This occasional paper provides an account of the development of the international legal system over the next three decades. It suggests that, by the year 2050, the period of classic international law will be drawing to a close. We will have entered a new stage of hybridity where the actors, processes and institutions of classic international law intermingle with a wide range of transnational actors, processes and institutions.
In This contribution to the second edition of Dieter Fleck's The Handbook of the Law of Visiting Forces, Paul J. Conderman and I provide a detailed account of the exercise of criminal and administrative jurisdiction over visiting forces. The chapter focuses primarily on the NATO Status of Forces Agreement and the United Nations Model SOFA, but also addresses customary international law.
In 2017, the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War published the Leuven Manual on the International Law of Peace Operations. The Manual is designed to provide an authoritative restatement of the law applicable to peace operations. The Manual consists of 145 ‘black-letter rules’ and their accompanying commentary. These rules reflect the consensus of the participating experts and were drawn up with the input of observers from the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, NATO, the EU and other regional organisations and arrangements.
“A dead terrorist can’t cause any harm to Britain,” said the Secretary of State for Defence Gavin Williamson in a Daily Mail interview in December 2017. “I do not believe that any terrorist, whether they come from this country or any other, should ever be allowed back into this country,” he continued. “We should do everything we can do to destroy and eliminate that threat.” Mr Williamson’s comments sparked widespread consternation in the UK press, having been condemned as contrary to international law. In this post, published on Lawfire, Michael Schmitt and I examine whether this really is the case.
It has been a busy few months since the start of the term in September. I have spent some of this time discussing my research on the legal aspects of hybrid warfare with professional and academic colleagues. On 13 September 2017, I spoke before an audience of military and civilian legal advisors in Stuttgart
ARRCADE FUSION 17
Sally Jones, a British member of Islamic State (IS), was reportedly killed by a US drone strike in June 2017 inside Syria. Her 12-year-old son, JoJo, is believed to have been killed alongside her. In news reports about the strike, which has come to light only recently, there has been confusion about the legal framework governing the operation. An article in the Guardian assessed its legality in light of the rules governing the use of force, which determine under what circumstances states may use force in international relations. However, whether or not Jones and her son were lawful targets depends on an entirely different body of law, known as the law of armed conflict – or international humanitarian law – which regulates the conduct of hostilities once an armed conflict has come into existence. In this post, I briefly consider what the law of armed conflict has to say about the strike.
On 20-22 September 2017, the Exeter Centre for International Law supported the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War, together with the University of Melbourne, in hosting a conference in the beautiful city of Bruges in Belgium. The conference brought together legal experts and practitioners from around the world to address
I am re-posting a news item from the Exeter Centre for International Law: ‘Law is an asymmetric capability’ was the message that Dr Aurel Sari conveyed at two international conferences last month. Speaking on 13 September 2017 before an audience of military and civilian legal advisors in Stuttgart (Germany), Dr Sari offered an overview
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether a Member State of the EU may revoke its notice to withdraw from the Union under Article 50 TEU. Contrary to the position taken by the English courts in Miller, this paper confirms that a notice to withdraw from the EU is in fact reversible.
