Applying International Humanitarian Law In Judicial And Quasi Judicial Bodies

The work analyzes the impact and implementation of international humanitarian law in judicial and quasi judicial bodies. Moreover, acknowledging the high impact domestic jurisdictions have in the configuration of international law, the book does not rest only in an analysis of the international jurisprudence, but delves also into the question of how domestic courts relate to international humanitarian law issues.

This book represents the first effort in assessing the role and contribution of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in interpreting and developing rules and principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. First, the book addresses the Court's possibilities and limitations in the fields of international human rights and humanitarian law. Second, in exposing the contribution of the Court, the book provides a detailed analysis of relevant case law stretching from its establishment in 1946 to the end of 2007. It should be noted that through its case law, the Court has managed to wed international law to humanitarian demands for protection and respect for individual human rights, human life, and human dignity. The third component of the book looks into the relationship between the ICJ and specialized international human rights and humanitarian law courts and tribunals and international quasi-judicial bodies. Finally, the author offers a number of conclusions and recommendations aimed at enhancing the possible role and impact of the ICJ and improving the international legal system concerned with the promotion and the protection of human rights. Intersentia is proud to announce that both Antoine Buyse and Gentian Zyberi won the Max van der Stoel Human Rights Award 2008.

La page d'accueil porte : "International courts and judicial bodies play a formative role in the development of international humanitarian law. Judges, Law and War examines how judicial bodies have influenced the substantive rules and principles of the law of armed conflict, and studies the creation, application and enforcement of this corpus of laws. Specifically, it considers how international courts have authoritatively addressed the meaning and scope of particular rules, the application of humanitarian law treaties and the customary status of specific norms. Key concepts include armed conflicts and protected persons, guiding principles, fundamental guarantees, means and methods of warfare, enforcement and war crimes. Consideration is also given to the contemporary place of judicial bodies in the international law-making process, the challenges presented by judicial creativity and the role of customary international law in the development of humanitarian law."

International law is increasingly applied in domestic courts. This can result in situations where the courts are being asked to rule on politically sensitive issues, especially issues which involve actions during armed conflicts. Domestic courts do not show a uniformity of approach in addressing cases concerning international humanitarian law, and can often be seen to differ markedly in their response. The book argues that different national courts demonstrate different functional roles in different countries. These can be situated on a scale from apology to utopia, which can be set out as follows: (1) the apologist role of courts, in which they serve as a legitimating agency of the state's actions; (2) the avoiding role of courts, in which they, for policy considerations, avoid exercising jurisdiction over a case; (3) The deferral role of courts, in which courts defer back to the other branches of the government the responsibility of finding an appropriate remedy (4) the normative application role of courts, in which they apply international humanitarian law as required by the rule of law; and (5) the utopian role of courts, in which they introduce moral judgments in favour of the protection of the individual, beyond the requirements of the law. The book investigates the rulings of five key domestic courts, those of the UK, the USA, Canada, Italy, and Israel, to understand how their approaches differ, and where their practice can be placed on the methological scale. This analysis has been assisted by the author's extensive field work, notably in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Providing a detailed understanding each court's function, the book offers a critical analysis of the courts' rulings, in which both the legal arguments and the political context of cases they have ruled on are examined. The book shows that the functional role of the national courts is a combination of contradictions and mixed attitudes, and that national courts are in the process of defining their own role as enforcing organs of international humanitarian law.

This volume contains, for each aspect of international humanitarian law, a summary of the relevant treaty law and relevant state practice including legislation, military manuals, case-law and official statements, as well as practice of international organisations, conferences and judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. It offers a comprehensive overview of what current or past practice has been in the chosen representative countries around the world. This original and Authoritative work is published by Cambridge in association with the ICRC and will be an essential reference work for anyone involved with international humanitarian law.

Over the past two centuries, the concept of human dignity has moved from the fringes to the centre of the international legal system. This book is the first detailed historical, theoretical and legal investigation of human dignity as a normative value, the intellectual sources that shaped its legal recognition, and the main legal instruments used to give it expression in international law. Ginevra Le Moli addresses the broad historical and philosophical developments relating to the legal expression of dignity and the doctrinal geography of human dignity in international law, with a focus on international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law. The book fills a major lacuna in the literature by providing a comprehensive account of dignity within international law that draws on an extensive documentary and archival basis and a vast body of decisions of international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies.

Human rights are invoked on many occasions. But are they more than lofty values and abstract principles? In providing a concise but comprehensive overview of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels, this book offers an introduction to the ideas, conceptual underpinnings, and doctrine of international human rights law including the sources, legal nature, and scope of application of human rights obligations. The issues of implementation and enforceability at the domestic, regional, and universal level are explored, and the impact of the recently established Human Rights Council is assessed. The substantive guarantees covering economic, social, and cultural as well as civil and political rights based on the case law of UN treaty bodies and relevant regional courts are evaluated. This book shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them. It explores the various mechanisms set up by the international community to monitor the implementation of human rights guarantees and to decide individual cases brought to the attention of human rights courts and quasi-judicial bodies at the international level. Its last part contains a detailed exploration of the meanings of human rights guarantees, such as the right to life, the prohibition of torture, non-discrimination, economic rights, and many others.

This book examines the international humanitarian law rules and their application by the ad hoc tribunals with regard to the substantive laws of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR).