Disputed Territories

Ethnic conflicts have shaped the 20th century in significant ways. While the legacy of the last century is primarily one of many unresolved conflicts, the author contends that Western Europe has a track record in containing and settling ethnic conflicts which provides valuable lessons for conflict management elsewhere. Focusing on ethno-territorial crossborder conflicts in Alsace, the Saarland, South Tyrol, and Northern Ireland, Andorra and the New Hebrides, the author develops a four-dimensional analytical framework that synthesizes the distinct factors that influence the complex relationship between host-state, kin-state, actors in the disputed territory, and in the international context.

Ethnic conflicts have shaped the 20th century in significant ways. While the legacy of the last century is primarily one of many unresolved conflicts, the author contends that Western Europe has a record for settling ethnic conflicts which provides valuable lessons for conflict management elsewhere.

It has been over 50 years since the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. It is estimated that there are over 600,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and they are supported, protected, and maintained by the Israeli state. This book discusses whether international criminal law could apply to those responsible for allowing and promoting this growth, and examines what this application would reveal about the operation of international criminal law. It provides a comprehensive analysis of how the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court could apply to the settlements in the West Bank through a close examination of the potential operation of two relevant Statute crimes: first, the war crime of transfer of population; and second, the war crime of unlawful appropriation of property. It also addresses the threshold question of whether the law of occupation applies to the West Bank, and how the principles of individual criminal responsibility might operate in this context. It explores the relevance and coherence of the legal arguments relied on by Israel in defence of the legality of the settlements and considers how these arguments might apply in the context of the Rome Statute. The work also has wider aims, raising questions about the Rome Statute’s capacity to meet its aim of establishing a coherent and legally effective system of international criminal justice.

Disputed Territories investigates the significance of land for contesting cultural identities in comparable settler societies. In the regions of Australasia and southern Africa, European visions of landscape and nature have engaged with southern hemisphere environments and the cultures of indigenous peoples. Amid conflicts over land as a material resource, there has also been an intellectual contest over the aesthetic, iconic and cultural meanings of natural forms and species.Arising from a programme of seminars held at The University of Western Australia, this collection of eminent international authors assembles contributions from anthropology, geography, history and literary studies. The combination of diverse methods and theoretical approaches establishes the ways that land and nature constitute disputed territories in the mind, as well as material resources subject to pragmatic negotiations.

Kakaism, Yarsan, is an ancient Kurdish religion. Kakais argue that the Medes Empire (678 - 549 BC) was a Kakai state. Kakaism has been secret for one thousand years to protect itself against Islamic invasion. Now some Kakais are ready to tell about their respect to nature, equality between men and women, and their belief in reincarnation. Iran wants to make a land corridor to the Israel border via the Iraqi Disputed territories. Kakai villages are destroyed there in Iranian proxy war. There is a danger of a genocide and loss of thousands years old Kurdish cultural traditions. In Iran Yarsans are assimilated to Shiism by fake claims that five thousand years old Yarsan is a branch of the four thousand years younger Shiite Islam.

This book examines the historical and contextual background to the oil and gas resources in the Kurdish territories, placing particular emphasis on the reserves situated in the disputed provinces. The volume is singularly unique in focusing on an examination of the rules reflected in both the national and the regional constitutional, legislative, and contractual measures and documents relevant to the question of whether the central government in Baghdad or the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil has a stronger claim to legal control over the oil and gas resources in the disputed Kurdish territories. As a subsidiary focus, the author also draws attention to how the basic thrust of the volume connects to broader jurisprudential issues regarding the nature and purpose of law, the matter of claims by native peoples to natural resources on traditional lands, and the place of regional minorities operating in a federal system. Since the law examined is domestic or municipal in origin, additional reference is made to the role that such law can play in the "bottom up" (as opposed to more conventional "top down") development of international law. The book’s opening chapters provide a valuable contextual introduction, followed by a number of substantive chapters providing an analytical and critical assessment of the controlling legal rules. Written in a scholarly, yet accessible style, and covering matters of basic importance to academics, lawyers, political scientists, government representatives, and students of energy and natural resources, as well as those of developing legal structures, Oil and Gas in the Disputed Kurdish Territories is an essential addition to any collection.

A comprehensive treatment of the rights and obligations of States within disputed maritime areas under international law.

Territorial disputes refer to disputes over territories that are claimed by two or more independent countries. The disputes may evolve from historical and/or cultural claims, or they may be brought on by competition of resource exploitation. This book sets out to present a guide to resource management in disputed areas throughout the world.