I am truly grateful to the contributors to this symposium for taking the time to engage with my book on Reparations by Non-State Armed Groups under International Law. It was a real pleasure reading their insightful comments and thoughts on the research. The different contributions offer interesting reflections on related or broader issues surrounding the topic …
This book is an outstanding addition to the field of scholarship on armed groups and international law. It addresses whether and how non-state armed groups (NSAG) might be required to provide reparation for the damages, or harms, caused by their violations of international law committed during situations of non-international armed conflict (NIAC). Herman addresses this …
For decades, Colombia has faced an ongoing series of armed conflicts involving a diverse range of non-official armed actors. The legal and public policy landscape of the Colombian state has had to adapt, incorporating a variety of terms to describe these groups—including guerrillas, self-defense militias, paramilitary organizations, non-state armed groups, terrorist entities, organized criminal groups, …
The question of whether non-state armed groups (NSAGs) could be held internationally responsible has been a recurrent theme of discussion during the last decades (see here, here and here), although it still remains contested. In her book Reparation by Non-State Armed Groups under International Law, Olivia Herman brightly addresses this and other relevant topics in relation to the provision of reparation …
In the fall of 2016, I began the research that underpins my recently published book, ‘Reparations by Non-State Armed Groups under International Law: From Conflict to Repair in Colombia and Beyond’. Right around this time, the Colombian government concluded a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), the country’s …
On Thursday 18th January, there will be a book panel discussion at Utrecht University on the new edited volume that Ezequiel Heffes and I edited: – ‘Armed Groups and International Law: In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality’ (Edward Elgar 2023). Through a careful consideration of the status of armed groups within a complex legal …
It is both terribly pleasing and terrifying to be invited to have a book symposium around a recent book. A substantive conversation with a group of diverse, insightful, and engaged readers is exactly the kind of exercise that academia should more systematically foster, but in reality most of us are over-solicited in too many different …
“Rebel Courts” Book Symposium – Author Response to Contributors Read More »
Some years ago, when I was doing research on rebel governance, I heard a story about a truck driver going from Syria to Iraq through ISIS-held territory. He paid customs duties to ISIS, and continued on to the area controlled by the Iraqi state. When he reached a government checkpoint, the Iraqi officials honored his …
“Rebel Courts” Book Symposium – Rebel Courts and the Rule of Law Read More »
When armed groups in zones of armed conflict succeed in conquering territories and establishing their control thereupon, they often (though not always) proceed to engage in practices of governance (Arjona et al. 2015). As part of their effort at (insurgent) governance, armed groups can opt to intervene in a variety of tasks, such as the provision …
Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions (CA 3) prohibits “[T]he passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples”. Unfortunately, the 1949 Conventions, including their travaux preparatoires, are silent on what is meant by …