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Question 1

Resolution 1244

Answer 1

Resolution 1244 is an SC resolution adopted in 1999 based on chapter VII of the UN Charter in which the SC decided to establish a international civil (UNMIK) and security (KFOR) presence in Kosovo with the aim of ending the violence there.

Question 2

Kosovo Opinion

Answer 2

The court declared that the adoption of the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence did not violate general international law because international law contains no ‘prohibition on declarations of independence’ nor did the adoption of the declaration of independence violate UN Security Council Resolution 1244, since this did not describe Kosovo’s final status, nor had the Security Council reserved for itself the decision on final status.

Question 3

Legal subject

Answer 3

capacity for an actor to have rights and duties under int. law

Question 4

Sources of international law

Answer 4

• International conventions, treaties, resolutions
• Customary international law
• General principles of law
• General decisions and the teachings of the highest legal scholars (opinio juris)
• SC resolutions

Question 5

Vienna Convention

Answer 5

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) is a convention concerning the international law on treaties between states, which defines general matters as for example the entry into force, application, interpretation, invalidity suspension and so on of treaties. It was adopted on 22 May 1969

Question 6

Resolution 1970

Answer 6

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 was a measure adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council that condemned the use of lethal force by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi against protesters participating in the Libyan civil war, and imposed a series of international sanctions in response, like an arms embargo, travel ban for Gaddafis regime members and asset freez and, furthermore, referred the situation in Libya to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

Question 7

Resolution 1973

Answer 7

Resolution 1973 formed the legal basis for military intervention in the Libyaan civil war demanding “an immediate ceasefire” and authorizing the international community to establish a no-fly zone and to use all means necessary short of foreign occupation to protect civilians

Question 8

Exception of the prohibition of the use of force

Answer 8

right of self defense and authorization of SC to maintain and restore threat of international peace and security if other measures not adequate

Question 9

Self-determination of peoples

Answer 9

By the virtue of the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Charter all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every state has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the charter.

Question 10

safeguard clause self-determination

Answer 10

Nothing in the foregoing paragraphs shall be construed as authorizing or encouraging any action which would dismember or imapair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent states conducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples as described above and thus possessed of a government representing the whole people belinging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour.

Question 11

Internal right of self-determination

Answer 11

Right to participate (effective participation and representation) in decision-making internally without discrimination on bases of race, creed or color.

Question 12

External right of self-determination

Answer 12

When the internal right of self-determination is not established (e.g. HR violations).

Right to a state, right to determine the status of the people towards other peoples and a right to separate from a state (remedial secession)

Question 13

Force majeure

Answer 13

Occurrence of an irresistible force or of an unforeseen event, beyond control of a state, making it materially impossible in the circumstances to perform the obligation

Question 14

ILC Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts

Answer 14

The articles on the responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts developed by the international law commission establish (1) the conditions for an act to qualify as internationally wrongful, (2) the circumstances under which actions of officials, private individuals and other entities may be attributed to the state, (3) general defences to liability and (4) the consequences of liabilit such as restitution, compensation or satisfaction. NOT BINDING

Question 15

Rainbow Warrior

Answer 15

The United Nationals Secretary-General ruling on the Rainbow Warrior affair between France and New Zealand constitutes a case were France was made responsible for the attack on a Greenpeace boat made by French undercover agents on territory of New Zealand and therefore the SG ruled that France had to give: 1) a unqualified, formal apology, 2) pay $7M in compensation to NZ, 3) refrain from damaging NZ trade in butter and a trade agreement in meat, 4) accept the sentencing of two agents of three years prison on the island of Hao 4) Any disputes would be sent to arbitration.

Question 16

State responsibility

Answer 16

The laws of state responsibility are the principles governing when and how a state is held responsible for a breach of an international obligation

Question 17

Human rights

Answer 17

Human rights are commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being, as for example the right to life and liberty.

Question 18

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Answer 18

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial (WEST)

Question 19

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Answer 19

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) commits its parties to work toward the granting of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) to individuals, including labour rights and the right to health, the right to education, and the right to an adequate standard of living. (East powers)

Question 20

The three generations of HR

Answer 20

1st generation of HR: Classic rights; civil and political rights; defend yourself agains state

2nd generation of HR: Social rights; economic, social and cultural rights; state active to grant rights

3rd generation of HR: collective rights; group and peoples rights

Question 21

Hopu & Bessert v France

Answer 21

In the Hopu case the Human Rights Committee stated in a communication that the development which disrupted ancient ancestral burial grounds in Tahiti violated the right to privacy and family life under Articles 17 and 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and that France failed to protect the rights of the affected people.

Question 22

Endorois v Kenya

Answer 22

In this case the Commission found that the dispossession of land to the Endorois people, with minimal compensation, violated the Endorois’ right as an indigenous people to property, development, health, culture, religion, and natural resources and therefore ordered Kenya to restore the Endorois to their historic land and to compensate them and.

Question 23

International Humanitarian Law

Answer 23

Lex specialis apply in times of war. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are at the core of international humanitarian law, the body of international law that regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects and specifically protect people who are not taking part in the hostilities (civilians, health workers and aid workers) and those who are no longer participating in the hostilities, such as wounded, sick and shipwrecked soldiers and prisoners of war.

Question 24

Nuclear Weapons Opinion

Answer 24

The ICJ assessed the question concerning the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons handed in by the GA and stated, taking into account the right of self-defence inherent in the charter and principles and rules of humanitarian law, that it cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence.

Question 25

Lex specialis

Answer 25

Lex specialis derogat legi generali.The doctrine states that where two laws govern the same factual situation, a law governing a specific subject matter (lex specialis) overrides a law which only governs general matters (lex generalis)

Question 26

Wall Opinion

Answer 26

The Court considers that Israel cannot rely on a right of self–defence or on a state of necessity in order to preclude the wrongfulness of the construction of the wall and accordingly finds that the construction of the wall and its associated régime breach international humanitarian law and human rights.

Question 27

Proportionality

Answer 27

Countermeasures must be commensurate with the injury suffered, taking into account the gravity of the internationally wrongful act, and the rights in question

Question 28

International criminal law

Answer 28

ICL is a body of international rules designed both to proscribe certain categories of conduct such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide etc. and to make those persons who engage in such conduct criminally liable.

Question 29

customary law

Answer 29

general practice of states accepted as law

Question 30

Conditions for advisory opinion

Answer 30

ICJ MAY (discretion even if conditions are met) give advisory opinion if two conditions are met: it has to be a legal question and the question has to come from a body authorized by or in accordance with the UN charter

Question 31

Remedial secession

Answer 31

Can only secede if the parent state denies basic rights or violates human rights to an area perpetually (similar to external right of self-determination)

Question 32

Three distinctions of international humanitarian law

Answer 32

Int. armed conflict vs non int armed conflict
Conflict (armed hostilities) vs non conflict (hostilities)
Combatants vs non combatants

Question 33

Article 3 common to all geneva conventions

Answer 33

Cover situations of non international armed conflict (Civil war, internal armed conflict that spill over to other states or third states intervene), and establishes fundamental rules from which no derogation is possible, e.g. Human treatment for persons in enemy hands, no murder, mutilation torture, humiliating and degrading treatment. Icrc offer services to parties of conflict.

Question 34

Applicability of the 4th geneva convention

Answer 34

1) armed conflict2) conflict arises between two contracting partners

Question 35

Link between criminal law and humanitarian law

Answer 35

Humanitarian law: prohibits certain actions in warInt. criminal law: judges certain behavior in war

Question 36

Joint criminal venture

Answer 36

Group of persons committing a crime that comprises a collective element such as a common purpose and plan and a subjective element such as the intent to perpetuate a certain crime and the personal knowledge of the system of illtreatment

Question 37

Šainović

Answer 37

In 2009 Šainović was held responsible for joint criminal enterprise and convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against ethnic Albanian civilians in 1999 in the Kosovo War.

Question 38

International criminal court

Answer 38

ICC was established by the Rome Statute of the ICC in 1998 and court with international legal character with jurisdiction limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community such as crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression

Question 39

Reservation

Answer 39

Bind yourself to a treaty but excluding certain articles/ provisions

Question 40

Principle of erga omnes

Answer 40

• “Duties to comply with, towards all” = Breach of this duty allows the other party(ies) to take measures under international law
• For example: Human rights or the principle of self-determination