clarity.

This article explores the 2010 decision of the General Court of the European Union in the Kadi case. The article argues that the General Court made important findings, partly departing from, the previous series of decisions (2005 and 2008) in the Kadi case.