Final Exam Flashcards
Who are the main actors in international law?
States, international organizations, groups of people (common cultural, ethnic, national, or racial community), individuals, non-governmental organizations
What is communitarian law?
rules collectively made by the international community whose interest and values trump those of individual states
What is natural law?
universal laws bind all humans together regardless of social context or explicit consent.
What is voluntary law?
man-made rules that political leaders have consented to, either explicitly or implicitly.
What is the contractual perspective?
international law is the result of mutually beneficial cooperation between states. generally, international law improves outcomes for all states because of their ability to consent to laws. if it didn’t benefit them, they wouldn’t consent to the laws.
What is the collaboration problem?
states jointly benefit from choosing the same action but each state is tempted to unilaterally deviate to a different action.
What is the coordination problem?
all states have a shared incentive to use a common rule but states disagree about what that rule should be.
What is the commitment problem?
sequential decision making in which a plan that is initially optimal becomes less optimal as time passes.
What is the screening problem?
when a state has a hard time credibly communicating its preferences to others.
What is the critical perspective?
argues that international law has little impact on state behavior because states can choose which laws to follow. international law is ambiguous and easily taken advantage of. international law is a reflection of economic and political power.
What is the sociological perspective?
state preferences are malleable and international law can help to change these preferences over time. persuasion and socialization as important causal pathways for changing individual preferences. states are not unitary actors, they are comprised of diverse people with different preferences.
What is the enforcement perspective?
states are rational actors, therefore, policy decisions are based on cost-benefit assessment, calling into questions international law’s ability to change state behavior. if the costs of failure to comply, punishment, is high and more likely, then a state is more likely to comply, therefore consequences should be high.
What is the flexibility perspective?
emphasizes punishment but also believes that states have real reasons for not complying. economic and political pressures to comply with international law can change unexpectedly. states should be allowed to break their commitments sometimes without severe punishment so that states continue to join treaties in the future.
What is the managerial perspective?
states are predisposed to comply with international law because they select agreements that are easy to follow, because of normative force, and because it is more efficient to follow rules. if a state does happen to break a rule it might be because of legal ambiguity, they lack the capacity to comply, or because they haven’t had enough time to change their policies to comply. believes that punishments are ineffective.
What are the conditions precluding wrongfulness?
actions of injured state (injured state consents to breach, self defense, countermeasure); external forces (force majeure, distress, necessity)
What are countermeasures?
legal violation taken in response to a prior wrongful act by another state.
How can states prevent the abuse of flexibility under international law?
compensation, but putting a price on noncompliance can be problematic because then rich states can just pay to escape from having to follow the law. appeals to exception, which is where states define circumstances in which they can break the law without punishment.
What is judicial economy?
judicial body should not make rulings when they are unnecessary to resolve a dispute.
What is judicial propriety?
there is no need for a judicial ruling because it serves no judicial function
What is reparation and what are the different forms of reparation?
reparation is when a state that broke international law repairs the damage to injured states. there is restitution, compensation, and satisfaction.
What is restitution?
seeks to return the injured state to the condition it was in before the breach. however, not always feasible.
What is compensation?
a sum corresponding to the value which a restitution in kind would bear
What is satisfaction?
verbal/written statement that acknowledges or apologizes for a legal breach.
What is retorsion?
a lawful act used to punish a state.
What is scorecard diplomacy?
public grading of states to influence behavior.
Why do international judicial institutions sometimes decide that a case is inadmissible?
inadmissible if some 3rd party states are involved, actor filing the case does not have standing (legal interest in dispute), state has not followed proper procedure in challenging violation, not done in timeliness
Who was Francisco de Vitoria?
Spanish monk that believed in divine/natural law. He formulated ideas on Spanish rights/obligations in the Americas. His idea of Law of war (conflict with non-Europeans): indigenous people have as many rights as the Europeans. Their rights should not be deprived of.
Who was Hugo Grotius?
Classical era thinker that believed in freedom of the seas, laws of war, rights of multinational corporation (Dutch East Company has the right to wage wars against others)
Who was John Austin?
positivist thinker that defined law as a system of rules that were created and enforced by a supreme sovereign using sanctions. He believes in voluntary law. He viewed natural law as a destructive force that threatened the stability of man-made law.
Who was Raphael Lemkin?
invented the word genocide and created World Movement to Outlaw Genocide.
Who was Thomas Aquinas?
theorist in the Middle Ages that argued for natural law comes from human reasons (e.g. we can reason toward what is a “just war”).
What is the significance of WWII in the development of international law and international legal institutions?
Before WWII, individuals were excluded as a subject of international law. States were responsible, not humans. However, after WWII, human rights law was developed to protect individuals and created political, civil, cultural, and other rights. WWII shifted principles for treating POW from reciprocity to unconditionality. Legally, countries used courts to prosecute war criminals. intellectual separation of a state and a leader, individuals can be punished for breaking law, challenges conceptions of official immunity (German commanders were responsible for war crimes, not the state itself)
What is the significance of the 1991 Gulf War in environmental law?
US-led coalition fought to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait. As Iraqi troops retreated, they set over 600 Kuwaiti oil wells on fire, causing massive air pollution. Iraqi troops also released four to six million barrels of oil from a Kuwaiti facility into the Persian Gulf. These behaviors are not militarily necessary and polluted the environment thus condemned by UN General Assembly. Environmental concerns can thus affect the legality of targets and methods.
What is the significance of 9/11 on law on armed conflict?
Before 2001, states were not allowed to attack non-state actors that reside in other countries, but states did it anyway even if the states did not effectively control the group. After 9/11, states gained the right to self-defense against terrorism. US attacked Taliban Regime in Afghanistan for harboring al-Qaeda terrorists, opening door to similar attacks. US is not in AP/I, and are able to count plain-clothed ISIL fighters as terrorists instead of combatants.
What is command responsibility?
commanders are criminally responsible if they fail to prevent or punish crimes committed by the troops under their effective control.
