Territorial Leasing In Diplomacy And International Law

Territorial Leasing in Diplomacy and International Law draws from a large number of cases to examine and assess this relatively common but unexplored practice in which states reallocate their rights on territory without altering boundaries or resorting to definitive cessions.

Post-2002 events at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay have generated a spate of books on its use as a detention center in the U.S. fight against terrorism. Yet the crucial enabling factor-the lease that gave the U.S. control over the territory in Cuba-has till now escaped any but cursory consideration. The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay explains just how Guantanamo Bay came to be a leased territory where the U.S. has no sovereignty and Cuba has no jurisdiction. This is the first definitive account of the details and workings of the unusual and problematic state-to-state leasing arrangement that is the essential but murky foundation for all the ongoing controversies about Guantanamo Bay's role in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, charges of U.S. human rights violations, and U.S.-Cuban relations. The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay provides an overview of territorial leasing between states and shows how it challenges, compromises, and complicates established notions of sovereignty and jurisdiction. Strauss unfolds the history of the Guantanamo Bay, recounting how the U.S. has deviated widely from the original terms of the lease yet never been legally challenged by Cuba, owing to the strong state-weak state dynamics. The lease is a hodge-podge of three U.S.-Cuba agreements full of discrepancies and uncorrected errors. Cuba's failure to cash the annual rent checks of the U.S. has legal implications not only for the future of Guantanamo Bay but of the Westphalian system of states. Compiled for the first time in one place are the verbatim texts of all the key documents relevant to the Guantanamo Bay lease-including treaties and other agreements, a previously unpublished U.N. legal assessment, and once-classified government correspondence.

Diplomacy is transforming and expanding its role as the method of interstate relations to a general instrument of communication among globalized societies. Adapting to globalization, the practice of diplomacy is shared by non-state participants, thus becoming privatized and popularized. This book offers a comprehensive understanding of the widening scope of public as well as private diplomacy and its normative framework. It features a practitioner’s inside view of diplomacy combined with interdisciplinary academic analysis.

With a Foreword by Dame Rosalyn Higgins, this book offers useful insights into topical areas of international law and the interaction of law and diplomacy, as exemplified by the Cyprus Problem on which the author has particular expertise.

This book offers a comprehensive, highly informative and interdisciplinary study on territorial integrity and the challenges globalization, self-determination and external interventions present. This study aims at not only to fill an epistemological gap in this regard, but also answer the question of whether International Law is adequately equipped to help states address these challenges. The author argues that the biggest threat that many states are confronted with today is their disintegration rather than their obsolescence, and that International Law has not often been able to prevent that eventuality. In fact, states, when they were not destroyed by war, managed to survive, thanks to the flexibility of territoriality, i.e. their ability to adjust to difficult situations as they arose. It is this understanding of adaptation that urges an increasing number of states today to revive territorial autonomy and restore an original understanding of self-determination in which democracy is a pivotal factor in establishing congruence between the states and their nations. While this move is endorsed by International Law, it is not the case for globalization; for their own sake, proponents of globalization should recognize that the states are irreplaceable as long as they remain the sole providers of protection for their peoples.

Espionage, an area of state activity which is vital to international relations, yet which is unregulated by international law, is coming to assume increasing importance in the `New World Order'. International Law and Espionage examines four major areas of public international law: freedom of information and human rights, diplomacy, territory, and armed conflict. A detailed analysis is given of their theoretical and practical connection to the practice of espionage. The relevance of international law to espionage is clearly demonstrated, not least by the absence of any official link between the two (save in time of war). The conclusion is inescapable: it is high time for international legal provision to be made for the control of an activity which is universal, and which plays such a crucial role in the deterrence of conflict and the maintenance of international peace and security. International Law and Espionage was written by the late Dr John Kish, and completed and edited by David Turns. It is an essential reference work for those who seek to understand the ill-defined legality and permissibility of espionage in the uncertainties of the modern world. Required reading for international lawyers, and all interested in the realities of international relations.