“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world….” -William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming Plus, ca’ change. “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” In world politics, anarchy is an old and continuing story. Chaos is not. But what are the precise differences? And why do [...]
Search Results for: United Nations Security Council reform
Where International Justice is Failing the Uyghurs, Economic Tactics Can Advance Real Change
Between one and three million Uyghurs and other members of Muslim minority groups, including Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, have reportedly been detained in some 1,200 hastily built re-education camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of Western China since 2017. Reports of arbitrary detention, forced labor, sterilization, sexual abuse and extrajudicial killings are rife. The [...]
Rising Above Realpolitik: America, Jewish Thought and International Law
“The loftier the soul, the more it feels the unity that there is in us all.” – Rabbi Avraham Kook By any reasonable standard, the belligerent nationalism of Realpolitik or power politics makes no sense. After all, without exception, this zero-sum mantra of “everyone-for-himself” clearly undermines every country’s national security. Most perplexing, perhaps, is that [...]
After the American Election: Overcoming Plague, Chaos and "Mass"
“The mass-man has no attention to spare for reasoning; he learns only in his own flesh.” – Jose Ortega y’Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses (1930) In the United States, prima facie, presidential elections represent a core fixture of democracy. Nonetheless, though necessary – and never more so than in the just-completed defeat of Donald [...]
The Indian economic model for defence expenditure relies heavily on Foreign Direct Investment or ‘FDI’ and for a country that spends 1.6% of its GDP on its defence, India meets more than 90% of essential requirements via imports whereas 30% of the total budget is spent on capital acquisitions. In light of the recent Indo-China [...]
Is Chinese Draconian Security Law the Death Knell For Democracy In Hong Kong?
China has been embroiled in numerous controversies since the onset of 2020. It has received significant flack worldwide as a result of a failure to report to the World Health Organization about the existence and spread of the novel COVID-19, as well as for engaging in a tense diplomatic and military stand-off with its neighboring [...]
Uighur Crisis Highlights Flawed Structure of UN Security Council
One crucial aspect of international law is failing the Uighurs and it is the structure of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The persecution of the Uighurs is just one example of a State-committed human rights abuse that led to little prevention or relief for victims because of the structure of the UNSC. The UNSC [...]
The WTO Appellate Body Crisis: How We Got Here and What Lies Ahead?
The Appellate Body is an important element of the Dispute Settlement System of the World Trade Organization (WTO), hearing appeals against the findings of the panel established by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The Appellate Body (AB) ideally consists of seven members including the Chairman. But on 10th December 2019, this body went into crisis [...]
Overview Republic Act No. 11293, or the Philippine Innovation Act, was signed into law by the Philippine President on April 17, 2019. However, the Act was released to the public only on July 16, 2019. The Philippine Innovation Act aims to promote a culture of strategic planning and innovation in the country through improving innovation [...]
Here's the international legal news we covered this week: The UN expressed concern Thursday about human rights abuses in Mali despite the Malian government signing a peace agreement in 2015 with several armed groups. The...