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Abstract:
Using the crisis in the Darfur region of Western Sudan as the reference for analysis, this article argues for a re-conceptualized notion of State sovereignty - one that views sovereignty not as control but as responsibility - as the starting point for designing appropriate legal and policy responses to the Darfur situation that has so far defied easy solution. The article proceeds from the assumption that while sovereign States have the primary responsibility for the protection of their people from avoidable catastrophe, this responsibility should shift to the international society whenever the State in question manifests an inability or unwillingness to protect its citizenry. Seen as such, sovereignty should not be a barrier to holding the perpetrators of heinous crimes in Darfur accountable, or to possible models of international intervention including the lawful use of armed force.

Abstract:
In contradistinction to the traditional soldier of fortune contemporary Private Military Firms (PMFs) do not fit the conventional image of private security services as being sold mainly by gang leaders, mafias, or war lords and by (foreign) individuals or mercenaries-. PMFs however range from well-established firms with thousands of years of collective experience in war zones, to start-ups that did not exist before the end of the Cold War but mushroomed as a result of the vacuums created by states downsizing their militaries. Although in form resembling their antecedents, PMFs have developed a modus operandi compatible with the needs and strictures of the post-Cold War, State-based international system leading to both implicit and explicit legitimacy. Firstly, they are serious players, recognized within international business circles and markets. Secondly, their legitimacy is bolstered by strong personal and professional links to the governments and militaries of their respective home States. This article has as its modest aim an exploration of the thorny legal issues raised by the commodification of force. It discusses the nature of the contemporary PMF noting that it bears vestiges of yester year mercenaries. It then grapples with their uncertain status under international law despite the fact that they potentially pose problems for state authority and the direct control of states over the use of force. At the heart of the argument is the reality that PMFs maintain the ability to inflict violence on a scale previously reserved to sovereign nations and the real potential to violate humanitarian norms. Yet, they are largely inadequately regulated under existing domestic and international frameworks thus bear hazy legal liability and sanction.

Abstract:
The on-going challenge in economic development and globalization, particularly for developing countries, is the issue of development and equality in society. The issue becomes particularly problematic when confronted in matters of international trade. Often misnamed anti-globalization activists and pro-globalization activists fail to take note of the underlying assumptions that lead them to conflict - namely, the actual costs and benefits to society that result from their particular positions. In essence, both activists are searching for ways to improve the lives of people in the domestic context and to minimize the damage to their society and environment. China's impressive economic record is threatened to some extent by the increasing inequality in Chinese society and the enormous environmental costs of its economic growth. The Fair Trade movement seeks to address these larger and ultimately more important issues by changing the trade concerns from their narrow, traditional and highly questionable economic rationalist presuppositions to the broader societal implications of increased trade. This paper will address these broader issues, crucial for China's stability, and offer a model for Fair Trade.

china, australia, free trade, fair trade, inequality, environment

Abstract:
No longer is State conduct immune from international scrutiny, or even from sanction. Mechanisms are being created through which -sovereign- conduct is held accountable to international norms without the ability simply to claim lack of continuing consent to those norms. This demonstrates that the nineteenth century notion of a second-tier social contract is no longer appropriate to the conduct of international relations. International criminal law runs directly to the individual. This Article has as its modest aim an examination and analysis of the role of the development of human rights and humanitarian norms in reshaping the content and contour of Westphalian sovereignty. In particular it seeks to espouse paradigms based on the impact of human rights and humanitarian norms through which sovereignty should be viewed and understood in contemporary times.

Abstract:
This article focuses on the application of the current laws of war to the emerging phenomenon of space weaponization and the increasing likelihood in the next few decades of space becoming a battleground. This predicament requires new ways of thinking and legal regulation, considering that the existing principles of the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC) are primarily focused on air, land and terrestrial warfare. This article addresses the special problems arising from applying the LOAC to space warfare. It will also analyze the significant problems posed by space assets dedicated to uses of both a civilian and military nature - the concept of the dual-use satellite - as well as legal problems raised by the possible military activities of astronaut combatants, in light of the particular status conferred on all astronauts under current international space law principles.

Abstract:
In the international law system, internal mechanisms are the appropriate responses to terrorist acts through domestic criminal law. The weakness of domestic criminal law is however evident in the face of transnational terrorists groups whose scope spreads across many borders. The challenge is compounded when States actively or passively support terrorism. Though traditionally State responsibility has been the vehicle through which pressure is exerted on States sponsoring terrorism, the lethal capabilities of terrorists demonstrated by the September 11, 2001 attacks has fundamentally changed the landscape. The consequences of breaches arising out of a failure by a State to effectively curtail terrorist organisations based or operating out of its territory have expanded sharply, permitting not just financial reparations or other traditional benign countermeasures, but even the extensive use of deadly military force. With the linkage between the terrorist and the sponsoring state becoming crucial to providing States with the justification for a response against rogues States, this Article discusses the issue of State-sponsored terrorism and the use of military force in combating terrorism in the context of the UN Charter regime on the use of force by States.

Abstract:
The tragedy which befell Rwanda in 1994 deserves a special place in the bloodstained pages of history. The Rwandan genocide merits distinction primarily because of its shocking efficiency, its scale and its proportional dimensions among the victim population. The Security Council's resolution establishing the ICTR articulates a set of decisions, assumptions, wishes, and objectives. Primarily, the States that voted in favour of the creation of the ICTR indicated that the root of the problem was individual violations of international criminal law. Only one State that voted for the resolution did not equate ipso facto ICTR actions with justice. That State considered the ICTR only one of the many tasks at hand for the international community. The ICTR was merely a vehicle of justice, 'but it is hardly designed as a vehicle for reconciliation.... Reconciliation is a much more complicated process' (Czech Republic). Interestingly, Rwanda, which voted against the resolution, spoke of the problem in terms of a culture of impunity. The UN paid little to no heed to the subtle, but extremely different way in which the problem was characterised and the implications this would have on the type of tool needed to deal with that problem.

Abstract:
This Article argues that with the benefit of compounded learning of the Third World's diverse societies and the variegated socio-political issues, this knowledge can be ploughed back into the process of developing considered, creative new options for a satisfactory collective future as a means of facilitating entrenched antagonisms giving way to shifting, overlapping coalitions and novel accommodations. The underlying theme is premised on the basis that thorny issues should and ought to be approached from different angles. This allows different groups/stakeholders to learn that having a diversity of perspectives represented in their discussions demonstrably improves outcomes (in terms of reaching workable accommodations) because it enlarges the range of options on the table and opens up new ways of thinking about old stalemates.

Abstract:
The project of governance, which has been heralded as a contemporary advance in the development of international law, has a very old lineage. Since the beginnings of the modern discipline of international law in the sixteenth century, international law has devised a number of doctrines directed at shaping and reforming the government of the non-European state. Most typically, this project of reform involves two elements that are often characterized as inseparable: the furtherance of commerce and the advancement of civilization. The non-European world has, on the whole, been rendered non-sovereign by international law over the course of the last five centuries. It is precisely in the non-European world therefore, that international law can, as in the case of doctrine of government, extend and expand its reach, and develop and refine a series of paradigms directed towards creating good government. The domestic sphere, which is entirely immune to international law in the case of European states, is entirely vulnerable to international law in the case of non-European states.

The Article argues that good governance exerts an extraordinarily powerful influence on the thinking of the international community in part because it is connected with human rights, the universal language in this age of rights. This link between governance and human rights suggests, furthermore, that the Third World state is the focus of concern: it is the aberrant Third World state which both violates rights and engages in bad governance. The Article challenges the Western assumption that the problems of the Third World lie within the Third World itself. It critiques the stance that the problem of addressing international justice can be largely achieved through the project of good governance which would reform the Third World state.

Abstract:
The political climate is ripe for the United Nations system to successfully and effectively provide global collective security. Now that relations have improved between the 'East' and 'West' the United Nations will indeed be able to broaden its role, and perhaps operate to its full capacity - to call into being the 'New World Order', characterised by a Security Council able to respond swiftly and effectively to aggression and massive human rights violations through 'police action'. However the significant and documented international humanitarian law violations by UN forces in the 1990s has raised the stakes. Thrice in the last decade of the 20th Century, national adjudicative mechanisms failed to uphold justice for the victims of international humanitarian law violations by UN forces. The stakes are high; the credibility of UN sanctioned military operations, the accountability of UN troops to international humanitarian law standards and the adherence to the international rule-of-law regime envisioned in the drive to the permanent International Criminal Court. The UN's distinction in its status as a superior legal and moral entity means that it should be held to an even higher standard than the traditional subjects of the laws of war.

Abstract:
Military blueprints by major space-faring powers now encapsulate concepts of 'space support' and 'force enhancement' which point to a central role of space assets in facilitating military operations while notions of 'space control' and 'force application' suggest the weaponization of space, and the putative view that space may in the near future be a theatre of military operations. As defence goals increasingly focus on space as the final frontier evident in development of national missile defence systems, anti-satellite weapons and other space-based systems, international peace and security faces a new challenge. Creators of the current legal regime for space failed to foresee the rapid rate at which technological and engineering breakthroughs would take place. Now the shortcomings in the current regime beg the question of how the law can keep up and address space technology. It is imperative that the international community act now rather than later. In light of the existing lacunae in the international space law regime, this Article seeks to explore avenues/paradigms through which the militarization of space may be regulated and its weaponization addressed.

Abstract:
The UN Charter reflects the drafters' singular focus on creating a political system to govern conflicts between states. It does not directly address the subtler modes in which terrorists began to operate in the post-World War II period. The drafters did not contemplate the existence of international terrorists nor their tenacity and access to technology. In view of the fact that terrorist groups appear to have reached a global sophistication, there is little doubt that international terrorism presents a threat with which traditional theories for the use of military force are inadequate to deal with, and were not contemplated when the UN Charter was drafted. This Article is premised on the theme that the right to self-defence is enrolled in a process of change. The focal point of state practice in the Article is the United States, which has long sought to articulate, through official policy, use of force as a counter-terrorism measure.

Abstract:
The issues that the Article tackles are obviously complex and lengthy, however the Article has as its modest goal the exploration of the general arguments that the use of force to counter terrorism raises under the UN Charter regime on the use of force. In Part II, the Article gives an overview of the UN and terrorism noting the ambivalence in addressing the issue that has contributed to the confusion over a precise definition in large part reflective of the basic disagreement over the elements of terrorism itself. Part II then adopts a definition for the purposes of this Article. In Part III, the Article addresses the dramatic post-September 11 developments which witnessed the use of lethal military force in Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of countering terrorism. The Part begins with a general overview before carrying out a more detailed and specific enquiry into the legal and factual issues of both military campaigns. Part IV of the Article turns to the core of the discussion-the use of military force as a countermeasure against terrorism. The premise of post-September 11 is that terrorist groups shall not receive a shield from the territorial integrity of a state which is unwilling to put an end to terrorist activity or colludes to enhance terrorist capabilities. The Part delves into the recognised and permissible uses of force in self-help-self-defence and reprisals. These concepts engender considerable confusion considering that in the context of force in counter-terrorism, the terms are often used imprecisely; actions may be labelled 'reprisals' or 'retaliation' when, in fact, the proper characterization could appear to be self-defence and vice versa. This discussion seeks to delineate the basic principles of these concepts and thus prevent an undue muddle when the Article tackles the important matter of self-defence as enshrined in the UN Charter and whether anticipatory-self-defence is permitted under the UN Charter.

Abstract:
The International Criminal Court is one of the great international institutions in mankind's history with the potential to reconfigure significant aspects of the international system with regard to criminal jurisdiction. But like the international penal institutions before it, the success of the ICC revolves around international cooperation. An institutional check on the ICC's power is that it will have to work through States. States Parties will be asked to arrest and surrender suspects, investigate and collect evidence, extend privileges and immunities to ICC officials, protect witnesses, enforce ICC orders for fines and forfeiture and, at times, prosecute those who have committed offences against the administration of justice. The ICC will rely heavily on the cooperation of States Parties individually and collectively for its success. This article provides an analysis of the ICC's international cooperation and judicial assistance regime as well as an insight into the approaches that States Parties have adopted in seeking to give effect to the letter and spirit of their obligations domestically.

Abstract:
This Article has as its central theme the decentralization of the state's control over legitimate military force with the consequential diffusion of governmental control that stands to fragment state sovereignty. It argues that the increasing centrality of PMFs to the prosecution of war is creating a changed national security landscape with PMFs increasingly influencing governmental policy both overtly and covertly. PMF heads many of whom are former high ranking military and civilian personnel now advise governments and in some cases sit on government advisory boards. Additionally they also offer governments a conduit for pursuing covert foreign policy aims and circumvention of various legislative and legal oversights. The formidable military capability of PMFs and the growing reliance of state militaries on their services means that PMFs' now stand to threaten, if not influence governments.

Sovereignty, Private Military Firms, war, foreign policy

Abstract:
This article seeks to bring to light the various aspects pertaining to the militarization and weaponization of space. It will give an overview of initiatives by the space-faring nations in developing space weaponry, discuss the space law regime and in particular expose its defects in effectively addressing space warfare. It will then proceed to generally juxtapose space warfare with the U.N. Charter regime on the use of force. The article exposes various questions, but does not seek to undertake the ambitious goal of supplying solutions; after all, as the article will demonstrate, the problems are readily evident, but the solutions absent.

Abstract:
This article seeks to bring to light the various aspects pertaining to the militarization and weaponization of space. It will give an overview of initiatives by the space-faring nations in developing space weaponry, discuss the space law regime and in particular expose its defects in effectively addressing space warfare. It will then proceed to generally juxtapose space warfare with the U.N. Charter regime on the use of force. The article exposes various questions, but does not seek to undertake the ambitious goal of supplying solutions; after all, as the article will demonstrate, the problems are readily evident, but the solutions absent.

Abstract:
Israel views the Palestine uprising of September 2000 (al-Aqsa Intifada) as an armed conflict which in turn means that the framework applicable to this is the law of armed conflict. The issues regarding the status of terrorists as well as counter-measures that are raised in the Arab-Israeli conflict are complex. On one hand, the terrorists fall within the ambit of combatants and thus engage the law of armed conflict; on the other hand they are criminals and thus fall within the rubric of domestic legal enforcement. It is the - targeted killings - as one of the means Israel uses to combat what terrorist attacks directed against its citizens, and what the Palestinians refer to as their uprising against the Israeli occupation that is the focus of this Article. Depending on the construction of the realities of the Intifada, the legality or illegality of - targeted state killings - still remains to be determined on a broad spectrum that engages both the laws of armed conflict and human rights. This Article seeks to adopt a limited dimension-reviewing the actions against the background of international human rights. Human rights law although interrelated with the law of war and humanitarian law, is a distinct branch of international law and it is the human rights perspective with which this Article is concerned with.

Abstract:
The political climate is ripe for the United Nations system to successfully and effectively provide global collective security. Now that relations have improved between the 'East' and 'West' the United Nations will indeed be able to broaden its role, and perhaps operate to its full capacity - to call into being the 'New World Order,' characterised by a Security Council able to respond swiftly and effectively to aggression and massive human rights violations through 'police action.' However the significant and documented international humanitarian law violations by UN forces in the 1990s has raised the stakes. Thrice in the last decade of the 20th Century, national adjudicative mechanisms failed to uphold justice for the victims of international humanitarian law violations by UN forces. The stakes are high; the credibility of UN sanctioned military operations, the accountability of UN troops to international humanitarian law standards and the adherence to the international rule-of-law regime envisioned in the drive to the permanent International Criminal Court. The UN's distinction in its status as a superior legal and moral entity means that it should be held to an even higher standard than the traditional subjects of the laws of war.

Abstract:
This article has as its aim an exploration of the development of the superior orders defence within both the national and international arena. It discusses the case law at both national and international levels as well as reflect on the various legal provisions as encapsulated in international instruments and national military manuals. It concludes with an overview of the military and international law paradox. On the one hand, military law tutors and soldiers are trained to comply with commands in order to ensure organisational integrity and efficiency; on the other hand, international law seems to suggest, by the tenor of its standard, that soldiers should stop and consider the lawfulness of their orders.

Abstract:
The consequence of the state of lawlessness that permitted States to wage war even on flimsy reasons was not fully appreciated until World War I when primitive barbarism and modern technology came together to result in enormous bloodshed and massive atrocities. The deep impression on public opinion opened the door to vigorous condemnation of aggression and a move at the international level to outlaw it. Though aggression continues to pose one of the greatest threats in the efforts to create a peaceful and stable world public order, the definition of aggression steeped as it is in political and legal quagmire continues to prove elusive. Despite being at the centre of discussion in the development of international law for many decades, just as it eluded the League of Nations in the past, so the definition of aggression continues today to elude the United Nations. Progress is more marked by the volumes of international documents produced rather than any seeming linear progression towards a singular and generally accepted definition. Not even the overwhelming support for the international criminal court in 1998 proved sufficient to translate into a consensus amongst States on the issue of defining this crime.

Abstract:
The need for more dramatic targets has led to the new and somewhat exaggerated emphasis on a unilateral right of pre-emptive self-defence by the United States. What is most striking about the new US policy is that it portrays state-sponsored terrorism and rogue states possessing weapons of mass destruction as a new problem, and unilateral action as the only way of dealing with them. It is dangerous to marginalise the UN and increase the role of multilateral global coalitions or unilateral action in policing "evil-doing" as this has the potential to supplant what initially was designed as the role of the United Nations. If decisions regarding the use of force become nationalised, this may lead to anarchic, piecemeal, random, and unilateral enforcement of the desirable shared goal of stamping out terrorism.

Abstract:
The reaction of the USA after the September 11, 2001 attacks, including its invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent unilateral military campaign in Iraq, and various executive and legislative actions has been not merely a quiet abandonment of the Rule of Law, but through its so-called -War on Terror-, a concerted attack on the Rule of Law. In this paper we shall examine that attack on those principles, through an examination of cases, executive actions, legislations, and international law. While the authors recognize the mythical nature of the Rule of Law, they maintain that it is a useful myth in that it helps actors predict with reasonable certainty, the actions what will be accepted internationally (as between nations), help make good policy decisions and anticipate the actions of others. Furthermore, it operates as an ideal to aim for and a standard against which states' actions can be judged.

Abstract:
The old truism, that international law is not a suicide pact, is forceful in an age of destructive weaponry. Nevertheless strategically, there is little precedent for a major military offensive against a state that has not proximately used force against the interests of the belligerent state. Legally, while a number of legitimate justifications might permit the use of force, an appropriate international law doctrine, under which the United States could execute the military campaign it recently successfully launched against Iraq, does not currently exist. But that lacuna was seemingly plugged with the 'Bush Doctrine' that advocates pre-emptive strikes against rogue states and /or entities involved in terrorism. The so-called 'Bush Doctrine' articulates a new rule of international law that seeks to bring to life the doctrine of anticipatory self-defence as an appropriate means through which to combat terrorism (including states that actively support terrorism or that are themselves terror states in the sense of acquiring and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction).

Abstract:
People first, nations second. That's the new global creed that is beginning to jell at the United Nations. At the 54th Annual UN General Assembly Session in September 1999, both President Clinton and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made historic claims that any country's sovereignty could be violated by other nations under certain conditions occasioned by 'deliberate, massive, organised and systematic violations of human rights'. This is in a world stage where the East Timor Crisis and the accompanying humanitarian intervention forms a vivid backdrop to the past failures of the UN in creating a nexus between international aspirations and pragmatic realities in the protection of fundamental human rights. Could the notion that sovereignty does not entitle a government to slaughter its own people and that outsiders have a duty to take action finally herald the UN's crossing of the rubicon between peace-keeping and peace-making?

Abstract:
In 1976, without effective local opposition, Indonesia absorbed and annexed East Timor as its twenty-seventh province, but the integration remained controversial at the international level. In the course of the next three decades and in the face of heavy-handed tactics by Indonesian forces keen to wipe out a guerrilla resistance and effectively "pacify" East Timorese battle raged killing thousands. Indonesian police forces regularly detained and tortured innocent civilians and brutally suppressed peaceful protests. Massive violence committed by Indonesian backed militia forces on East Timor increasingly hardened the international community's support for East Timor's independence. The turning point was the Dili Massacre in 1991 in which over 250 unarmed youth were mowed down by Indonesian military personnel at the Santa Cruz Cemetery. This Article has as its modest aim an exploration of the nexus of the principle of self-determination and the geopolitics that contributed to East Timor's tortured march to independence. In particular the Chapter will seek to examine the tenets of self-determination and its practical dynamics which yielded little protection to the aspirations of the East Timorese.

Abstract:
The International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda establish the beginning of a new pattern in the genuine international implementation of international criminal law and the move back to the international model inaugurated at Nuremberg. But even these tribunals were first and foremost, the by-products of international realpolitik. They were born out of a political desire to redeem the international community's conscience rather than the primary commitment of the international community to guarantee international justice. In the early stages, there was a persistent lack of political will by Member States to act, or to act with enough assertiveness with regard to the conflicts, notwithstanding the exposition of deliberate and systematic patterns of massive violations of human rights. The Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals were not established because of the United Nations, or the powerful States that control it. They were not established because of an intrinsic value on punishing war criminals or upholding the rule of law. Rather, the mobilisation of shame by non-governmental organisations and especially the grisly pictures beamed to the world by the television camera created a public relations nightmare and made liars of the centres of Western civilisation.

Abstract:
The Article has as its modest aim a general reflection on the enshrinement of democracy as a universal entitlement and the movement of international law in a pro-democratic direction The Article will seek to highlight the general uncertainties that continue to plague the democratic entitlement. The Article deliberately focuses on the United Nations system with reference also being given to regional efforts. The Article does not discuss the legal justifications and nature of measures to address undemocratic regimes. While such measures are significant in pro-democratic discourse, it is beyond the scope of the Article's general aim of exposing the thorny issues that surround democratic entitlement as a universal right.

Abstract:
This Article examines the conflict in the former Yugoslavia which gave birth to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTFY). The ICTFY established the beginning of a new pattern in the genuine international implementation of international criminal and humanitarian law and the move back to the international model inaugurated at Nuremberg which had in the Cold War era been boldly supplanted by national prosecutions. The Article seeks to show that even this ad hoc tribunal was the by-product of international realpolitik. It was born out of a political desire to redeem the international community's conscience rather than the primary commitment of the international community to guarantee international justice. The ad hoc tribunal was established after efforts to reach political settlement had proved futile and had in fact shielded the bellicose Serbs from firm and decisive international action, allowing them to further their nationalist agenda at the expense of other entities of the Yugoslavian federation. The ICTFY was not established because of the primary view by the UN or the powerful States that control it over the intrinsic value on punishing war criminals or upholding the rule of law but rather the shame that resulted from a misguided conception that the Balkan crisis would be effectively resolved through a political settlement.

Abstract:
This Article examines the organization and operating principles of the Court. Many aspects of the Rome Statute challenge fundamental tenets of the structure of international law existing heretofore. No analysis could address all the aspects of this new international institution and the Article seeks to focus attention on some of its major features impacting on State sovereignty - the focus of this Article. Part II of the Article explores the structure and competence of the Court and in particular the powers of the prosecutor, general principles underlying the jurisdiction of the Court, the formulation of the complementarity principle in the Court's Statute, the manner in which cases will come to the Court and be decided and the State cooperation regime. It examines the State cooperation regime governing the conduct of investigations and prosecutions on State territory and the arrest of suspects and their surrender to the Court noting that the Court's enforcement jurisdiction is paltry, at best, suggesting the unease of States to the idea of a permanent international penal process. Part III, is a general reflection on the merits and demerit of the International Criminal Court.

Abstract:
The central theme of the Article is the fact that in the face of reality, the democratic ideal finds itself caught between two opposing forces, the idea not to impose alien values and processes on sovereign nations (as this amounts to deprivation of political independence and self-determination), but at the same time not to accept assertions of sovereignty simply because a ruler has the brute strength to assert it. The end of the Cold War saw the ascendance of liberal democracy as the basis of a new world order but this ascendance is seen as strengthening a restrictive practice of democracy and threatening to the recognition of democratic heterogeneity. The developing world is especially wary of the new world order democratic discourse which is seen as promoting a conservative and protective form of liberal democracy hostile to the evolution of other popular and participatory democratic processes and thus part of a subtle Western expansionist agenda. The section argues for a recognition that liberal democracy in its advance to other countries should adopt a composite and heterogeneous, dimension that acknowledges democratic diversity thus freeing it from its narrow and restrictive liberal roots. To succeed as an unchallenged universal concept, democracy should value diversity and communality.

Abstract:
This Article aims to evaluate the international legal perspectives attendant to U.S. counter-terrorism measures and policy and the attendant strictures and implications. Part II commences by grappling with the uneasy relationship that legal and political complexities have foisted on the UN's ability to address terrorism and the difficult issue of the definition of terrorism. Within the context of this part, the Article also addresses the two dominant counter-terrorism paradigms' law enforcement and conflict management. Part III moves on to evaluate the law enforcement paradigm which treats terrorism as a crime engaging domestic law enforcement. The part offers a discussion of the 'extradite or prosecute' mechanism that lies at the heart of multilateral anti-terrorism conventions and a discussion of the bases of international criminal jurisdiction that provide a framework for domestic anti-terrorism statutes. It concludes with an analysis of the practice of apprehension of terrorists in international space, of which the U.S. has been a leading proponent, and offers a discussion of the complex legalities attendant to this controversial means. In Part IV, the article tackles the complexities and technicalities of the conflict management paradigm. It commences by examining the international legal uncertainties inherent in treating terrorists as combatants. The analysis moves on to cover the use of both limited lethal military force in the form of targeted assassinations and large scale military force in the form of pre-emptive strikes and retaliation. In a bid to highlight the transformation from the Cold War era to the post Cold War era, the part focuses on U.S. practice and world reaction both pre- and post-Cold War. The part concludes with an examination of the post-September 11 scenario and evaluates whether any perceptible changes in law or state practice are taking place following the military campaigns in Afghanistan ('Operation Enduring Freedom') and Iraq ('Operation Freedom Iraq').

Abstract:
'Disappearances' and political killings are often committed in states where government forces are fighting an armed opposition movement, or where an armed conflict has broken out. The victims may include captured guerrillas and soldiers, civilians thought to support them, members of dissident groups and many others who are killed on the mere pretext of having a role in the conflict. The use of -disappearances- and extra-judicial executions, rather than outright official execution, serves several internal purposes for repressive regimes. It allows them to get rid of actual, potential, and perceived opponents without the publicity of a public trial or the risk of creating martyrs through the imposition of death sentences. It also terrorises broad sections of the population, by creating a chilling effect on political activity in general. Most significantly, the use of the mechanisms of disappearance and extra-judicial killings allows the government to avoid accountability for its actions.

For the past five decades, countless individuals worldwide have lost their lives as a result of forced -disappearances- and extra-judicial executions usually through covert or overt governmental programs. Overtly, various government forces have performed systematic and deliberate killings and the practice has been institutionalised as a means of eliminating opponents and potential opponents. The impunity with which the security forces are allowed to kill political opponents and criminal suspects creates the conditions in which many other people are killed by members of the security forces for criminal motives or simply at will. Although this may be premised on a policy of increased security by granting greater powers to armed forces, occasionally it has taken the form of legislation that in reality has created an opportunity for forced -disappearances- and extra-judicial executions.

force disappearances, extra-judicial executions, human rights, humanitarian law

Abstract:
Nation-States and their authority referred to here as national sovereignty is under threat from forces within the global economy. Although globalisation is considered to be a recent phenomenon that has now attracted the attention of writers, its origins lie with those of the nation-state as the nation-state clawed its way to dominate the international community. Nation-states achieved their pre-eminence and dominance of the international community on the backs of free enterprise and capitalism; and now this dependence threatens their very existence. Now belatedly nation-states are attempting to regulate the global economy through the IMF and the World Bank and other means. This paper examines the effect that the global economy has upon the traditional understanding of sovereignty.

Abstract:
The tragedy of East Timor in 2000 coming so soon after that of Kosovo focused attention on the weaknesses of previous United Nations missions that have been ad hoc, reactive, and narrowly focused on solving the international emergency of the moment. The United Nations and its Members need to focus on the need for timely intervention to save civilian populations from mass slaughter. It must adopt a new role as the assertive custodian of human rights because the use of its enforcement powers in the domestic affairs of rogue States may have a deterrent effect. Therefore, it should lead the way in defining its interventionist role in the emerging international norm of humanitarian intervention.

Abstract:
The history of marriage as an institution in the Republic of Ireland cannot be looked at without understanding and appreciating its historical Catholicism and the role that the politically-systematised Roman Catholic Church in the public and private guardianship of marriage as both a religious sacrament and a contractual obligation carrying legal rights and duties. The sacrament of marriage in the Roman Catholic tradition contains spiritual and contractual elements, thus inviting conflict between goals and obligations encompassed in the two marriage perspectives. The sacramental qualities surrounding the marriage contract and its basis in canon law proffered the canonical foundations on which Ireland based its Constitution. In essence, marriage and the rights to it were (are?) a dual institution that creates a religious sacrament and legal contract and the subsequent overlap of Canonical and Constitutional doctrines in Irish marriage law. This Essay grapples with the issue of divorce and its significant role in impeding the right of marriage in Ireland. Prior to the 1996 constitutional amendment legalising divorce, individuals were effectively caught between the anvil of the Church and the hammer of the State.

Republic of Ireland, constitution, state, catholic church, marriage, divorce, Canonical Law

Abstract:
Individual criminal responsibility, and command responsibility in particular, are important because, to deter human rights abuses, potential perpetrators must perceive prosecution as a possible consequence of their actions. Historically, the doctrine of command responsibility has been an important tool to hold accountable leaders who plan, participate in, or acquiesce in large-scale human rights abuses. The scope of the command responsibility doctrine remains one of the most important issues in prosecuting human rights atrocities. The scope of the doctrine determines the degree to which a leader can insulate himself from criminal culpability when the criminal acts were committed by others but were caused by either the leader's lack of diligence or acquiescence leading to subordinates not having scant regard for the dictates of human rights or international humanitarian law. This Article discusses Slobodan Milosevic's responsibility as a superior in light of the Kosovo indictment.