The Italian Constitutional Court’s Ruling against State Immunity when International Crimes Occur: Thoughts on Decision No 238 of 2014

The tension between access to justice and jurisdictional immunity of States is one of the most debated topics in current public international law. The present essay aims to explore the Italian Constitutional Court’s opinion on this matter, in particular after its recent judgment no. 238 of 2014, in which the Court stated that Italy is no longer bound by the rule on State immunity in the case of civil proceedings dealing with damages caused by the Nazi army during World War II. Studying the Court’s reasoning and the arguments provided in order to compel Italy not to implement the ICJ judgment in the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State could provide a new point of view in the International Community, based on domestic constitutional norms, about the fundamental need to protect the rights of the human being, even to the detriment of a international customary rule

The Occupation of Maritime Territory under International Humanitarian Law

This article explores whether it is possible to apply the law of occupation beyond land territory, to maritime areas characterized here as “maritime territory.” The article argues that the definition of territory under Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations comprises internal waters, territorial sea, and archipelagic waters, whereas other areas such as the continental shelf, the exclusive economic zone, and high seas fall outside the scope of Article 42. Accordingly, internal waters, the territorial sea, and archipelagic waters may be placed under occupation if a hostile force exercises actual authority over them without valid legal title. The article describes how the actual authority test embodied in Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations applies to maritime territory and maintains that maritime territory may be occupied only in connection to an occupation of land territory. The article then addresses why applying the law of occupation to maritime territory may solve some of the current problems regarding the duties and rights of occupying powers in relation to the sea off the coasts of the areas they occupy. In particular, the application of the law of occupation can affect the exploitation of natural resources at sea and the regulation of the use of armed force. Finally, the article explores how the rules embodied in the law of occupation interact with the rules on naval warfare in the occupied maritime territory

The Duties of Occupying Powers in Relation to the Prevention and Control of Contagious Diseases through the Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and the Right to Health

This Article explores the rules governing the prevention and control of contagious diseases in occupied territory under international law. Although the Article refers to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, its scope is broader and encompasses instances of state practice that have occurred over the last two centuries. After a careful analysis of the relevant treaties and episodes of state practice, the Article concludes that occupying powers have duties under international humanitarian law and international human rights law to prevent and control contagious diseases, through cooperating with the local authorities and bringing the necessary medical supplies in the occupied territory. The Article stresses that taking these measures, including facilitating the supply of vaccines, is a duty under international law rather than an arbitrary act of international solidarity

The self-proclaimed statehood of the Islamic State between 2014 and 2017 and International Law

From 2014 to 2017, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has been considered one of the most serions threats to the entired world. In order to provide a lawful response against this threat, it is necessary to verify whether the Islamic State is actually a State. The concept of State is still at the centre of the contemporary international legal order, but there is not a general consensus about the elements that constitute a State under international law, and the conditions pursuant to which international personality is conferred to an entity claiming statehood. Accordingly, it can be useful to examine both the factual bases of the Islamic State and its legal entitlement to aspire to become an independent State under international law. From this enquiry, at the moment the Islamic State appears not to be a State in light of international law, but rather a group of insurgents with a territorial basis

Efficacy and safety of a low-flow veno-venous carbon dioxide removal device: results of an experimental study in adult sheep

INTRODUCTION: Extracorporeal lung assist, an extreme resource in patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF), is expanding its indications since knowledge about ventilator-induced lung injury has increased and protective ventilation has become the standard in ARF. METHODS: A prospective study on seven adult sheep was conducted to quantify carbon dioxide (CO(2)) removal and evaluate the safety of an extracorporeal membrane gas exchanger placed in a veno-venous pump-driven bypass. Animals were anaesthetised, intubated, ventilated in order to reach hypercapnia, and then connected to the CO(2 )removal device. Five animals were treated for three hours, one for nine hours, and one for 12 hours. At the end of the experiment, general anaesthesia was discontinued and animals were extubated. All of them survived. RESULTS: No significant haemodynamic variations occurred during the experiment. Maintaining an extracorporeal blood flow of 300 ml/minute (4.5% to 5.3% of the mean cardiac output), a constant removal of arterial CO(2), with an average reduction of 17% to 22%, was observed. Arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO(2)) returned to baseline after treatment discontinuation. No adverse events were observed. CONCLUSION: We obtained a significant reduction of PaCO(2 )using low blood flow rates, if compared with other techniques. Percutaneous venous access, simplicity of circuit, minimal anticoagulation requirements, blood flow rate, and haemodynamic impact of this device are more similar to renal replacement therapy than to common extracorporeal respiratory assistance, making it feasible not only in just a few dedicated centres but in a large number of intensive care units as well

PFS/MEX limb observations of 4.3-μm CO2 non-LTE emission in the atmosphere of Mars

We present PFS-MEX limb observations of the CO2 non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) emission at 4.3 μm in the atmosphere of Mars collected in more than six Martian years. With unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage, and relatively high spectral resolution, this unique dataset promises to improve our understanding of the upper atmosphere of Mars. The former allows analyses of the emission as a function of tangent altitude, solar zenith angle, season, latitude, local time, and thermal condition of the atmosphere. The latter allows unambiguous identification of several emission bands of different isotopologues. We selected observations in the altitude range 50-200 km. No emission was detected for altitudes higher than 170 km. The spectral shape of the non-LTE emission changes dramatically with the altitude of the tangent point, reflecting the different contribution of the major and minor CO2 bands and isotopologues to the total emission at different heights. For altitudes higher than 130 km the observed spectrum is dominated by the second hot (SH) bands of the main isotopologue 12C16O2 (also referred to as 626 SH). At lower altitudes, the contribution of the isotopic 13C16O2 second hot bands (636 SH) to the observed spectrum gradually increases, and is maximum around 70-80 km. Similar consideration apply to the fourth hot bands of the 12C16O2 (626 FRH), and particularly those from the (2001x) levels, whose contribution is maximum around 80-90 km. The 626 SH bands can be observed up to an altitude 160-170 km, and their emission is peaked around 120-130 km. The 626 FRH and 636 SH bands are not observed above 130-140 km. Both the first hot (FH) and the fundamental band (FB) of the main isotopologue show a peculiar behavior. Indeed, these emissions can be observed at all altitudes, from 50 km up to 170 km. The intensity of the FH band increases linearly with decreasing height, while the intensity of the FB band is essentially constant at all altitudes, and rapidly decreases above 150 km. For a fixed altitude, the solar zenith angle (SZA) is the main parameter affecting the intensity and the spectral shape of the non-LTE emission. For SZA between 0 and 40° the intensity of the emission does not show significant variations. For SZAs larger than 40° the observed emission decreases rapidly with increasing SZA, following a cosine-like relation. The different illumination also affects the spectral shape of the non-LTE emission spectrum. High incidence angles tend to increase the relative contribution of weaker bands compared to stronger/optically thicker bands. For a fixed SZA, we found variation of the intensity of the emission with local time, in response to variations of the thermal structure of the atmosphere. Latitudinal variation of the intensity of the CO2 non-LTE are also investigated. The maximum intensity is observed around the sub-solar latitudes, where the solar flux is maximum. The intensity of the emission and the altitude at which the maximum emission is observed also changes with the season. The altitude where the maximum intensity of the 626 SH bands is observed decreases from 120-130 km at the perihelion (Ls = 251°), down to ∼85 km at the southern winter solstice (Ls = 90°). This is explained by the variability of the thermal structure (scale heights) of the Martian atmosphere with the season, as a response to the changing solar flux. The altitude of a given pressure level depends on the thermal structure of the atmosphere which, in turn, depends on the season. On the contrary, the pressure level of the peak emission does not depend on the scale heights, as it is mainly controlled by the CO2 column density above the peak. These results, while on one hand confirm and provide more insights and constraints to some aspects of the non-LTE processes on Mars, on the other hand further stimulate and challenge current theoretical models, possibly bringing closer the moment in which the measurements could be inverted to derive important information about the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere of Mars

Variations in the amount of water ice on Ceres' surface suggest a seasonal water cycle.

The dwarf planet Ceres is known to host a considerable amount of water in its interior, and areas of water ice were detected by the Dawn spacecraft on its surface. Moreover, sporadic water and hydroxyl emissions have been observed from space telescopes. We report the detection of water ice in a mid-latitude crater and its unexpected variation with time. The Dawn spectrometer data show a change of water ice signatures over a period of 6 months, which is well modeled as ~2-km2 increase of water ice. The observed increase, coupled with Ceres' orbital parameters, points to an ongoing process that seems correlated with solar flux. The reported variation on Ceres' surface indicates that this body is chemically and physically active at the present time

GIADA microbalance measurements on board Rosetta: submicrometer- to micrometer-sized dust particle flux in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Context. From August 2014 to September 2016, Rosetta escorted comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) during its journey around the Sun. One of the aims of Rosetta was to characterize cometary activity and the consequent formation of dust flux structures in cometary comae. Aims: We characterize and quantify the submicrometer- to micrometer-sized dust flux that may be shaped in privileged directions within the coma of 67P inbound to and outbound from perihelion. Methods: The in situ dust-measuring instrument GIADA, part of the Rosetta/ESA payload, consisted of three subsystems, one of which was the Micro Balance Subsystem (MBS), composed of five quartz crystal microbalances. From May 2014 to September 2016, MBS measured the submicrometer- to micrometer-sized deposited dust mass every 5 min. Results: We characterized the submicrometer- to micrometer-sized dust mass flux in the coma of 67P. The anti-sunward and the radial direction are preferred, and the flux is higher in the anti-sunward direction. The measured cumulative dust mass in the anti-sunward direction is 2.38 ± 0.04 × 10-7 kg, and in the radial direction, it is 1.18 ± 0.02 × 10-7 kg. We explain the anti-sunward dust flux as the effect of nonuniform gas emission between the night- and dayside of the nucleus, which acts in combination with the solar radiation pressure. We compared the cumulated dust mass of particles ≤5 μm with particles ≥100 μm. The retrieved ratio of ≈2% implies a differential size distribution index of ≈-3.0, which confirms that particles of size ≥0.1 mm dominate the dust coma cross-section of 67P during the entire orbit. Conclusions: Submicrometer- to micrometer-sized dust mass flux measurements were made for the first time from the arising of cometary activity until its extinction. They indicate that these particles do not provide a substantial optical scattering in the coma of 67P with respect to the scattering caused by millimeter-sized particles. In addition, MBS data reveal that the measured dust flux is highly anisotropic: anti-sunward plus radial

Main results from the ISSI international team “characterization of 67P cometary activity”

The ESA/Rosetta mission accompanied the Jupiter Family Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and provided a huge amount of data which are providing important results about cometary activity mechanisms. We summarize the results obtained within the ISSI International Team Characterization of 67P cometary activity, which studied dust and gas ejection in different stages of the comet’s orbit, by means of a data fusion between instruments onboard the Rosetta orbiter, i.e., the OSIRIS camera, the VIRTIS imaging spectrometer, the GIADA dust detector, the MIDAS atomic force microscope, the COSIMA dust mass spectrometer, and the ROSINA gas mass spectrometer, supported by numerical models and experimental work. The team reconstructed the motion of the dust particles ejected from the comet surface, finding a correlation between dust ejection and solar illumination as well as larger occurrence of fluffy (pristine) particles in less processed and more pebble-rich terrains. Dust activity is larger in ice-rich terrains, indicating that water sublimation is the dominant activity process during the perihelion phase. The comparison of dust fluxes of different particle size suggests a link between dust morphology and ejection speed, generation of micrometric dust from fragmentation of millimetric dust, and homogeneity of physical properties of compact dust particles across the 67P surface. The comparison of fluxes of refractory and ice particles suggests the occurrence of a small amount of ice in fluffy particles, which is released when they are fragmented. A new model of cometary activity has been finally developed, according to which the comet nucleus includes Water-Ice-Enriched Blocks (WEBs), that, when exposed by CO2 activity, are the main sources of water sublimation and dust ejection