Antonios Tzanakopoulos

Showing all 55 relevant publications currently held in our database
Change to sort them by year | title | type OR
Show only Recent | Selected publications

Abstract: A translation of the ILC Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts into Greek, along with a collection of relevant case law and bibliography.

ISBN: 960-15-1218-7

Abstract: This book deals with the binding force of provisional measures of protection indicated by international courts and tribunals.

ISBN: 960-15-1599-2

Commentary to Article 67 of the 1969 VCLT.

ISBN: 978-0-19-954664-0

Commentary to Article 68 of the 1969 VCLT.

ISBN: 978-0-19-954664-0

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0922156510000361

The article revisits the Barcelona Traction judgment of the International Court of Justice, rendered forty years ago. It evaluates the lasting influence of the Court's pronouncements on the nationality of corporations and on obligations erga omnes, and uses the case to illustrate the Court's role as an influential agent of legal development. In this respect, it identifies a number of factors that can help to explain under which circumstances judicial pronouncements are likely to shape the law.

ISBN: 0922-1565

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199647071.003.0003

When the Security Council imposes binding obligations through decisions adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter it may impact on internationally protected human rights and the corresponding obligations of UN member states to respect these rights. Member states are then faced with potentially conflicting obligations. This contribution surveys the respective position of Security Council measures and human rights obligations in the (emergent) normative hierarchy of international law. It defines normative conflict and discusses state practice in order to establish whether Article 103 of the UN Charter is a conflict or a hierarchy rule and whether human rights obligations are subordinate to Security Council measures.

ISBN: 978-0-19-964707-1

The paper assesses the legal regime governing recourse to force from the perspective of 'contemporary positivism'. It provides a basic introduction to positivist international law and its critique and charts how positivism, faced with decades of anti-positivist critique, has adjusted itself. More specifically, it analyses how in response to criticism, positivism has embraced a more 'liberal' approach to the identification of sources. Applying these findings to the specific problem of military force, the paper outlines the main challenges facing a positivist understanding of the jus ad bellum. These are (i) the loss of predictability of the legal rules (''anything goes"), which is a consequence of the liberalisation of sources; and (ii) the attraction, even among positivist scholars, to invoke "quasi-legal" arguments based on legitimacy, morals or political necessity.

Following recent denunciations of (withdrawals from) the ICSID Convention by Bolivia and Ecuador and the spate of academic commentary that followed, this paper considers denunciation from the ICSID Convention under the general international law of treaties. It is argued that self-contained interpretation of the provisions on denunciation of the ICSID Convention do not yield any compelling results, leaving contrary positions plausible. The general international law of treaties offers the decisive argument with respect to the effects of denunciation of the Convention, and helps determine whether ICSID jurisdiction can be established after the date of effective withdrawal from the Convention.

ISBN: 978-3-8329-6729-1

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199600762.001.0001

This book examines how the United Nations Security Council, in exercising its power to impose binding non-forcible measures ('sanctions') under Article 41 of the UN Charter, may violate international law. The Council may overstep limits on its power imposed by the UN Charter itself and by general international law, including human rights guarentees. Such acts may engage the international responsibility of the United Nations, the organization of which the Security Council is an organ. Disobeying the Security Council discusses how and by whom the responsibility of the UN for unlawful Security Council sanctions can be determined; in other words, how the UN can be held to account for Security Council excesses.

ISBN: 978-0-19-960076-2

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199595297.003.0003

This paper attempts to trace, analyze, and justify, the reactions of domestic courts when these are faced with a challenge to domestic measures implementing Security Council sanctions regimes, in particular the regime under SCRs 1267 (1999) seq. It discusses the method in which domestic courts engage with the measures before them, as well as the standard of review they apply, and the usual outcomes of the challenge, ie abstention, low-intensity review, interpretation or annulment of the domestic measure. Interpretation and annulment of the domestic measure in particular may force the State in breach of its international obligations under the relevant SCRs and Article 25 of the UN Charter. The final section attempts to legal qualify and justify this potential breach.

ISBN: 978-0-19-959529-7

The introductory paper to a symposium issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law, edited by the authors, dealing with the function of domestic courts as agents for the development of international law. The paper 'sets the scene' for the contributions to the symposium, which seek to trace the impact of domestic courts in the development of canonical areas of international law, such as jurisdiction, immunity, state responsibility, the law of international organisations/human rights, and the law of armed conflict/conduct of hostilities. It discusses the formal quality and actual influence of domestic court decisions on the development of international law, and introduces the concept of 'agents' of international law development. This is the analytical perspective that the contributions to the symposium adopt.

ISBN: 0922-1565

This paper examines whether domestic courts can be cast as the ‘natural judges’ of international law. ‘Natural judge’ is meant here in the sense of the ‘immediate,’ ‘ordinary’ judge of international law, who can only be removed through a centrally instituted judge. Given the lack of a centrally organized international judicial system, the suggestion that domestic courts are the ‘ordinary judges’ of international law has significant repercussions on the physiognomy of the international legal system. Despite the fact that in some of the decisions the reasoning of the courts is based solely on domestic law, the domestic law relied on - typically fundamental rights - is of universal radiance, as evidenced by almost universally ratified treaties and customary international law. Domestic courts are then in fact applying law based on internationally agreed standards as the immediate judges, offering effective remedies for the violation of rights influenced or shaped by, or interpreted under, international law. This trend can signify the move to a more effective application of international law, one taking place in court, even if a domestic court, rather than by a decision of the executive to invoke responsibility of another actor, or bring an international claim.

ISBN: 9781849462020

As the title suggests, this paper does not deal with 'international law in domestic courts' but rather with 'domestic courts in international law'. It seeks to ascertain whether domestic courts are assigned an international judicial function by international law, and whether and to what extent they are in fact assuming and exercising that function. The paper attempts to define the concept of an ‘international judicial function’ and argues that, because of the peculiar ‘directionality’ of a great many international obligations (which require implementation within the domestic jurisdiction), domestic courts are the first port of call and the last line of defense for the interpretation and application of international law. However, as organs of States, courts may engage the international responsibility of the State if their conduct results in the breach of an international obligation. This is why the exercise of the international judicial function of domestic courts is supervised by States, either through the submission of disputes to international courts, or, more usually, through decentralized reactions.

ISBN: 1533-5860

This entry discusses economic measures which aim at reducing or destroying the enemy's war-fighting capability during armed conflict ('traditional' economic warfare) as well as peacetime measures which closely resemble traditional economic warfare, such as embargoes and collective economic sanctions.

ISBN: 978-0-19-929168-7

A Report prepared for the KROC Institute's Sanctions and Security Research Program, assessing reforms to the 1267/1989 sanctions regime of the Security Council against the standards required by European Courts, including the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.

This entry discusses 'humanitarian intervention' as an autonomous justification for the use of force in international law.

ISBN: 978-0-19-929168-7

Abstract: Short comment on the ICJ's Kosovo Advisory Opinion in German.

ISBN: 0042-384X

This paper surveys and analyses the case law of United Kingdom courts on questions of personality and immunity of international organizations, as well as on the question of liability of members for the acts of the organization, focusing in particular on the various cases surrounding the collapse of the International Tin Council in the 1980s.

ISBN: 978-0-19-967940-9

States increasingly 'contract out' their governmental authority in favour of international organizations. As a result, remedies available under domestic law to individuals and legal entities may no longer be available, leaving them without redress. (Domestic) courts have devised a method to react to such diminution of their jurisdiction, which at the same time comprises a message for various addressees and engages a dialogue on multiple levels. This method is shaped by the spirit and thrust of the argument the German Constitutional Court put forward in its Solange jurisprudence, and has the potential of fostering a harmonization of domestic and international law, as well as that of establishing a rudimentary normative hierarchy at the international level.

ISBN: 9781849462471

This paper discusses (in French) whether countermeasures can be invoked as a justification for disobeying binding decisions of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The first part establishes how the Security Council may engage the international responsibility of the UN and who should be allowed to determine that such engagement has in fact taken place. The second part argues that disobedience of illegal sanctions adopted by the Council may be justified under international law as a countermeasure in response to the Council's (the UN's) internationally wrongful act.

ISBN: 0035-0788

A comparative submission by Oxford Pro Bono Publico to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights.

Abstract: Commentary of the Preamble of the League of Nations Covenant in French.

This is the Preliminary Report of the Study Group on Principles on Engagement of Domestic Courts with International Law. It sets out the Study Group's underlying considerations and seeks to distill a set of principles which guide domestic court engagement with international law. It will be used by the Study Group as guidance for the completion of a number of national and thematic studies, which will then feed into the Study Group's final report.

This blog entry is based on a talk delivered at the University of Amsterdam in the framework of the SHARES (shared responsibility) project. It discusses how responsibility is shared between the UN and member-States for the adoption and implementation of UN sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter.

This entry surveys the right of visit and search of foreign merchant ships on the high seas under the traditional law of war, in the context of collective security, and during peacetime.

ISBN: 978-0-19-929168-7

An introduction to, and commentary of, the main findings of the Tribunal in the Abyei Arbitration between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (Award of 22 July 2009), along with a brief consideration of the Award's (and the dispute's) aftermath.

ISBN: 978-94-91021-02-2

This short study in memory of Sir Ian Brownlie QC discusses the countermeasure of disobedience as a means of implementation of the responsibility of international organisations. Focusing on Security Council sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter, it argues that actions of the Security Council may be illegal and thus engage the responsibility of the UN. It then argues that disobedience of such sanctions on the part of States may qualify as a countermeasure against the Organisation. This legal characterisation of disobedience has significant advantages over the 'invalidity theory' in that it subjects decentralised reaction to a specific legal framework.

ISBN: 9789004256071

This paper surveys and evaluates the contribution of the International Court of Justice to the development of the (public international) law of the sea. It does so by comparing the Court's contribution as against other 'competing' agents of development of international law, ie other adjudicators, codifiers, regulators, and lawmakers. It concludes that the impact of the Court on the law of the sea has not been great, and is now diminishing. However, it argues that the more important contribution of the Court lies less in its influence on the development of the law, and more in its authority in consolidating it.

ISBN: 978-0-19-965321-8

The purpose of this brief study is to gauge what the Permanent Court of Internation-al Justice might have had to say about the nebulous concept of the ‘international community’, as the Court administering the law of that community, but also developing it, thereby contributing to the stabilization and further integration of that community. This is done by ‘reverse-engineering’ the jurisprudence of the PCIJ, seeking to canvass how the Court understood the concept of the 'international community' and how it would have wanted it to evolve. The study surveys the Court’s case law for what are commonly accepted as the ‘hallmarks’ of an (international) community, or at least those commonly associated with the idea: the make-up of the community; the concept of obligations and action in the ‘general’ interest; and the existence of institutions providing protection of the community interest.

ISBN: 9789004244931

This collection of documents brings together a large number of primary sources on the peaceful settlement of disputes in a usable and affordable format. The documents included reflect the diverse techniques of international dispute settlement, as recognised in Articles 2(3) and 33 of the UN Charter, such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration and adjudication. The book comprises the most relevant multilateral treaties establishing dispute settlement regimes, as well as examples of special agreements, compromissory clauses, optional clause declarations and relevant resolutions of international organisations. It covers both diplomatic and adjudicative methods of dispute settlement and follows a basic division between general dispute settlement mechanisms, and sectoral regimes in fields such as human rights, WTO law, investment, law of the sea, environmental law and arms control. The book is the first widely-available collection of key documents on dispute settlement. It is aimed at teachers, students and practitioners of international law and related disciplines.

ISBN: 9781849463034

Article-by-article commentary of the 2004 UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and their Property.

ISBN: 978-0-19-960183-7

This paper discusses transparency in the working method of the United Nations Security Council. It describes the institutional design of the organ and the evolution of Security Council powers, and seeks to identify whether there is an obligation for the Council to act in a transparent manner in the exercise of its powers. The paper argues that transparency is an 'ancillary' obligation incumbent on the Council, to allow for decentralised control over the exercise of its powers by Member States of the UN. Transparency having no independent normative charge, we do not how much of it is good -- this is determined by a pattern of protest and reaction between the Security Council and the Member States called upon to implement its decisions.

ISBN: 978-1107021389

DOI: 10.1093/jicj/mqq006

Domestic courts are increasingly being seized by persons subjected to or affected by sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, particularly through the regime established under Resolution 1267. In Abdelrazik v. Canada, the Canadian Federal Court ‘interprets away’ the obligations of Canada under the 1267 regime, potentially forcing upon the state a breach of its international obligations under the resolution and the UN Charter. But at the same time it offers an important — if implicit — justification for that breach under international law.

ISBN: 1478-1387