PIL - Exam Questions - Cases

11 flashcards · Law · by daniel-eder

1. Where are the circumstances preluding wrongfulness (in regards to breaches of international obligations) regulated?

   Art 20-25 DARS

2. State A has an embassy in State B. Next to the Embassy is a primary school for children aged 6-10. A teacher notices smoke coming from the windows of the embassy and calls the fire brigade. The fire brigade tries to contact the embassy, but no one answers. Finally the firemen break open the door and put out the fire. The members of the embassy are unconscious but are rescued and brought to a nearby hospital where they recover fully. What norm of international law may be violated?

   Art 22 VCDR states that the premises of an embassy are inviolable According to the mainstream theory of functional necessity the embassies are part of the territory of the receiving state, but may not be entered by any agent of the receiving state without consent of the head of the mission. The firemen broke open the door without permission from the ambassador, this may constitute an internationally wrongful act.

3. State A has an embassy in State B. Next to the Embassy is a primary school for children aged 6-10. A teacher notices smoke coming from the windows of the embassy and calls the fire brigade. The fire brigade tries to contact the embassy, but no one answers. Finally the firemen break open the door and put out the fire. The members of the embassy are unconscious but are rescued and brought to a nearby hospital where they recover fully. Presuming that the firemen entering is in violation of Art 22…

   Art 2 DARS a state committed an internationally wrongful act when: Conduct must constitute a breach of an international obligation which must be attributable to that state According to Art 12 DARS a state breaches an international obligation, if a state is not in conformity with such an obligation. This is determined only based on PIL, even if the conduct may be lawful under national law. Due to the breach of Art 22 VCDR, to which B is party, an international obligation was breached. Further we…

4. State A has an embassy in State B. Next to the Embassy is a primary school for children aged 6-10. A teacher notices smoke coming from the windows of the embassy and calls the fire brigade. The fire brigade tries to contact the embassy, but no one answers. Finally the firemen break open the door and put out the fire. The members of the embassy are unconscious but are rescued and brought to a nearby hospital where they recover fully. Presuming that due to the acts of the firemen breach Art 22 VC…

   An internationally wrongful act generally triggers the acting state's responsibility. However, the act may be justified by circumstances precluding the wrongfulness of the action or omission. Art 20-25 DARS lists these circumstances. In this case Art 24 DARS might apply: Distress An act is justified, if the author of the act has no other reasonable way of saving the author's life or the life of another person entrusted to the author's care. According to the facts of the case a fire broke out th…

5. The Neighboring States A and B have always disagreed on the exact delimitation of their boundary. That is unfortunate, as A and B re split by a huge river with great importance for the transport of goods by ships. Where would you draw the boundary?

   If there is no treaty, PIL falls back on a general rule to determine the border of states separated by a river. PIL distinguishes between navigable and non-navigable rivers. If a river is non-navigable the boundary between the two states is the middle line. If it is navigable, the border follows the thalweg, which is the line of greatest depth of water within a watercourse There is no hint that a treaty exists, thus the general rule applies. According to the facts of the case the river is of "g…

6. The Neighboring States A and B have always disagreed on the exact delimitation of their boundary. Close to the coasts of A and B is the island of Shangri-La, which is uninhabited but rich in mineral resources. A claims sovereignty over the island as it had discovered it hundreds of years ago. B on the other hand argues that as A had never exercised any form of authority over the island it was terra nullius until B recently stationed its military forces for training exercises on the island. Who…

   As seen in the Palmas Case the determining factor for territorial sovereignty is "effective sovereignty". A only discovered the island but has displayed no form of sovereignty at all. B stationed military forces on the island and thus displayed, and still displays, a certain level of sovereignty. The question arises if this is also an "effective" sovereignty. According to PIL effective sovereignty depends on intensity and duration. In the Eastern Greenland Case it was shown that the required le…

7. The Neighboring States A and B have always disagreed on the exact delimitation of their boundary. They both have a coast towards the ocean. Which parts of the ocean belong to A and which to B?

   This is a question of delimitation of the territorial seas between the adjacent states of A and B. According to Art 3 UNCLOS the territorial sea extends 12 nm from the baseline of a coastal state. Absent a treaty, the general rule of Art 15 UNCLOS applies in regards to the delimitation of territorial seas between opposite and adjacent coasts. It requires that states do not extend their territorial sea beyond the median line = a line equidistant from the nearest point of the baseline of each sta…

8. Flight BondAir 007 is performed by a British Aircraft (registered G-BOND) from London-Gatwick to New York-Newark airport. Some 200 miles west of Ireland, an Italian and a French passenger have an argument and later a fistfight, over the results of the Korean winter Olympics. The captain orders the flight attendants to restrain the two passengers, turns back towards Ireland, lands at Shannon Airport and disembarks the two passengers. Discuss the captain ordering the flight attendants to restrain…

   Art 6 Tokyo Convention allows the aircraft commander certain powers if he believes that person to have committed or is about to commit a crime on board the aircraft which may compromise the safety, order, discipline etc on board (see text of leg cit). The commander can take "appropriate measures" and facilitate disembarkation. Art 6 (2) TC entitles the aircraft command to require or authorize the assistance of crew members. Two passengers got into a fistfight, which constitutes a crime under an…

9. Flight BondAir 007 is performed by a British Aircraft (registered G-BOND) from London-Gatwick to New York-Newark airport. Some 200 miles west of Ireland, an Italian and a French passenger have an argument and later a fistfight, over the results of the Korean winter Olympics. The captain orders the flight attendants to restrain the two passengers, turns back towards Ireland, lands at Shannon Airport and disembarks the two passengers. Which State(s) can claim criminal jurisdiction over the matter?

   The Tokyo Convention provides the jurisdiction of the state of registry, however it does not preclude the jurisdiction on other grounds accepted in PIL. Such other grounds could be the venue of the crime = territorial principle or the nationality of the persons involved = active/passive personality principle. The aircraft is registered in the UK, hence the TC provides UK jurisdiction. Under the personality principle Italy and France can additionally claim jurisdiction, as the offenders are thei…

10. Arkadian Protesters storm the Embassy of Utopia n Arkadia. Stuart, a 27-year old student and citizen of Circadia, was watching the incident while standing at the street across the embassy. He had neither been participating in the protests nor in storming the embassy. Nevertheless, after several minutes, he was arrested arbitrarily by Arkadian police forces and put into custody. Formerly, the student had had the citizenship of Bavaria, where he was born and raised until he was 25 years old. Shor…

    Diplomatic protection is a right vested in the state, not the individual, thus, if the requirements are fulfilled, it is the decision of Circadia whether or not to exercise it. There are two requirements: local remedies rule nationality of claims rule local remedies rule Diplomatic protection may only be extended if the affected individual has exhausted all local remedies, meaning the judicial system of the state the internationally wrongful act was committed. Using the local judicial system is…

11. Absurdistan and Bazaristan conclude a Treaty to finally settle the dispute over the exact location of the border between them. Unfortunately there is a problem with the treaty: An annex to the treaty contains a map depicting the boundary between the two states as agreed by them. A joint commission of experts from both states has established the exact borderline, recorded the GPS coordinates on site and drawn the map accordingly. It turns out that the GPS equipment had malfunctioned, the coordin…

    The question is if the treaty is invalid due to the wrong map. According to Art 48 (1) VCLT I an error in a treaty is only relevant if the error relates to a fact or situation which was assumed by the state to exist at the time of the conclusion of the treaty, and formed an essential basis of its consent to be bound. According to Art 48 (2) VCLT I the error cannot be invoked if the state knew or ought to have known of the error ("circumstances were such as to put the state on notice of a possib…