The 2024 ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the "Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem" was a groundbreaking moment in international law. It has consequences not only for Israel, but also for third States, as well as international and regional organizations, in terms of non-recognition and non-cooperation. In this blog symposium, Palestinian, Israeli, and other scholars take stock of the Advisory Opinion and its regional and global impact.
Read all articles >>Law and Political Economy in Germany
The Law and Political Economy discourse has attracted widespread attention in US legal academia. Drawing from the conference „Law and Political Economy in Germany“ in June in Berlin, this blog symposium dives into a dialogue between the Law and Political Economy Discourse and German legal thinking. Convened by Andreas Engert, Eva Herzog, Anna-Bettina Kaiser, Bertram Lomfeld and Silvia von Steinsdorff, the symposium is supported by „The Laws of Social Cohesion“ and its collaborators.
Read all articles >>ZIVILER VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ
Das Projekt Bundesrepublik!
Wir starten etwas Neues: Das Projekt Bundesrepublik. Stell dir vor, die Autoritären gewinnen. Was passiert dann? Worauf müssen wir uns vorbereiten – im Bund und in den Ländern?
Dem wollen wir in unserem neuen Projekt auf den Grund gehen. Die Zeit drängt! Spende jetzt, werde Teil der VB-Community und mach dich stark — für zivilen Verfassungsschutz.
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Volume 6,Issues 1
April 2024
UNSERE NEUESTE VERÖFFENTLICHUNG
Max Steinbeis: Die verwundbare Demokratie
Während Populisten überall auf der Welt die freiheitliche Rechtsordnung aushebeln, halten wir unsere Demokratie noch immer für unverwundbar. Die Feinde der demokratischen Vielfalt missbrauchen unter dem Vorwand, die wahren Interessen des Volkes zu vertreten, das Recht. Was droht Deutschland? Dieses Buch von Maximilian Steinbeis ist die zentrale Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse des Thüringen-Projekts und zeigt am Beispiel Thüringen, wie Populisten den freiheitlichen Staat zerstören könnten, indem sie Gesetze und Institutionen missbrauchen.
Es kann hier bestellt werden.
LATEST POSTS
Non-Recognition and Non-Assistance
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) not only made it crystal clear that Israeli occupation is illegal in every respect – by itself a challenge for Western foreign offices as they face reproaches for double standards. The Court also added a number of paragraphs detailing the legal consequences of the Advisory Opinion for UN Member States.
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Unseating the Israeli Government from the UN General Assembly in case of non-compliance with the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024
This post analyses the possibility of unseating the Israeli Government from the UN General Assembly in case of non-compliance with the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024. The Advisory Opinion provides a particularly strong legal basis – grounded primarily in the right to self-determination – to unseat Israel’s government from the General Assembly until it complies with the Opinion – as the Assembly did with South Africa fifty years ago.
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New Structure, New Priorities
Von der Leyen has recently unveiled the new structure of the next Commission. At first sight it looks like a relatively light structure composed of only three hierarchical levels: the President on top, six Executive Vice-Presidents in the middle and the Commissioners at the bottom. However, as this post will argue, the new Commission is likely to become more hierarchical and less coordinated than before. Moreover, the new structure also reflects changing priorities that will lead to a less green agenda and increased competitiveness of the EU.
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Taking Locus Standing of International Actors Seriously
On October 4th 2024 the Court of Justice issued its judgement in Front Polisario II upholding the judgement in which GC annulled Council’s decision on the conclusion of the trade agreement between European Union and Morocco. In its landmark judgement the Court acknowledged the legal standing of Front Polisario – the liberation movement representing rights of the people of Western Sahara. The Court’s findings advance the flexible and adequate approach on access to EU’s courts – and for that are worth applauding.
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Bridging the CFSP Gap
The CJEU interprets its Common Foreign and Security Policy jurisdiction in light of the objectives set by the Lisbon Treaty, thereby integrating part and parcel of the CFSP into the rest of the European Union acquis. This aligns the CFSP with the general principles and constitutional rules set in the Treaty. As the Court advances the integration of CFSP jurisdiction within the broader EU legal order, the judgements of 10 September 2024 in Neves 77 Solutions and KS and KD v Council and Others serve as landmark ruling for the future of judicial review in CFSP.
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Third State obligations in the ICJ Advisory Opinion
What are the possible implications of the Advisory Opinion for the United Kingdom and Cyprus with regard to the UK’s arms and surveillance support to Israel through its military bases in Cyprus? This post argues that the third State obligations identified by the Court, including the duty not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the illegal situation, also apply to the current war in Gaza.
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The Obligation of Non-recognition, Occupation and the OPT Advisory Opinion
In the OPT Advisory Opinion, the ICJ considered that Israel’s abuse of its position as an Occupying Power, through de jure and de facto annexation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, renders Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful. In determining the legal consequences of this illegal presence, the Court held by a vote of 12:3, that all States are under an obligation “not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. This holding was not accompanied by any concretization in either the Advisory Opinion or any of the many declarations and separate opinions attached to it.
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Populismus und Plebiszit
Im kleinsten deutschsprachigen Staat, dem Fürstentum Liechtenstein, war der Einfluss rechtspopulistischer Parteien bisher überschaubar. Doch in letzter Zeit scheinen populistische Akteure in dem alpinen Kleinstaat einen Hebel entdeckt zu haben: die direkte Demokratie. Seit 2020 gab es bereits zwölf Abstimmungen, davon allein sechs im Jahr 2024. Gerade aus einer parlamentarischen Minderheitsposition heraus instrumentalisieren rechtspopulistische Kräfte direktdemokratische Verfahren, wenn ihnen entsprechende Möglichkeiten zur Verfügung stehen.
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Wie viel Pay ist Equal Pay?
Eine Mitarbeiterin der Daimler AG hat erfolgreich auf Equal Pay geklagt: Das Arbeitsgericht Stuttgart stellte eine geschlechtsspezifische Lohndiskriminierung fest und sprach ihr die Differenz zum Medianentgelt der männlichen Vergleichsgruppe zu. Doch an wessen Gehalt orientiert sich die Nachzahlung? Diese Frage beantwortete das LAG Baden-Württemberg nun in kurioser Weise: Es sprach der Klägerin einen Ausgleich in Höhe der Differenz zwischen dem weiblichen und dem männlichen Medianentgelt zu. Eine Entscheidung, die dazu führen würde, dass Betroffene von Lohndiskriminierungen in keinem Fall ein ihnen zustehendes Spitzengehalt gerichtlich geltend machen könnten.
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Legislating Reproductive Rights
In May, the Brazilian parliament introduced a bill that included a gestational age limit for performing abortions, even in cases where the pregnancy resulted from rape. In practice, the bill would criminalize women who were victims of sexual violence, especially young girls. The proposal triggered a strong reaction from civil society, which ultimately prompted parliament to withdraw the bill. The case illustrates how the Brazilian parliament has become a dangerous place for women’s sexual and reproductive rights – a situation that has worsened due to an institutional dispute between the parliament and the constitutional court.
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Limiting ‘Security’ as a Justification in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion
While international law accepts that States may employ otherwise prohibited actions in exceptional circumstances and within certain constraints, the Advisory Opinion firmly affirms that security cannot justify illegal actions such as annexation or prolonged occupation. The rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination, cannot be compromised by security claims. The Advisory Opinion serves to limit State practices predicated upon security when those practices violate essential rights and when the security claim is based upon an illegal situation created by the very State which invokes security concerns.
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Security Considerations, the Duty to End Belligerent Occupations and the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Israeli practices and policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
This contribution discusses three possible rationales for the Court’s rejection of the relevance of Israel’s security concerns: Lack of proof of serious and legitimate security concerns by Israel, the insufficiency of broad security concerns to justify the continued use of force, and the insufficiency of broad security concerns to deny realization of Palestinian self-determination. As long as international law doctrine on the duty to end a belligerent occupation despite the prevalence of serious security concerns remains contested, and as long as security conditions in the region remain extremely unstable, it is unlikely that a withdrawal will be deemed practicable
Continue reading >>Halbgare Würste
Bekanntlich sind Gesetze wie Würste. Doch dass man – anders als nach dem Otto von Bismarck zugeschriebenen Zitat – bei beiden durchaus dabei sein sollte, wenn sie gemacht werden, zeigt die momentane Reform des Tierschutzgesetzes. Am 26. September fand im Bundestag die erste Lesung statt. Der Gesetzesentwurf wurde in den vergangenen eineinhalbjährigen Vorarbeiten an entscheidenden Stellen abgeschwächt oder nicht zu Ende gedacht und begegnet deshalb rechtlichen Bedenken. Bevor es zu spät ist, sollten sich die anstehenden Ausschussberatungen jetzt um zukunftsfähige Regelungen bemühen, statt halbgare Kompromisse zu verwursten.
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Uber knows. Do you?
Law shapes and is shaped by the contemporary, dominant economic system. This contribution illustrates this finding by the case of Uber.
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The ICJ’s Treatment of Questions of Occupation in Gaza
The ICJ’s treatment of the state of occupation in Gaza is questionable. While it rightly accepted the functional approach to occupation, I doubt whether Israel was indeed capable of exercising its authority in Gaza sufficiently for its occupation to be found as having continued post-2005. The Court should have relied on Israel’s continued exercise of administrative authority vis-a-vis Gaza residents to find the existence of a state of occupation.
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The Functional Approach as Lex Lata
The ICJ has de facto adopted the functional approach to occupation with regard to Gaza. The Opinion is thus a critical point in the development of the law of occupation, in that it transcends a binary approach to the question of the existence of occupation, in favour of a more nuanced approach that enables holding that a territory is occupied, but not in an “all or nothing” way. More generally, the Opinion as rejects a more restrictive approach to the question of whether occupation exists in a territory or not in favour of a more flexible approach.
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The Advisory Opinion on Israel’s Policies and Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
This post analyses the separation between jus ad bellum / in bello as arising from the Advisory Opinion of the ICJ. This separation was challenged by many States appearing before the Court, some of which implied that Israel’s policies and practices, as violations of jus in bello, rendered the occupation unlawful under jus ad bellum. The Court ultimately reaffirmed the separation with a twofold argument, namely qualifying the ‘legality of the occupation’ as a jus ad bellum question, and framing Israel’s policies and practices (prolonged occupation, annexation, and settlement policy) as violations of jus ad bellum.
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From Illegal Annexation to Illegal Occupation
The Court’s determination that Israel’s annexation policies render its continued presence in the West Bank unlawful finds no basis in the international prohibition against the use of force. Moreover, the Court’s determination circumvents the Law of State Responsibility that determines the consequences of Israel’s unlawful annexation policies.
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