ALMA Newsletter - December 2016

Dear friends,

Welcome to our December issue of the ALMA Newsletter, which includes the most recent news, updates and developments on International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We would like to start by wishing you happy holidays and a new year.

This last month of 2016 brought several pertinent IHL issues to the forefront - the debate over the principle of proportionality, the revision of the US DoD LOAC Manual, the public's perceptions of IHL as evidenced in the ICRC Survey, the legality of the Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, and more. This newsletter brings a little taste of these relevant debates.

As always, you are welcome to keep in touch via our Facebook page and twitter. In order to subscribe to our mailing list please send your name and email address to info@alma-ihl.org.

Season's greetings,

Ido Rosenzweig

ALMA Chairman.

Calls for Papers

1) Call for papers: "The Promotion and Enforcement of Human Rights by International and Regional Organizations: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities", 2017 AHRI Conference. The conference will be held on April 27-28, 2017 in Leuven (BE). Abstracts should be submitted by January 2, 2017.

2) Call for papers: "Authority" in International Dispute Settlement. The workshop, funded by the British Academy, is organised by Dr Michael Waibel and will take place on March, 20 2017 at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge. Expressions of interest shall be sent by 10 January 2017.

3) Call for papers: "50 Years after 1967: Evaluating the Past, Present and Future of the Law of Belligerent Occupation", The 12th Annual Minerva/ICRC Conference on International Humanitarian Law. The conference will be held on May 22-23, 2017 in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. Proposals for paper should be submitted by January 15, 2017.

4) Call for Submissions: The Melbourne Journal of International Law invites submissions on areas of interest in international law for volume 18(1), to be published in July 2017. Manuscripts should be submitted by January 31, 2017.

5) Call for papers: "International Law in Crisis", The 11th Pan-European Conference on International Relations: "The Politics of International Studies in an Age of Crises". The conference will be held on September 13-16, 2017 in Barcelona. Abstracts should be submitted by February 10, 2017.

6) Call for research proposals: The Minerva Center for the Study of the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa, invites proposals for research activities, aimed at analyzing the various aspects of pre, during and post-emergency resilience. Research Proposals should be submitted by February 15, 2017.

7) Call for Papers: Sustaining the International Legal Order in an Era of Rising Nationalism.

The conference will be held on June 29 - July 1, 2017 in Canberra. Abstracts of proposed papers should be submitted by February 24, 2017.

8) Call for papers: "International Investment Law & the Law of Armed Conflict". The conference will be held in Athens on October 5-6, 2017. Abstracts should be submitted by March 15, 2017.

IHL Articles & Media

1) Christof Heyns, Dapo Akande, Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, & Thompson Chengeta, The International Law Framework Regulating the Use of Armed Drones, International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 65, no. 4, October 2016).

2) ICRC, The evolution of warfare, (IRRC, Issue 900).

3) The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law is out.

4) Just Security, Defense Department Releases Second Round of Revisions for Law of War Manual (Just Security).

5) Boyd van Dijk, A History of humanity, humanitarian law, and human rights (JIHBLOG).

6) Lorris Beverelli, Why International Law Matters to Decision Makers (Georgetown Security Studies Review).

7) Monica Hakimi, Taking Stock of the Law on Targeting, Part I (EJIL: Talk!).

8) Beth Van Schaack, Human Shields in International Humanitarian Law: A Guide to the Legal Framework (Just Security).

9) Tim McCormack, Chemical Weapons and Other Atrocities: Contrasting Responses to the Syrian Crisis (ILS).

10) Ryan Goodman, New ICRC Survey: Large Global Divide in Public Respect for Humanitarian Norms (Just Security)

11) ICRC, People on War 2016: IHL Survey (ICRC).

12) William Fenrick, Law and Conflict for the Contemporary Practitioner (LawFare).

13) Charlie Savage, Pentagon Revamps Law of War Manual to Protect Journalists (The New York Times).

14) Just Security, Defense Department Releases Second Round of Revisions for Law of War Manual (Just Security).

15) Stéphane Ojeda, Global counter-terrorism must not overlook the rules of war (ICRC blog).

16) Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, Vol 3 (2016) is out.

17) Eugene Kontorovich, Israel’s Settlement Regulations Bill and International Law (Just Security).

18) Yael Ronen and Yuval Shany, Israel’s Settlement Regulation Bill Violates International Law (Just Security).

19) Charles Staab, Uncloaking the Dagger: Does Adherence to the Geneva Conventions Betray Special Operations Forces? (Small Wars Journal).

20) Eric Talbot Jensen, Shelling in Urban Area: When Does Imprecision Become Indiscriminate? (SSRN).

21) Aaron Kletzing, Should the Geneva Conventions be updated, and how does that process even work? (Rally Point).

@ALMA_IHL Selected Tweets

1) #IHLvideo Presentation by Dr. Gloria Gaggioli on #SelfDefense in #ArmedConflicts hosted on Nov.29 at HLS .@HLSPILAC

2) #IHL publication: Initial #GTMO #PRB decisions now completed. 29 remaining uncharged and uncleared #LawOfWar detainees.@marty_lederman

3) #IHLpublication: #WarSurvey Over 17.000 people were asked to share their views on issues relating to #War. .@ICRC .@rgoodlaw

4) According to the #Distinction principle, it is prohibited to directly attack uninvolved civilians . #IHL #GraveBreaches #WarCrimes #AskIHL

5) #IHLarticle: The #UN has decided to tackle the issue of #KillerRobots in 2017. By .@aprilaser .@recode

6) #IHLarticle: #SpaceLaw Revisited: Are #Weapons of mass destruction prohibited in #space? .@pavle_kilibarda .@ICRC

For more IHL tweets please visit our twitter page

Upcoming IHL Worldwide Events

1) January 17, 2017, Accountability for war algorithms (New Haven, USA).