Third Report on Crimes Against Humanity

In July 2014, the U.N. International Law Commission placed the topic “Crimes against humanity” on its current program of work and appointed a Special Rapporteur. According to the topic proposal, the objective of the Commission is to draft articles for what could become a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity. In 2015, based on the Special Rapporteur’s First Report, the Commission provisionally adopted the first four draft articles with commentary. In 2016, based on the Special Rapporteur’s Second Report, the Commission provisionally adopted an addition six draft articles with commentary. In this Third Report, which will be debated by the Commission during the summer of 2017, the Special Rapporteur proposes a draft preamble and seven additional draft articles, which are focused on various obligations of States with respect to the prosecution of crimes against humanity within national law. Specifically, the seven proposed draft articles address: extradition (draft article 11); non-refoulement (draft article 12); mutual legal assistance (draft article 13); treatment of victims, witnesses and others (draft article 14); relationship to competent international criminal tribunals (draft article 15); federal State obligations (draft article 16); and inter-State dispute resolution in the event of non-compliance (draft article 17). Annex I to the report contains the ten draft articles provisionally adopted by the Commission to date. Annex II contains the draft preamble and seven draft articles proposed in this report

Serious Breaches, the Draft Articles on State Responsibility and Universal Jurisdiction

On its fifty-first session, the International Law Commission (henceforth, “ILC”) adopted the Draft Articles on State Responsibility (henceforth, “Draft Articles”) and submitted them to the General Assembly for approval in 2001. The work of the ILC on the Draft Articles took more than forty-four years before the Draft Articles reached their final shape. During the process of their drafting, several of its special rapporteurs came up with different solutions to the various problems at hand. One characteristic of the Draft Articles that is especially emblematic of these several (and sometimes turbulent) changes during their preparatory period was the issue of obligations and responsibilities arising out of a breach of a ius cogens norm or – as it was put in the earlier proposals of the Draft Articles – obligations arising out of crimes of states

Second report on crimes against humanity

In July 2014, the U.N. International Law Commission placed the topic “Crimes against humanity” on its current program of work and appointed a Special Rapporteur. According to the topic proposal, the objective of the Commission is to draft articles for what could become a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity. In July 2015, based on the Special Rapporteur’s First Report, the Commission provisionally adopted the first four draft articles with commentary. In this Second Report, which will be debated by the Commission during the summer of 2016, the Special Rapporteur proposes an additional six draft articles, which are focused on various actions to be taken by States under their national laws with respect to crimes against humanity. Specifically, the six proposed draft articles address: establishment of national laws that identify offences relating to crimes against humanity (draft article 5); establishment of national jurisdiction so as to address such offences when they occur (draft article 6); general investigation and cooperation for identifying alleged offenders (draft article 7); exercise of national jurisdiction when an alleged offender is present in a State’s territory (draft article 8); submission of the alleged offender to prosecution or extradition or surrender (aut dedere aut judicare) (draft article 9); and fair treatment of the alleged offender at all stages of the process (draft article 10). Annex I to the report contains the four draft articles provisionally adopted by the Commission to date. Annex II contains the draft articles proposed in this report

Second report on crimes against humanity

In July 2014, the U.N. International Law Commission placed the topic “Crimes against humanity” on its current program of work and appointed a Special Rapporteur. According to the topic proposal, the objective of the Commission is to draft articles for what could become a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity. In July 2015, based on the Special Rapporteur’s First Report, the Commission provisionally adopted the first four draft articles with commentary. In this Second Report, which will be debated by the Commission during the summer of 2016, the Special Rapporteur proposes an additional six draft articles, which are focused on various actions to be taken by States under their national laws with respect to crimes against humanity. Specifically, the six proposed draft articles address: establishment of national laws that identify offences relating to crimes against humanity (draft article 5); establishment of national jurisdiction so as to address such offences when they occur (draft article 6); general investigation and cooperation for identifying alleged offenders (draft article 7); exercise of national jurisdiction when an alleged offender is present in a State’s territory (draft article 8); submission of the alleged offender to prosecution or extradition or surrender (aut dedere aut judicare) (draft article 9); and fair treatment of the alleged offender at all stages of the process (draft article 10). Annex I to the report contains the four draft articles provisionally adopted by the Commission to date. Annex II contains the draft articles proposed in this report

Digital Music Copyright Protection Dilemma: a Discussion on Draft Amendments of China’s Copyright Law

On March 31,2012, China’s National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China (NCAC) published the Draft Amendment to the Copyright Law at its website to seek public feedback. Some articles in the current Draft Amendments, such as Articles 46 and 48, have attracted the most attention from the public, especially the music industry, because they involve unauthorized use of copyrighted material. Some musician indicated that “the draft clearly favored Internet.” This paper wants to discuss those controversial articles under the Draft Amendments and some other solution except legislation for musicians to face digital era with an aim to make a healthy development of digital music sector in China

A 'sinister and retrogressive' proposal : Irish women's opposition to the 1937 draft constitution

This article explores the campaign waged by Irish women against the draft constitution of 1937. A number of articles within the constitution were deemed by women activists to threaten both their rights as citizens and as workers. A campaign, organised principally by the Women Graduates' Association, the Joint Committee of Women's Societies and Social Workers, together with the Irish Women Workers' Union, sought to amend or delete the offending articles. The campaign ran for two months and in that period, feminists, the press, parliamentarians, the Catholic Church and republicans all engaged in the debate about women's position in Irish society

What Is To Be Done About Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting From Federally Funded Research? (Response to US OSTP RFI)

The minimum should be to mandate that: (i) the fundee’s revised, accepted refereed final draft (ii) of all refereed journal articles (including refereed conference articles) resulting from the funded research must be (iii) deposited immediately upon acceptance for publication (iv) in the fundee’s institutional repository. (v) Access to the deposit must be made gratis OA (online access free for all) immediately (no OA embargo) wherever possible (over 60 % of journals already endorse immediate gratis OA self-archiving)

The Evolution of Codification: A Principal-Agent Theory of the International Law Commission\u27s Influence

The International Law Commission has a mandate from the U.N. General Assembly to codify and progressively develop international law. For most of the ILC’s history, the lion’s share of its work took the form of draft articles adopted by the General Assembly as the basis for multilateral conventions. The ILC’s activities received their principal legal effect during this period through the United Nations treaty-making process, rather than directly on the basis of the ILC’s analysis of what customary international law does or should require. In recent decades, however, the ILC has turned to other outputs—such as principles, conclusions and draft articles that it does not recommend be turned into treaties. Significantly, the Commission often claims that these outputs reflect customary international law. In this chapter, we argue that increasing political gridlock in the General Assembly has led the Commission to modify the form of the work products it produces. We make three specific contributions to the literature. First, using principal-agent theory we argue that the ILC chooses the work product that maximizes its influence in shaping the evolution of custom. Our core claim is that, as gridlock has limited the General Assembly’s ability either to adopt treaties or decisively reject non-treaty outputs, the Commission has had both the incentive and the discretion to choose other outputs that do not require General Assembly approval. Second, we provide empirical support for this claim. Drawing upon a new data set that codes all ILC outputs since 1947, we show that the Commission began to favor non-treaty outputs beginning in the early 1990s. This followed a decade when ILC treaty recommendations were not adopted by the UNGA or, if adopted, did not garner sufficient ratifications for the treaties to enter into force. Third, we argue that the shift away from draft treaties increases the salience of the methodology that the ILC uses to prepare non-treaty outputs. Methodology functions as a de facto substitute for the political blessing that flows from the General Assembly’s adoption of draft treaty articles. Adherence to methodology increases the likelihood that a wider audience—government officials, international judges, national courts and non-state actors—will accept the ILC’s non-treaty work products as valid statements of custom. We thus expect the Commission to select a methodological approach that it expects will be supported by the audience(s) it hopes to persuade

Challenges for Affected States in Accepting International Disaster Aid: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

The International Law Commission (ILC) draft articles on the protection of persons in the event of disasters purport to facilitate an adequate and effective response to disasters that meets the essential needs of the persons concerned, with respect to their full rights by setting forth complementary principles governing both individual state responsibilities and international cooperation in disaster response. The principles presented in the draft articles reflect an application of established international law principles as well as current, practical challenges to coordinating international disaster cooperation. This article applies specific ILC draft articles targeting the role of the state impacted by a disaster to the United States\u27 experience in managing international assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In particular, it highlights the critical responsibility of the national government to take advance, deliberate steps to implement the principles set out in the ILC draft articles--ensuring sufficient legal authorities and protocols and plans for implementing them in a disaster context--if it hopes to effectively maximize the supplemental resources available from the international community to support its domestic response to a catastrophic disaster

A proposal for regularly updated review/survey articles: "Perpetual Reviews"

We advocate the publication of review/survey articles that will be updated regularly, both in traditional journals and novel venues. We call these "perpetual reviews." This idea naturally builds on the dissemination and archival capabilities present in the modern internet, and indeed perpetual reviews exist already in some forms. Perpetual review articles allow authors to maintain over time the relevance of non-research scholarship that requires a significant investment of effort. Further, such reviews published in a purely electronic format without space constraints can also permit more pedagogical scholarship and clearer treatment of technical issues that remain obscure in a brief treatment.Comment: This is a draft white paper and we seek comments from the communit