Project

international law; duties of states; state responsibility; responsibility to protect; private actors; international organizations; positive obligations; duty to protect; non-state actors

Lead
Lay summary
The global community has repeatedly failed to stop mass human suffering. While the words of "never again" resounded after 1945, they had to be proclaimed again in Rwanda, in Kosovo, in Darfur. The political response has been to debate the need for and threat of unrequested protection of humans outside a state's own boundaries. Legally, the debate is one of whether a state has the right to intervene if human rights are endangered.The current debate, however, ignores the plight of civilians in a situation where no state is willing to intervene. The relevant inquiry for this project is not "may" a state act but rather "must" a state act to protect humans and their natural environment?This project looks at the extent international law imposes legal obligations on states. To do this, we will look at long established international law (human rights, humanitarian, and diplomatic law) as well as areas that are more recent foci of scholarship (environmental, criminal, and health law) for legislation, court decisions, and influential scholarly works indicating what states must undertake to comply with the law, who must act, and the consequences of inaction. Using what we find out about the different areas of law, we will determine whether there is a single analytical framework within which we can structure state obligations.The second phase of the project will examine the positive obligations international economic law places on states, and compare our results with the analytical framework we established in the first phase. Long treated separately from general international law, the law of investment, trade, and development assistance is gaining influence in the international legal community, and at times causing a disconnect between the goals of economic liberalization and those of achieving an equal and democratic global community. We will try to answer whether the international communitycan place legal obligations on wealthy societies to ensure that the poverty-sticken groups in emerging and developing countries have the opportunity to enjoy a life of dignity.Finally, the project will address non-state actors. International organizations and non-governmental organizations (both non-profit entities and commercial ones) are increasingly recognized as having significant impacts on the global community, yet a recognition of them as international legal subjects is only beginning. We will take the newest views on what international law can demand of such entities.Our goal is to provide the creators and beneficiaries of international law a comprehensible framework for demanding that international actors assist those unable to assist themselves.

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Last update: 21.02.2013

Active participation

Communication	Title	Media	Place	Year

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

This project will address the structure and use of positive duties on states, international organizations, and private actors in international law. The study is based on extending the new international relations concept of a responsibility to protect populations facing genocide to a broader duty on international actors to protect individuals and the environment.Examining and analyzing existing positive duties in selected areas of international law, including international human rights law, humanitarian and peacekeeping law, international environmental law, international criminal law, and the law of diplomatic protection, the work will then turn to international economic law to study how the general structures can inform the development of positive duties in the areas of foreign direct investment and international trade regulation.