Send Back the Lifeboats: Cronfronting The Project of Saving International Law

This piece critically evaluates the inclination of international lawyers to feel that international law needs to be saved. In doing so, it provides some observations on the self-destructive processes of international law. This piece constitutes a response to an article entitled "Groundwork for International Law" in which Anthony D’Amato offers a comprehensive account of how international law is formed and structured. Parts I and II sketch the various facets and implications of D’Amato’s self-preserving international law as well as highlight its originality in Anglo-American scholarship. In part III, this response proposes a more nuanced understanding of how international law "preserves" itself. Part IV makes the argument that if some self-preserving aspects exist, they are the product of the collective attitudes of the professional groups organized around international law but are not intrinsic to international law itself. Because I posit that we cannot possibly have any meta-standpoint to (in)validate and rank conceptions of international law, I conclude in part V with some critical reflections on what D’Amato’s conception means for those twenty-first-century international lawyers who feel that international law needs to be saved

Les Etats non démocratiques et le droit international

The dissertation considers the difficulties prompted in International Law by the emergence of a unique form of governance which is deemed acceptable among Nations: democracy. This led to study the legal issues pertaining to the rights of non-democratic States, the power of their governements and their relations with democratic States (incl. diplomatic relations, conventional relations, criminal law relations, conflict of laws relations, economic relations and relations within the framework of international organisations). The question of the international responsibility of non-democratic States (including that of the sanctions) is also considered.La dissertation revient sur les tensions provoquées en droit international par l'émergence progressive de la démocratie comme seul modèle acceptable d'organisation sociale. Retiennent ainsi l'attention les difficultés que pose le rejet de tout autre modèle politique en ce qui concerne les droits de l'Etat, les pouvoirs de son gouvernement ainsi que les relations internationales (càd les relations diplomatiques, conventionnelles, de droit privé, de droit pénal, économiques, etc). Les difficultés suscitées en droit international par l'adoption de sanctions à l'encontre d'Etat qui méconnaitrait le principe de la démocratie sont également examinées, ce qui implique que l'état du droit coutumier et du droit conventionnel relatif à cette question fasse l'objet d'un examen approfondi.(Doctorat en droit) (DROI 3) -- UCL, 200

Interactions between forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and selective logging in central Africa

With populations reduced by more than 80% over the last 93 years, forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are facing increasing human pressure. As observed in previous megaherbivore extinctions, the decline of forest elephants will have serious ecological consequences. Regularly referred to as ecosystem engineers, forest elephants shape tropical ecosystems, both in composition and structure, due to their enormous food requirements and the impact of their massive body size. They maintain the forest’s richness and diversity by dispersing the seeds of many species, create micro-habitats and maintain nutrient cycles and forest clearings. Given their extent, timber concessions could be a major actor in forest elephant conservation, but it is still necessary to better understand the impacts of logging on forest elephants and conversely the impacts of forest elephants on timber resources. Therefore, our study aims to (1) assess the impacts of logging activities on the presence, abundance and movement of forest elephants; (2) evaluate the importance of forest elephants in the regeneration of several timber species and (3) characterize the damage caused by forest elephants to trees and forest plantations. The methods applied are diverse and include among others the use of camera traps and acoustic sensors, dung count on transects and bark damage surveys on transects and in plots. Preliminary findings suggest that (1) under specific conditions, timber concessions can host large populations of forest elephants; (2) forest elephants are the main seed dispersers of Detarium macrocarpum and Bobgunnia fistuloides, two timber species, and (3) from branch breaking to bark stripping, forest elephant damage is diverse and affects a wide range of species, which seem to evolve over time