Shane Darcy

About/Bio

Dr Shane Darcy is a senior lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in the School of Law at the National University of Ireland Galway. In 2019/2020 he is a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science visiting fellow at Doshisha University, Kyoto. He is the author of To Serve the Enemy: Informers, Collaborators and the Laws of Armed Conflict (OUP, 2019) and Judges, Law and War; the Judicial Development of International Humanitarian Law (CUP 2014)

Recently Published

The Human Cost of Using Informers in Conflict and the Ambivalence of International Law

In early October, the Guardian reported that former members of the IRA and British Army commanders may face criminal charges arising from serious offences connected with the use of informers for the purpose of gathering intelligence during the conflict in Northern Ireland. As part of the police inquiry ‘Operation Kenova’,…

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Collective Punishment Receives a Judicial Imprimatur

In her recent book on the application of international humanitarian law by national courts, Sharon Weill describes the “apologist role” that is sometimes played by domestic judicial bodies, whereby decisions of courts serve to legitimise unlawful state policies. Last week’s judgment by the Israeli Supreme Court (sitting as the High Court of Justice) upholding the orders of…

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Military force against Syria would be a reprisal rather than humanitarian intervention, but that doesn’t make it any more lawful

Dr Shane Darcy is a lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway. The anticipated use of military force against Syria in reaction to the use of chemical weapons does not meet the permitted exceptions to the prohibition on the use of force under the United Nations Charter. Security Council authorisation has not…

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