Human Security and International Law: The Potential Scope for Legal Development within the Analytical Framework of Security

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Hart Publishing via the link in this record.Human security is a human or people-centred and multi-sectoral approach to security, emphasising the empowerment of people to enhance their potential through concerted efforts to develop norms, processes and institutions that systematically address insecurities. Although the idea itself arguably precedes the formation of the Westphalian system, it was the UN Development Programme that captured it into policy discourse in 1994. Since then, the idea has facilitated, for example, the adoption of new treaties concerning the protection of civilians during and in the aftermath of armed violence, and has informed debates as to how certain rules of international law should be interpreted or applied. After locating human security within the analytical framework of security, this paper considers legal or structural obstacles to the notion of human security being harnessed more widely across all fields of international law. This chapter finds that the notion of human security challenges international law not only in respect of its sovereignty-based legal framework but more significantly in relation to the very notion of security shared by policymakers and jurists in legal contexts.This research was partly supported under the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project funding scheme (Project Number: DP130103683)

Japan's 2015 security legislation: challenges to its implementation under International Law

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the link in this record. ILS is an open access journal.Japan’s new security legislation, enacted on September 30, 2015 amid fierce debate over its constitutionality, is designed to enable a “seamless response” to any security situation that may arise. While public debate has been fixated on the re-interpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which underpins the theoretical foundation of this new legislation, there are also important international law issues that need to be addressed. After briefly reviewing the historical background leading to the adoption of the new security legislation and its contents, this article examines how the Self-Defense Force (SDF) can respond with the use of force to contemporary security issues within the new legislative framework, while also complying with the relevant rules of international law. It examines three different situations in which the SDF may find itself operating: “gray zone” situations; peacekeeping operations with a mandate to protect civilians; and collective self-defense. It concludes that while the new security legislation goes some way to mend the unravelled seams left by the previous legislative regime, disjuncture between the new legislative regime and relevant rules of international law remains, leaving gaps and uncertainties that can be exploited by hostile actors

The Expanded Conception of Security and International Law: Challenges to the UN Collective Security System

This is the final version of the article. Available from VU University Library via the link in this record.There has been a gradual move towards recognising more diverse security issues as posing security threats to more diverse actors in broader frontiers. While the multidimensionality of security is now widely acknowledged in the discourse of security, its impacts on and challenges to international law are yet to be fully examined. Particularly, the expanded conception of security has posed challenges to the UN collective security system. This article considers the challenges posed to collective security, with respect to four different objects of security: national security; international security; human security; and regime security. It discusses the limits of collective security in effectively responding to the expanded conception of security within the existing framework of international law, and revisits alternative security approaches, evaluating their potential to complement collective security in dealing with diverse security objects and threats

The Regime of Innocent Passage in Disputed Waters

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the link in this recordThe regime of innocent passage is a well-established body of customary international law. However, when there is a dispute over sovereign entitlement to a territorial sea or its outer limit, the applicability and legal effect of the regime are brought into question. This article considers the applicability of the regime of innocent passage and its legal effect in disputed waters by critically examining the relevant jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals that have dealt with territorial and maritime disputes. The efficacy of the findings from this analysis will then be evaluated from a legal policy perspective in the interest of the maintenance of international peace and security

Numerical Study of Photo-Induced Dynamics in Double-Exchange Model

Photo-induced spin and charge dynamics in double-exchange model are numerically studied. The Lanczos method and the density-matrix renormalization-group method are applied to one-dimensional finite-size clusters. By photon irradiation in a charge ordered (CO) insulator associated with antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlation, both the CO and AFM correlations collapse rapidly, and appearances of new peaks inside of an insulating gap are observed in the optical spectra and the one-particle excitation spectra. Time evolutions of the spin correlation and the in-gap state are correlated with each other, and are governed by the transfer integral of conduction electrons. Results are interpreted by the charge kink/anti-kink picture and their effective motions which depend on the localized spin correlation. Pump-photon density dependence of spin and charge dynamics are also studied. Roles of spin degree of freedom are remarkable in a case of weak photon density. Implications of the numerical results for the pump-probe experiments in perovskite manganites are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

Effect of quantum lattice fluctuations on the optical-absorption spectra of halogen-bridged mixed-valence transition-metal complexes

The effect of quantum lattice fluctuations on the optical-absorption spectra in the ground state of halogen-bridged mixed-valence transition-metal linear-chain complexes is studied by using a one-dimensional extended Peierls-Hubbard model. The nonadiabatic effects due to finite phonon frequency $\omega_{\pi}>0$ are treated through an energy-dependent electron-phonon scattering function $\delta(k^{\prime},k)$ introduced by means of an unitary transformation. The calculated optical-absorption spectra do not have the inverse-square-root singularity, but they have a peak above the gap edge and there exists a significant tail below the peak, which are consistent with the optical-absorption coefficient or the optical conductivity measurements of this material.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

ASEAN and the development of counter-terrorism law and policy in Southeast Asia

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the link in this record

Introduction: The expanded conception of security and institutions

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this recordIntroduction Security is a dynamic, context-dependent concept that is inevitably shaped by social conditions and practices. The socio-political perception of security threats influences our security policies relevant to political decisions about the design of social institutions specifically addressing those security concerns. Security is traditionally understood to be physical protection of national territory and its population from the destructive effects of warfare through military means. Social institutions including but not limited to national governing institutions, inter-governmental institutions and the military are all devices developed through human history to collectively address traditional security threats. Security is often considered to be an antithesis of the rule of law and civil liberty, justifying violation of rules and the restriction of freedom. However, the development of international law and the institutionalisation of international public authorities have contributed to the increased normalcy or containment of extra-legal responses to security threats. For example, the Charter of the United Nations (‘UN Charter’) provides institutionalised mechanisms as the means of regulating the behaviour of sovereign states and conflict among them. The nuclear non-proliferation regime establishes mechanisms for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and facilitating the development of peaceful nuclear energy technology by institutionalising the asymmetric obligations between designated nuclear-weapon states and other non-nuclear-weapon states. Yet, towards the end of the Cold War the concept of security began to expand, which subsequently led to the proliferation of contemporary security issues such as economic security, environmental security, energy and resource security, health security and bio-security. The conception of security also took a dramatic turn following the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, blurring the traditional boundaries between international security and national security threats. Those changes in the conception of security world-wide have tested the potential of existing institutions, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to assume a new role in the changing security paradigms, both at international and domestic levels

Photogenerated Carriers in SrTiO3 Probed by Mid-Infrared Absorption

Infrared absorption spectra of SrTiO$_3$ have been measured under above-band-gap photoexcitations to study the properties of photogenerated carriers, which should play important roles in previously reported photoinduced phenomena in SrTiO$_3$. A broad absorption band appears over the entire mid-infrared region under photoexcitation. Detailed energy, temperature, and excitation power dependences of the photoinduced absorption are reported. This photo-induced absorption is attributed to the intragap excitations of the photogenerated carriers. The data show the existence of a high density of in-gap states for the photocarriers, which extends over a wide energy range starting from the conduction and valence band edges.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp