Periodic Issue | Volume 10 Issue 4 | Serial Number 40 | Safar 1443 AH – Sptember 2022 AD
Editorial
International Law and its Mechanisms Once More Tested
By: Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi
Editor-in-Chief
Once again, laws, declarations, international norms, and mechanisms for resolving disputes by peaceful means are subject to a severe test, after the increasing frequency of fierce and destructive conflicts and wars in more than one place in the globe. Voices skeptical about the feasibility of these laws, or even their existence in the first place, have risen again, considering them merely rules set by the victors and beneficiaries of them, without finding them sufficiently binding, especially if these conflicts are tied to the interests of the major powers or the regional powers associated with them.
International Law and its Mechanisms Once More Tested
Chief-in-Editor Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi
Once again, laws, declarations, international norms, and mechanisms for resolving disputes by peaceful means are subject to a severe test, after the increasing frequency of fierce and destructive conflicts and wars in more than one place in the globe. Voices skeptical about the feasibility of these laws, or even their existence in the first place, have risen again, considering them merely rules set by the victors and beneficiaries of them, without finding them sufficiently binding, especially if these conflicts are tied to the interests of the major powers or the regional powers associated with them.
Although this legal debate prevailed for quite some time with regard to the nature of the rules of International Law and the extent of their obligation and their effects, benefiting from the continuation of wars and conflicts after World War II and the outbreak of the Cold War between the major powers, yet International Law, its institutions, texts and jurisprudence have witnessed a great boom in establishment, creation and development during the second half of the twentieth century, and its mechanisms were able to put out the flames of many conflicts and wars, and provide safe havens for refugees and persons fleeing wars in Asia, Africa, South America, and even in Europe itself and other places.
The new test this time is represented by what is happening on the European continent itself again… It has been flaring for about six months since the development of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis into a frank and open war that placed the entire world on the brink of a third world war between the major powers, and revealed a large number of accompanying atrocities which are still ongoing. Russia escalated its threats and invaded Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022, after it took control of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula in 2014, following the outbreak of a wave of demonstrations that overthrew the then-existing Ukrainian government, which was close to Russia. These demonstrations led to a complete change of situation, and to the emergence of a state of hostility between the two countries which was accompanied by international political interventions from Europe and the United States of America, in addition to military interventions from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
This war witnessed the use of the deadliest and most modern weapons produced by the arms factories of the East and the West alike. During the past months, it led to the death and injury of tens of thousands of civilians and of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. It also led to the displacement of millions of Ukrainians to neighboring countries, as well as the displacement of millions of others to areas less affected by the war inside Ukraine. The bombing and warfare also included most of the Ukrainian cities through aerial bombardment and winged and hypersonic missiles fired from the air, land and sea. Russian regions on the common borders were also affected by the acts of war, as they were bombed by Ukrainians. Many countries around the world, especially the poor, were also affected by this war because of its impact on the export of Russian and Ukrainian wheat to global markets.
As expected, the Security Council failed to issue a unified position and call for stopping the war and resolving problems through negotiations, despite the fact that this war constitutes the greatest threat to international peace and security and may lead to the outbreak of a third nuclear war. The major powers also failed to play any role, and each of them took the side of one of the parties to the conflict. Economic sanctions and other punitive measures were imposed, individually and jointly, on the State of Russia. Attempts at mediation between the two parties are still weak and have limited impact and effectiveness.
In light of the atrocities committed, the International Criminal Court, which is recognized by 123 countries, took action and opened investigations into the war crimes committed, and issued international summons cards against those involved. However, its role remains limited in view of Russia’s lack of recognition of it, and its lack of tools to impose its procedures and provisions.
The outbreak of this war, the actions and crimes committed in it, and their implications re-raise the first legal questions regarding the importance and value of International Law and regarding its binding, the legitimacy of war in resolving conflicts, and the impunity of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. It adds to it many new problems, such as: Is joining political and military alliances a sovereign right of states, or is it a limited and relative right? How can International Law and its institutions protect small countries from the aggression and oppression of big countries? How can the institutions of International Law, especially the Security Council, be moved if the aggressor is a member of it and holds the right to object (veto)? What is the role of regional organizations in maintaining international peace and security?
Do mock referendums organized in the occupied territories give legitimacy to the invasion and occupation of the lands of other countries and to sovereignty over them? What is the position of International Law and its institutions on that? Why did preventive measures fail to prevent the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine? Does what happened encourage the outbreak of conflicts and wars in other regions in order to achieve geo-strategic goals? What is the way for International Law and its institutions to curb such trends that pose a threat not only to small states, but to humanity as a whole?
These and other questions need research and study by researchers in International Law in its various disciplines and fields, with the aim of contributing to providing solutions and legal jurisprudence to existing and emerging problems, emphasizing law and negotiations as ways to resolve international and national conflicts and to achieving coexistence between human societies, and rejecting force, arrogance, and injustice in international relations.
Special Issue | Volume 10 Issue 11 | 8th Annual Conference Research | Jamada Al Awwal 1443 AH – December 2021 AD
Editorial
Law in the Historical and Civilizational Context (2-4):
International Declarations and Laws – Principles and Charters Designed to Regulate Cooperation, Coexistence, and Renunciation of Wars between Nations: Towards More Commitment and Respect
By: Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi
Editor-in-Chief
{O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah (God) is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.} (Sourat Al-Hujurat, verse 13)
Law in the Historical and Civilizational Context (2-4)
Chief-in-Editor Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi
{O humanity! Indeed, We created you from a male and a female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you may ˹get to˺ know one another. Surely, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah (God) is the most righteous among you. Allah is truly All-Knowing, All-Aware.} (Sourat Al-Hujurat, verse 13)
Relations between states constitute a mirror reflecting the development of the role of laws in regulating life within the international community, a role that intersects in many aspects with the role of law in local societies and within a single state, but differs from it according to its parties and units. International law views states as equals, grants them sovereignty over their lands, territorial waters, and airspace. It does not allow aggression against them or interference in their internal affairs. The rules of this law appeared successively in the form of charters, agreements, and declarations of principles and rights, after a difficult period of labour that witnessed tragic wars and conflicts, which claimed the lives of tens of millions of people in the First and Second World Wars, in addition to the wars of colonialism and aggression.
Many of these rules find their origins and roots in historical theories and legal codes, which arose in the midst of conflicts between earlier nations to control resources and impose sovereignty, and in the predominance of the logic of wars, invasion and aggression, and then developed gradually and cumulatively in a development that took many centuries, to establish peace instead of war, and coexistence instead of conflict, adopting dialogue and negotiation instead of weapons to settle existing problems.
Heavenly laws in general, and Islamic law in particular, as it is the final, wisest, fairest, and most comprehensive of all messages and laws, has contributed to raising awareness of the importance of the values of coexistence and understanding between human societies, and rejecting division and aggression, as the Almighty said in a decisive revelation:
{And cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression}, (Surat Al-Ma’idah, verse 2)}. He also said: {And do not transgress, for God does not love transgressors} (Surat Al-Ma’idah, verse 87).
These provisions were mirrored on the ground by the example of the state of Medina established by the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, and later in Mecca after its conquest, and then in the rest of the cities that the Muslims opened and ruled, where the values of brotherhood and affection, justice and equality prevailed, and security, stability and prosperity spread in these zones for a period of time, due to adherence to the values and principles included in the provisions of the Sharia, and the jurisprudence reached by the caliphs, scholars and jurists.
The two historical legal schools, Latin and Anglo-Saxon, also contributed to the emergence of many theories and rules of international law, based on the experience of the Roman Empire and the principles and ideas of Roman philosophers, and then the philosophers and thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment, some of whom lived through dark periods in the history of civil and inter-war wars in Europe and the United States of America. And other wars of colonialism, aggression, and control in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially the first and second world wars in the twentieth century.
The development of international law culminated in the emergence of a number of declarations, covenants, conventions, and protocols, which followed World War II, most notably: the United Nations Charter (1945), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Geneva Conventions (1949), and its subsequent protocols, and others. International efforts have also been active to formulate and adopt multilateral agreements aimed at encouraging the resolution of problems and disputes through dialogue and negotiation and by avoiding wars.
There is no doubt that these efforts and initiatives have achieved some results, but data on the ground indicate the limited impact of the repository of international laws and agreements in curbing the aggressive tendency inherent in a number of international parties that do not hesitate to use force to achieve their interests, and to interfere in internal affairs of countries, and impose their conditions by force. In addition to the fact that this situation has led to instability in many regions of the world, it has engendered more and more doubts about the binding force and even the very existence of the rules of international law, due to the increasing violations and disrespect of them by the major powers, based on the fact that laws require force to compel the implementation of its provisions, which is not available for many of the rules and provisions of international law, especially when major powers are involved, as confirmed by successive facts.
In view of the common needs of human societies towards strengthening international peace and stability in order to address the real problems that threaten the future of humanity (climate – hunger – depletion of resources …), many parties, at the forefront of whom responsible states and governments, as well as international organizations and jurists of international law, are invited to dwell again on reviewing mechanisms for activating respect for the rules and provisions of international law, and the need to adhere to them to include everyone without exception.
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Volume 11
Issue 1
/
Jumada Al Oula 1444
December 2022
ISSN 24102237