intl-law

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FULL CONCEPTS LIST

WAR:

Law on war weapons

Rules of war

Escalation of disputes

Pre-emptive strikes

Treaties/Conventions on Weapons

Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Geneva Protocol on Chemical and Biological Weapons

Biological Weapons Convention

UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons

Convention on Cluster Munitions

CRIME:

International criminal law

International judicial institutions

Crimes judged by the ICC

Crimes not judged by ICC 

Law on organized crime

Law on drug trafficking

Jurisdiction and extradition for narcotraffic 

SEA:

International law of the sea

International Waters

Institutions in the sea regime 

ENVIRONMENT:

Direct damage

Indirect damage

Climate change

Environmental laws and regimes 

TRADE:

Trade law

WTO law

Capitalism

Free trade

Trade Law and Liberal Ideology

Liberal trade issue 

OTHERS:

Citizenship

Origins of totalitarianism

Regulating international migration

Cooperative Framework on Migration

Human rights and foreign policy

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The term "human rights" is mentioned seven times in the founding Charter of the United Nations, so its promotion and protection are fundamental objectives of the Organization.

United Nations Human Rights Regime is based on Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that was the first legal document to protect these rights together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, these tree instruments form the International Charter of Human Rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Rights was signed in 1948 by 48 countries, it constitutes an orientation document that points out the 30 articles of human rights considered basic and the international human rights pacts that are international treaties that oblige the signatory States to comply with them. The union of these two together with its protocols understand what has been called the letter of human rights.

United Nations Human Rights Council is elected from General Assembly, it negotiates and propose new Human Rights norms and oversees the Promotion and Universal Periodic Review of countries Human Rights situation.

Knowing the principles of universality, interdependence, indivisibility and progressiveness and what they refer to is necessary for having a broad understanding in the many topics that correspond to human rights.

These four principles can be summarized in the fact that human rights correspond to all people for equal, and they are linked ones with others. The recognition or exercise of one implies the respect of multiple rights that are linked.

It is important that in human right issues the State ensure progress in the constructive development of human rights, which implies the prohibition of any setback.

Human Rights as public international law only bind states and apply only within own territory and for own nationals. It was originally a political concept, which translated into the State's respect for the freedom and autonomy of the human person.

Human Rights can technically only be violated by the state and it is their duty to both respect and protect against violations. So individual crimes are not human right violations.

The state governments have the obligation to harmonize the local legal framework with the provisions of the general law of victims by creating the state commission for comprehensive assistance to victims, the assistance fund and comprehensive reparation, state registry of victims, and the legal advice for implementation and operation of the national system of operation to victims.

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Human rights and foreign policy

Human rights are primarily a national struggle.

The international regime is relatively weak in enforcing things, but international relations can still play an important role in enforcing human rights outside the legal framework.

Countries can encourage each other to respect human rights for example:

Diplomatic: Private / Public denouncements, Encouraging / Shaming.

Symbolic actions: breaking relations, cancelling visits, etc.

Economic: Reduce/ Increase trade (or capture HR in trade agreement), foreign aid.

Military: usually only in case of genocide. No legal basis, although there exists custom/precedent (but no consistency).

Considerations for foreign policy

Negative (punishment) or positive (encouraging).

Absolute consistency is very hard.

Need to fit within other foreign policy concerns

Realist argument: countries should just pursue their (power) interest.

HR can be a secondary interest.

It can be in a countries economic/security interest that another one respects the human rights.

But interfering is imperialism (statist/relativist argument)

International law always limits sovereignty + states signed it themselves. These are international, not particular (or European) values.

Why would a country connect its policy to human rights? Because of its own interest

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2018 Cooperative Framework on Migration

Selected articles:

Objective 2: “Minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin”

Objective 3: “Provide accurate and timely information at all stage of migration”

Objective 4: “Ensure that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation”

Objective 5: improve channels for legal labor/academic/disaster/family migration to avoid illegal migration for similar reasons

Objective 6: improve labor rights of migrant workers to avoid informal labor and exploitation

Objective 7: reduce vulnerability of migrants through access to healthcare, legal system, access to consulates; etc.

Objective 8: commitment to try to save lives, search & rescue, etc.

Objective 9 & 10: strengthening response to human smuggling and trafficking + non criminalization and protection of migrants

Objective 11 & 12: better management and screening of borders, transparency and efficiency in migration application procedures

Objective 13: using detention only as last resort

Objective 15: access to basic services for migrants (healthcare & education)

Objective 16: promoting integration of immigrants, and acceptance and respect for diversity

Objective 18: review recognition of foreign qualifications

Objective 19 & 20: make it easier for migrants to contribute to development back home and facilitate remittances

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Check the official UN document right here!

https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/180711_final_draft_0.pdf

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Regulating international migration

‘Push’ factors: War, political persecution and instability.

Organized crime and other threats of violence.

Poverty and exploitation.

Climate change, environmental problems.

‘Pull’ factors: Favorable treatment for specific nationality.

Unique opportunities.

Cultural identification and personal contacts.

Regulation on migration:

United Nations 2018 cooperative framework à legally non-binding agreement:

Not real international law.

23 Objectives to be achieved.

It was voted as a resolution with 152 countries voting in favor.

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The Origins of Totalitarianism

“The right to have rights, or the right of every individual to belong to humanity, should be guaranteed by humanity itself”     -Hannah Arendt

'The Origins of Totalitarianism' was published in 1951 by Hannah Arendt. It's is considered to be the first major work of Arendt.

It is divided into three sections: 

Antisemitism, the first three chapters; 

imperialism, chapter five to nine; 

Totalitarianism, chapter ten to fourteen.

About the author:

Hannah Arendt was a political theorist and philosopher. Arendt was born in Hannover, Germany in October 14, 1906.

In 1933, She fled Nazi Germany and settled in Paris before immigrating to the United States in 1941. In 1951, She became citizen of the United States after eighteen years of being a stateless refugee.

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Citizenship

No human should be deprived of a nationality since being part of a society grants them not only with responsibilities but most importantly rights. This is especially important because human exercise their rights within a society. Although, human rights are rights of individuals, most of them would be pointless without belonging to a group. For instance, political rights within the UDHR would be pointless if you are not a citizen of a state, and if you don’t belong to a society.  

The right to have a nationality, thus being a citizenship of a country, is actually contemplated within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 15 states that everyone has the right to a nationality; and furthermore, no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Nevertheless, there have been many cases of governments that deprived their citizen of their nationalities. However, the UN has established a legal framework to address this issue.

Two conventions on Statelessness: 

1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.

Provide a legal definition of stateless and ensure that stateless people enjoy a minimum set of human rights.

1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Aims to prevent statelessness and reduce it over time.

These conventions had established an international framework to ensure the right of every person to a nationality.

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Liberal trade issues

Race to the bottom: What if countries competitive advantage is being cheap?

Can trigger a downwards spiral with countries lowering labor and environmental standards to compete, each pressuring the other to go cheaper

Hypocrisy: liberalism is pushed by the U.S. and E.U., the most protectionist markets

Free trade is not always a fair trade. Competition between unequals?

Ecological destruction: international trade = global transport = more CO2

Intellectual property: Withholding (holding back) what belongs to the world? (e. g. internet)

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Trade Law and Liberal Ideology

WTO is inspired on liberal world view.

Adam Smith → “free trade will enhance the wealth of nations”

David Ricardo → “each country must use their competitive advantage to trade goods for things that other countries are good at producing”

Free trade as a bringer of peace and prosperity: 

Less war through interdependence

Correlation between free trade     and economic growth (Positive correlation doesn’t prove dysfunction of     alternative: some countries had strong growth before liberalizing trade)

More trade = more income = less     poverty (see below)

Not always a link between poverty/inequality reduction:

Global reduction in absolute poverty, often achieved in non-liberal countries

Various exceptions where relative poverty has risen or stayed the same.

Inequality has (sharply) increased.

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Free trade

It’s the condition under which this system (capitalism) is theoretically supposed to function best (lowest barriers to accumulate and compete for money)

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Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system organized around the accumulation of capital:

Stress on unlimited accumulation of capital by eternal reinvestment.

Endless competition between capitalists, leading to the eternal strive for profit.

Wage labor for (workers, who sell their time) those who don't possess means of production.

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World Trade Organization Law

Consent: is stimulated by joining procedure (to modify a law or something, you have to be in first)

Differential treatment: gives countries time to adjust so they have the capacity to fully comply.

Rules on market access

Prohibition of bans or quota on imports.

Regulation of tariff ceilings specific to types of goods.

Agreements on food safety, pest and technical barriers to trade.

Prevent unfair trade.

Reactions to dumping (antidumping).

Rules on subsidies: prohibition on export subsidies

Dispute settlement body:

Create panels to judge on disputes.

Gives recommendations and binding verdicts.

Reviews trade policies to achieve transparency.

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Trade law

Two types of trade law:

Global regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Separate multilateral trade agreements.

 1944-Bretton Woods configuration:

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

World Bank (WB)

Tried to establish the International Trade Organization but failed, instead there’s GATT (1948)

1948-General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT):

Agreements on tariff reduction and dumping

1994 (creation), 1995 (in force)-World Trade Organization (WTO)

Democratic structure 1 vote =1 country

“Package deal” rule based system

164 members.

General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS)

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)

Longer deadliness for less developed countries

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Environmental laws and regimes

First environmental laws:

Bilateral treaties on damage to other countries.

Treaties on depletion of common resources (f.e. fish)

First global regimes:

Stockholm conference (1972): Recognition of ecology as global issue.

Ozone layer regulation: first successful regime

Growth of climate change regime:

1992 - Rio conference on climate change: principles.

1997 - Kyoto Protocol: low binding legal targets

2015 - Paris climate change agreement

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Climate change

Proof that climate change is real:

There is an increase in average temperature.

17 of the last 18 years where hottest ever.

2016 was hottest year in 130+ years of measurement.

Data comes from thousands of independent meteorological institutes.

Climate change happened before.

Every time temperature rose there was a correlation with increased carbon, and humans have emitted an enormous amount of carbon since industrial revolution.

This rise in temperature is a lot higher than before.

There is 97% strong scientific consensus on climate change according to U.N., with only 1% opposing it.

Solutions proposed:

Conventional responses:

Increases in energy efficiency

Changes in production

Recycling

Alternative domains for reducing greenhouse gas consumption:

Meat consumption.

Air travel

Luxury goods

Population growth

Collective action problem:

The causes and effects of climate change go beyond one state, it requires international action.

From rationalist perspective follows a need for collective agreements to achieve future benefits.

Unique situation with both a very clear need to cooperate and clear incentives to freeride and break the rules.

Climate change is a unique problem because it questions the standard (left/right) intuition of growth and increases in resources as the solution to problems.

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Indirect damage

It is about altering the ecosystems (climate change)

Co2 and other greenhouse gasses trap heat inside the atmosphere, causing a slow but steady rise in average temperature.

While other problems damage parts of our environment, this is an existential threat to life on the planet itself.

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Direct damage

Directed at particular ecosystems. Examples: 

Extinction of species.

Air pollution.

Radioactivity.o

Oil spills.

Irrigation. 

Spread of trash in nature.