This book offers various perspectives, with an international legal focus, on an important and underexplored topic, which has recently gained momentum: the issue of foreign fighters. It provides an overview of challenges, pays considerable attention to the status of foreign fighters, and addresses numerous approaches, both at the supranational and national level, on how to tackle this problem. Outstanding experts in the field – lawyers, historians and political scientists – contributed to the present volume, providing the reader with a multitude of views concerning this multifaceted phenomenon. Particular attention is paid to its implications in light of the armed conflicts currently taking place in Syria and Iraq. Andrea de Guttry is a Full Professor of International Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. Francesca Capone is a Research Fellow in Public International Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Christophe Paulussen is a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, the Netherlands, and a Research Fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague.

This book, a follow-up publication to the 2016 volume Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond, zooms in on the responses that the international community and individual States are implementing in response to (prospective and actual) returning foreign fighters (FFs) and their families, focusing on returnees from Syria and Iraq to European countries. As States and international organisations are still ‘learning by doing’, the role of the academic community is to help steer the process by bridging the divide between international standards and their implementation at the national level and between security concerns and human rights law. Furthermore, the academic community can and should assist in identifying ways forward that are both effective, sustainable and international law-compliant. Those are, ultimately, the goals that the present volume seeks to pursue. The observations, recommendations and warnings included in this book will be useful in future debates on (returning) FFs, both in the academic world and in the world of policy makers and practitioners, as well as to the public at large. Francesca Capone is Associate Professor of International Law at the Istituto DIRPOLIS of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy. Christophe Paulussen is Senior Researcher International Law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, The Netherlands. Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi is Lecturer in International Law at the Manchester International Law Centre, University of Manchester, School of Law in Manchester, United Kingdom.

This book explores the nature and scope of the provision requiring States to ‘ensure respect’ for international humanitarian law (IHL) contained within Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It examines the interpretation and application of this provision in a range of contexts, both thematic and country-specific. Accepting the clearly articulated notion of ‘respect’ for IHL, it builds on the existing literature studying the meaning of ‘ensure respect’ and outlines an understanding of the concept in situations such as enacting implementing legislation, diplomatic interactions, regulating private actors, targeting, detaining persons under IHL in non-international armed conflict, protecting civilians (including internally displaced populations) and prosecuting war crimes. It also considers topical issues such as counter-terrorism and foreign fighting. The book will be a valuable resource for practitioners, academics and researchers. It provides much needed practical reflection for States as to what ensuring respect entails, so that governments are able to address these obligations.

Children’s Rights, ‘Foreign Fighters’, Counter-Terrorism emphasises the vulnerability of children in situations of war, conflict and radicalisation. Exploring issues of nationality rights and statelessness, chapters examine counter-terrorism measures such as the cancellation of citizenship as a strategy of pre-emption of violence while dissecting relevant cases across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.

This edited collection provides a comprehensive, insightful, and detailed study of a vital area of public policy debate as it is currently occurring in countries across the world from India to South Africa and the United Kingdom to Australia. Bringing together academics and experts from a variety of jurisdictions, it reflects upon the impact on human rights of the application of more than a decade of the "War on Terror" as enunciated soon after 9/11. The volume identifies and critically examines the principal and enduring resonances of the concept of the "War on Terror". The examination covers not only the obvious impacts but also the more insidious and enduring changes within domestic laws. The rationale for this collection is therefore not just to plot how the "War on Terror" has operated within the folds of the cloak of liberal democracy, but how they render that cloak ragged, especially in the sight of those sections of society who pay the heaviest price in terms of their human rights. This book engages with the public policy strand of the last decade that has arguably most shaped perceptions of human rights and engendered debates about their worth and meaning. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of human rights law, criminal justice, criminology, politics, and international studies.

This book analyses the process of the recruitment of foreign fighters from the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, to Syria and Iraq from 2012 to 2015. Utilizing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with foreign fighters and their families, as well as a number of relevant stakeholders it answers the question of what were the processes and circumstances leading up to the departure of foreign fighters from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo and what informed their agency? The author draws on the theories of social movement approaches, more specifically, contentious politics literature and utilizes the specific concepts of triggering mechanisms, which refer to the enabling circumstances that make the radicalization and departure possible, and pleasure in agency, to elaborate on individual motivation. The book also shows how a wider state- fragility within the context of the post-Yugoslav wars and the transitional period that never ended, aided radicalization and how an incomplete process of post-war transition can fuel the process of political and religious radicalization creating a wider enabling web for recruitment. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Southeast European politics and foreign policy, post-war democratic transition, security policy and radicalization more broadly.

This handbook-style edited volume discusses historical, but predominantly current political, economic, and societal trends in Central Asia comprising Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The five countries exhibit many cultural and historical commonalities and face similar internal and external challenges. Despite different transformation paths and frequent intra-regional tensions, a common regional identity has emerged in the countries since gaining their independence in 1991. Besides covering their political systems, a variety of topics such as human rights, media, terrorism, and civil society are addressed. As well, bilateral relations with seven external actors are examined. Lastly, the authors explore the opportunities and limitations of institutionalized regional cooperation in various fields of action.

Written by a team of international lawyers from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean,this book analyses some of the most significant aspects of the ongoing armed conflictbetween the Russian Federation and Ukraine. As challenging as this conflict is for the international legal order, it also offers lessonsto be learned by the States concerned, and by other States alike. The book analysesthe application of international law in this conflict, and suggests ways for this law’sprogressive development. It will be useful to practitioners of international law working at national Ministriesof Defence, Justice, and Foreign Affairs, as well as in Parliaments, to lawyers ofinternational organizations, and to national and international judges dealing withmatters of public international law, international humanitarian law and criminal law.It will also be of interest to scholars and students of international law, and to historiansof international relations. Sergey Sayapin is Assistant Professor in International and Criminal Law at the Schoolof Law of the KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Evhen Tsybulenko is Professor of Law at the Department of Law of the Tallinn Universityof Technology in Tallinn, Estonia.

The ever-increasing use of technology is challenging the current status of the law, bringing about new problems and questions. The book addresses this trend from the perspective of International law and European Union law and is divided into three main thematic sections. The first section focuses on the legal implications of the use of technology either for law enforcement purposes or in the context of military activities, and examines how this use adds a new dimension to perennial issues, such as the uneasy balance between security concerns and the protection of individual rights, and defining the exact scope of certain State obligations. In so doing, it takes into account a range of current and potential scenarios at the international, regional and domestic level, including the use of killer robots, databases, drones and technology in general to patrol borders, exchange information on criminal suspects, maintain public order, target suspected terrorists and conduct military activities. In turn, the second section examines the role of institutional and non-institutional actors in establishing substantive normative standards for the use of high-tech applications. In this respect, it focuses both on the role that European courts have played so far, and on how other actors’ initiatives can contribute to the construction of a new legal framework for technology-related activities. Lastly, the third section has a two-fold focus: the first part investigates how the increasing reliance on technology is affecting traditional rules on international responsibility, and is challenging, in particular, the attribution of wrongful conduct to States and international organizations. The second part addresses issues of jurisdiction and justiciability. Given the scope of its coverage, this timely book addresses an important lacuna in the current legal scholarship, exploring some of the most recent applications of technology and the legal issues arising as a result. Readers will gain novel insights into the challenges posed to International law and European law by the growing reliance on technology, taking into account both its uses and misuses.

Principles of International Criminal Law is one of the leading textbooks in the field of international criminal justice. This fourth edition retains the detailed and systematic approach of previous editions, whist adding substantial new material on new theories, laws, and prosecutions.