Palestine’s U.N. Membership: Why Does It Matter?

Palestinian officials have announced that they will seek a Security Council vote to approve Palestine as a full member of the United Nations next Friday. Israel has strongly opposed the move, and the United States has announced that, if necessary, it will use its veto powers to preclude approval. Why does the membership vote matter?

Because full-member status would establish broad, formal international recognition of Palestinian statehood. For Palestine, statehood would bring a number of benefits, including diplomatic immunity for many of its officials, the ability to join treaties and vote in the U.N. General Assembly, and standing to litigate with other states—including Israel—before the International Court of Justice. Even more significantly, statehood would establish Palestine’s sovereign equality with Israel and rights to self-determination and territorial integrity.

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International Law as a Tool for Ascertaining Gaddafi’s Whereabouts

In a prior post, I explained that the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) has jurisdiction to prosecute Muammar Gaddafi because the Security Council passed a resolution to that effect in February 2011. Utilizing that jurisdiction, the Court issued arrest warrants against Gaddafi, his son, and his military intelligence chief for crimes against humanity in connection with their suppression of an uprising in eastern Libya several months ago. With Gaddafi effectively out of power and in hiding, news media have begun to speculate on his whereabouts. The latest reports suggest that he may have headed by land into Niger, which shares part of Libya’s southern border. It is unclear whether Niger would be Gaddafi’s final destination, or whether he has even left Libya.

Wherever Gaddafi is headed, international law provides an intriguing tool for prediction. Under the Rome Statute—the ICC’s founding treaty—a state-party is generally obligated to comply with ICC requests for arrest and surrender. Of the states bordering Libya, Chad, Niger, and Tunisia are all party to the Rome State, and thus seem to be obligated to turn Gaddafi over to the Court if they find him within their borders. If international law is effective, we should anticipate that Gaddafi will avoid these states out of fear of arrest.

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Fukushima and the Law of the Sea (Part I)

Two days ago, Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency disclosed estimates of the volume of radioactive material that has escaped from the Fukushima reactor complex since the March earthquake and tsunami. The agency estimates that the emitted volume of radioactive cesium is approximately 168 times higher than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of WWII, and that the volumes of radioactive iodine and strontium are approximately 2.5 times higher. All are linked to cancer, and the cesium and strontium isotopes can persist in the environment for decades.

The estimates are truly alarming. Some have argued that the impact on humans will be limited because the vast majority of the material has fallen or leaked into the ocean, where it will disperse and substantially dilute. But dilution is not a great reassurance. Given the extended half-lives of some of these materials, there is reasonable concern that radiation from Fukushima will damage marine habitats for years and, in turn, harm the citizens of Japan and other proximate countries.

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