Mathematical Modeling of the Role of Mitochondrial Fusion and Fission in Mitochondrial DNA Maintenance

10.1371/journal.pone.0076230PLOS ONE8101-1

(Re)thinking hybridity studies in hybrid tribunals and international criminal justice

Defence date: 26 June 2014Examining Board: Professor Pierre-Marie Dupuy (EUI Supervisor) Professor Francesco Francioni, EUI Professor William Schabas, Middlesex University Professor Salvatore Zappalà, University of Catania.This PhD proposes an analysis of what it means to talk of "hybrid” tribunals as a legal category. This category traditionally covers the tribunals that were set up in the early 2000s in particular contexts with both international and domestic elements (East Timor, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Bosnia, Irak and Lebanon). Through a discussion of the features of the main hybrid tribunals, and a specific focus on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the most recent and most notable in some of its features (such as the mode of creation, the applicable law or its procedural framework) the main conclusion of the research is that "hybrid” cannot in fact be defined as a legal category, these tribunals, in light of their mode of creation, being either international or domestic. Moving on from there, the PhD suggests a more elaborate categorisation of all international tribunals through the introduction of a new model based on the "levels of internationality”, which allows to think the diversity of these tribunals in a more subtle way in their interaction with national authorities. Having done this, the PhD moves into a discussion of two thematic case studies, that of the interaction between various tribunals and amnesties and the interaction between tribunals and truth commissions, notably in two situations where the question arose, East Timor and Sierra Leone. Finally, the conclusion moves the discussion away from the strictly legal dimensions of the discussions into broader questions relating to the interaction between legal orders in a globalised world. Ultimately, the key question that is raised by the PhD is that of the transformation of sovereignty, which, it is argued remains a necessary concept to comprehend the structures of legal orders, rather than a concept to be opposed as being too archaic

Shared Responsibility in International Law: A Conceptual Framework

In this Article we explore the phenomenon of shared international responsibility among multiple actors that contribute to harmful outcomes that international law seeks to prevent. We examine the foundations and manifestations of shared responsibility, explain why international law has had difficulty in grasping its complexity, and set forth a conceptual framework that allows us to better understand and study the phenomenon. Such a framework provides a basis for further development of principles of international law that correspond to the needs of an era characterized by joint and coordinated, rather than independent, action

Waiting for Godot: An Analysis of the Advisory Opinion on Kosovo

The Kosovo Advisory Opinion gave rise to responses that suggest that the Court went too far, or not far enough, depending on one's perspective. In this article, the authors argue that the Court should either have done nothing or gone all the way. By accepting an inadequately drafted question, the Court was necessarily going to give an inadequate answer. This article adopts a strict approach to the legal nature of the question and considers that the ICJ should have declined its competence, not as an exercise of its discretion, but as a preservation of its core judicial function, which does not include primarily the conduct of non-state entities. Going further, the authors suggest that the Court could have rephrased the question and sought to establish the international responsibility of the United Nations, and, ultimately, of Kosovo, which, it is argued, is in fact implicitly recognized by the Court, both politically and legally