CHAPTER 7'2 International Organization and Law

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CHAPTER 7.2International Organization and Law

• PSC 124
• Northrup
• Spring 2007

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Topics

• Blending military and peace efforts
• Sources of international law
• Enforcement
• World Court
• International cases in national courts
• Diplomacy
• War crimes
• Just War doctrine
• Human rights

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Blending Military and NGO/Peace Efforts Example
of Afghanistan

• Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen, Minister of Defence,
  Kingdom of Norway, on Afghanistan
• WSN TV interview

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Sources of International Law

• Treaties
• Custom
• General principles of law
• Legal scholarship

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Info on
International Law
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Enforcement

• Difficult to enforce compared to national law
• Depends on power of states to punish
• Depends on reciprocity
• Consequences e.g. sanctions
• Weakness of enforcement thru reciprocity and
  collective response

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World Court

• International Court of Justice, branch of UN
• Only states can be sued
• Judges
• Panel of 15 judges, 9-year terms
• Chosen by majority of both SC and GA
• Permanent members have one judge
• Can add judge if appropriate for the case
• Weakness
• Main use
• US withdrew from compulsory jurisdiction 1986
  only case-by-case basis

Peace Palace, seat of the ICJ, The Hague,
Netherlands
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Current Composition of Court

• President Dame Rosalyn Higgins (United Kingdom)
• Vice-President Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan)
  
• Madagascar
• PRC
• Sierra Leone
• Venezuela
• US
• Japan
• Germany

• Slovakia
• France
• New Zealand
• Mexico
• Morocco
• Russia

Judge Higgins
Court Web Site Current Composition
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A Preferred Method Taking Cases to National
Courts

• What cases
• Violation occurred on countrys soil
• Violation occurred against its citizen not on own
  soil
• Violation by its own citizens elsewhere in world
• Advantages (vs. World Court)
• Enforceable
• Accessible to individuals and companies
• Choice of states

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Favorite National Court Venues

• US a favorite
• US juries are generous!
• Possible to collect damages
• Belgium also popular
• 1993 law
• Gives Belgian courts jurisdiction over violations
  of Geneva Convention
• Geneva Conventions
• Treatment of wounded and sick on field and at sea
• Treatment of POWs
• Protection of civilians in wartime

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US Case ExxonMobil Aiding Repressive Regimes?
Aceh, on Sumatra, Indonesia
More info on the case click here
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ExxonMobil Case in Aceh

• ExxonMobil operations in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia
• Labor rights group sued in US court
• Used Alien Tort Claims Act
• Allegations
• ExxonMobil defense
• Current status

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Other Cases (newsdesk.org)

• Doe v. Unocal and Roe v. Unocal, alleging forced
  labor, torture and wrongful death during the
  building of the Yadana natural gas pipeline
  through Burma
• Aguinda v. Texaco and Jota v. Texaco, accusing
  the oil company of improper handling and dumping
  of toxic waste leading to large-scale
  environmental destruction in the Oriente region
  of Ecuador and neighboring Peru
• Wiwa v. Shell and Wiwa v. Anderson, asserting
  Royal Dutch Shell's complicity in the wrongful
  death of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa
• Bowoto v. Chevron, charging that Chevron (Now
  ChevronTexaco) was involved in the massacre of
  Nigerian protesters on an oil platform.

Newsdesk link
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Limits and Gray Areas for International Cases in
National Courts

• Limits
• Authority of national court inside state
• Getting defendant or plaintiff into state where
  being tried (extradition etc.)
• Gray areas
• High seas
• Kidnap

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Diplomacy

• The most developed area of international law
• Diplomatic recognition
• Diplomatic immunity (spies?)
• Diplomatic pouches
• Actions serving as communications
• Withdraw own diplomats and expel theirs (break
  diplomatic relations)
• Recall ambassadors for period of time (embassy
  and others stay)
• Make formal complaint

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Diplomacy The Six Party Talks

• Economist article on current progress

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Violations of Norms of Diplomacy Iran Hostage
Crisis

• 444 days 1979 to 1981
• Aytollah Khomeini - Great Satan
• About 500 students - Imams Disciples
• Purpose - the Shah
• Released hostages after Reagans inaugural
  address
• Khomeini claimed ignorance

Celebrate the Century stamp - 1980s - Iranian
hostage crisis - Hostages come home
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International Law re War

• After law of diplomacy, one of most developed
  areas of international law
• Three types (book notes 2)
• Laws in war (jus bello) war crimes
• Laws re reasons for going to war (jus ad bellum)
• Laws re ending war (just post bellum)
• Enforcement thru reciprocity and group response

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Just War Doctrine

• Just war vs aggression
• Not based on nonviolence
• Response to aggression only allowable use of
  force
• To be moral, purpose must be to respond to
  aggression (not to turn into offensive
  aggression)
• Practices
• Uniforms
• POWs
• Red Cross

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Three Elements

• Jus ad bellum (before war, what constitutes
  acceptable conditions for going to war)
• Jus in bello (how to act IN war)
• Jus post bellum (regulation of process of ending
  war)

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Jus ad Bellum

• Just cause
• Comparative justice
• Legitimate authority
• Right intention
• Probability of success
• Proportionality
• Last resort

Korean War Memorial
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Jus in Bello

• Discrimination
• Proportionality of acts
• Principle of minimal force to accomplish goals
• Torture of anyone forbidden
• POWs treated humanely

WWII POWs on Eastern Front
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Jus Post Bellum

• Just cause for termination
• Right intention
• Public declaration and authority
• Discrimination
• Proportionality

End of WWII in Finland
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War Crimes Tribunals

• Nuremberg Tribunal post WWII
• Individuals can be held responsible

Hermann Goring Reichsmarschall, Commander of the
Luftwaffe, and several departments of the SS.
Committed suicide the night before his execution
Rudolf Hess Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party.
Sentenced to life in prison, died at age 93 in
Spandau Prison.
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Nuremberg
The Nurembergjudges
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_War_Crimes_
Tribunal
Nuremberg Defendants
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1990s Tribunals
Logo of ICC

• First time since WWII
• UN SC authorized war crimes tribunal
• Former Yugoslavia
• Rwanda and Sierra Leone
• Creation of International Criminal Court (ICC) in
  1998 (following Yugoslavia and Rwanda)
• Darfur, Sudan war crimes referred to ICC

Genocide in Rwanda
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International Criminal Court
ICC in the Hague
World map of ICC member states (link)
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Darfur
Darfur Region of Sudan
A village health post destroyed by a Jingaweit
militia attack.
IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict
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Darfur, Sudan

• Civil war
• Janjaweed, government supported militia of local
  Arab tribes
• Vs. non-Arab people of region
• Refugees are non-Arab people
• Ethic cleansing/genocide
• 200,000 to 300,000 have died fighting, but
  mostly starvation
• Video what action should the world take?

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Other War Crimes Tribunals?
Both Bushes became subjects of possible war
crimes charges under the controversial Belgian
law.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon possible
war crimes charges re 1982 Israeli invasion of
Lebanon
Both cases thrown out of Belgian court in
September 2003 (Story)
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Human Rights

• One of newest and least developed areas of
  international law
• Difficult because of sovereignty
• Continue to develop because of spillover
• Information revolution more aware of violations
• Crimes against humanity from Nuremberg trials
• 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  (norms, not international law) (link)
• US and China mirror image re human rights