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Piracy off Somalia: a sketch of the legal framework

April 20, 2009

Douglas Guilfoyle

Dr Douglas Guilfoyle is a Lecturer in Law at University College London. His research has focussed on the law of the sea and international and transanational criminal law. He is the author of ‘Piracy Off Somalia: UN Security Council Resolution 1816 and IMO Regional Counter-Piracy Efforts’ (2008) 57 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 690-699. His book Shipping Interdiction and the Law of the Sea will be published by Cambridge University Press later this year. We're all familiar now with the pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia's east coast, especially following the hijacking of the Sirius Star 500 nm off the coast of Kenya in November 2008 and the more recent uses of lethal force by French and US navies to free hostages seized by pirates. Although, the international law of piracy is quite straightforward, its implementation - especially in a situation as complex as the Gulf of Aden - is rather more difficult. Some of the problems are legal and some practical. The law applicable to piracy off Somalia is…

Can UNSC Presidential Statements be Legally Binding?

April 15, 2009

Marko Milanovic

The United States government now apparently thinks so. A couple of days ago the Security Council adopted a presidential statement condemning the recent missile launch by North Korea (press release here; text here). In response to reporters questioning why the Council was unable to adopt a formal resolution, and whether this meant that the…

The Security Council and Human Rights: What is the role of Art. 103 of the Charter?

March 30, 2009

Dapo Akande

At last week's ASIL meeting there was a panel on whether the United Nations Security Council is bound by human rights law. The panelists (Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, University of Athens & Gráinne de Búrca, Fordham University School of Law) discussed cases such as the Kadi decision of the European Court of Justice, Al…

Sayadi: The Human Rights Committee’s Kadi (or a pretty poor excuse for one…)

January 29, 2009

Marko Milanovic

In October 2008, the Human Rights Committee decided the Sayadi case (CCPR/C/94/D/1472/2006) regarding UN Security Council terrorist blacklists, and the decision has now been made public (h/t to Bill Schabas, who made available the text of the views). As I will now explain, the Committee regrettably failed to do justice to the many complex issues of international law that…

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The Constructive Ambiguity of the Security Council’s ISIS Resolution

November 21, 2015

Dapo Akande & Marko Milanovic

UN Photo/Loey Felipe On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2249 (2015), condemning a series of recent terrorist attacks by Islamic State (IS, ISIS or ISIL). The text of the resolution, together with statements of Council members, is available here. This resolution was proposed by France and superseded two competing earlier drafts by…

The Legality of Military Action in Syria: Humanitarian Intervention and Responsibility to Protect

August 28, 2013

Dapo Akande

It now seems fairly clear that the US and the UK are set to take military action in Syria in the coming days in response to the recent chemical attacks there. The UK Prime Minister, UK Foreign Secretary and the UK Secretary of State for Defence have all asserted that any action…

Stepping Back a Moment – The Legal Basis in Favour of a Principle of Humanitarian Intervention

September 12, 2013

Sir Daniel Bethlehem KC

Sir Daniel Bethlehem KCMG QC is a barrister in practice at the London Bar, Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and was formerly principal Legal Adviser of the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office. The debate on possible intervention in Syria has moved beyond the discussion of…

Illegal But Legitimate?

April 10, 2017

Marko Milanovic

I have always thought that proponents of humanitarian intervention simply cannot make a persuasive case that it is already an existing rule of international law (even if they can make a case that it should be a rule of international law). I have similarly always thought, on the other hand, that the position that an intervention is legally…