New Dimensions of International Law

​New Dimensions of International Law

By Deepika Subramaniyan

Today's Agenda:

1. Changing Subjects: Who is governed by international law?

2. Expanding Scope: What new issues are being addressed?

3. Future Challenges: What are the key tensions and future directions?

Thank you !

Multiple Choice

What is InternatIonal Law - a body of rules governing relations between

• States

• Individuals

• International Organisations

• None of the above

States are the primary subjects of international law, possessing full international legal personality.

There is a rise of powerful non-state actors who are increasingly involved in the creation, application, and enforcement of international law.

International legal personality and can create binding rules.
The UN Security Council's authority to impose sanctions.
The UN General Assembly's request to the ICJ for an advisory opinion on states' obligations regarding climate change. This shows the UN's role in shaping legal norms.

International Organisations

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is considered a key example of an international organization possessing legal personality and influencing international law, as discussed in the lecture content?

• The International Red Cross providing humanitarian aid

• The G7 group of leading industrial nations making policy declarations

• The World Economic Forum organizing its annual meeting in Davos.

• The United Nations Security Council's authority to impose sanctions.

International Human Rights Law: grant individuals fundamental rights that states are obligated to protect.
International Criminal Law - principle of individual criminal responsibility for grave international crimes like genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Reference the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals as the historical roots and the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the modern embodiment of this principle.

• The ICC's arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin in 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, specifically the unlawful deportation of children. This case powerfully illustrates the ICC's jurisdiction over high-level state leaders for individual criminal responsibility, a direct challenge to the traditional notion of state immunity.

Multiple Choice

The subjects of international law are

• States alone

• States, Individuals, Intl Organisation and other actors

Expanding Scope of International Law

• International Environmental Law:

  • UNGA Res. 76/300 (2022): Recognizes the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment

  • Case Law: The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz v. Switzerland (2024).

  • Article 8 of the ECHR, which protects the right to private and family life

  • Significance: This landmark ruling linked a state's inadequate climate policy to a violation of human rights, marking a new dimension of judicial accountability.

Multiple Choice

Which article of ECHR ensures the right to healthy environment and it was violated by the Switzerland?

• Article 8

• Article 5

International Cyber Law:

• The UN Cybercrime Treaty (November 2023) - comprehensive framework for combating cybercrime with universal definitions of offenses, mechanisms for data sharing, capacity building, and human rights safeguards.

• Key Challenge: Jurisdiction over data and cyber operations.

International Investment Law

• A system of rules protecting foreign investors and their assets.

• Mechanism: Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), which allows private companies to sue states.

• Recent Case: The First Quantum Minerals v. Panama case (ongoing) at the World Bank's ICSID.

• Significance: It illustrates the direct legal power of a non-state actor (a corporation) to hold a state accountable for its domestic policies under international law.

Poll

whether War is prohibited by the International Law?

• Yes

• No

International Humanitarian Law

• 1949 Geneva Conventions & 2 additional protocols

• Metabollically dominant soldiers

• Soldiers Centric Imaging via computational Cameras

• Brain to Screen

• These technological developments did not outspace the legal and ethical considerations

Multiple Choice

Whether this soldier is protected by international Law

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

If a Soldier with implantation is arrested as a prisoner of war, how can he be protected by Geneva Convention III

• He must be provided with supplements to prevent the negative effect of implementation

• He Must be provided only with the basic amenities of Food and Water, treatment for the injury

Multiple Choice

Whether a State without its Interest being violated, Can it file a dispute before the ICJ against the other State for its Violation in certain International Legal Obligations

• Yes

• No

​From State Centric (Sovereignty) to Individual Centric (Human Values)

1966 Ethiopia, Liberia v. South Africa

2020 Gambia v. Myanmar

2024 South Africa v. Israel

Violation of erga omnes obligation

Multiple Choice

which State first filed a dispute against Israel for alleged violations of the Genocide Convention in Gaza strips?

• South Africa

• Gambia

Recent Issues

• US Withdrawal from WHO and WTO

• Increased armed conflicts

• Autonomous Weapons Systems

• Hybrid Warfare