Palestine as a territorial entity has experienced a curious history. Until World War I, Palestine was part of the sprawling Ottoman Empire. After the war, Palestine came under the administration of Great Britain by an arrangement with the League of Nations. In 1948 Israel established itself in part of Palestine's territory, and Egypt and Jordan assumed administration of the remainder. By 1967 Israel took control of the sectors administered by Egypt and Jordan and by 1988 Palestine reasserted itself as a state. Recent years saw the international community acknowledging Palestinian statehood as it promotes the goal of two independent states, Israel and Palestine, co-existing peacefully. This book draws on evidence from the 1924 League of Nations mandate to suggest that Palestine was constituted as a state at that time. Palestine remained a state after 1948, even as its territory underwent permutation, and this book provides a detailed account of how Palestine has been recognized until the present day.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. The quest for an inclusive and independent state has been at the center of the Palestinian national struggle for a very long time. This book critically explores the meaning of Palestinian statehood and the challenges that face alternative models to it. Giving prominence to a young set of diverse Palestinian scholars, this groundbreaking book shows how notions of citizenship, sovereignty, and nationhood are being rethought within the broader context of decolonization. Bringing forth critical and multifaceted engagements with what modern Palestinian self-determination entails, Rethinking Statehood sets the terms of debate for the future of Palestine beyond partition.

This book deals with the possible investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of crimes allegedly committed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In light of the Rome Statute and the Practice of the Office of the Prosecutor of the Court, among others, it examines the route, possible outcomes, and challenges that may arise were the Palestine situation to be brought before the ICC. The subject matter is approached using the route the Prosecutor of the Court would generally employ to deal with situations. The publication offers a step-by-step procedure by which to conduct the preliminary examination and investigation of the situation in Palestine and deals with matters of jurisdiction, followed by a discussion of the fundamental concepts of complementarity and gravity to determine the admissibility before the ICC. Alleged crimes particularly unique to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the construction of settlements, forced displacement, house demolitions, the expropriation of land, the crime of apartheid and the blockade of Gaza, are dealt with in light of the Rome Statute and international law. On the basis of the established theories of transitional justice, the possible impacts of an ICC investigation and prosecution on the conflict are analysed and a number of insights are shared with regard to the impacts of the ICC on combatting impunity, fostering Palestine’s statehood, peace negotiations and the stability of the region. Due to the politicisation of the conflict and the various interests at stake, the impact of the ICC’s involvement on the credibility of the ICC itself is also reviewed. Recognizing the numerous impacts of the conflict on the existence of the two nations and the multitude of causes for its perpetuity, it does not limit itself to the ICC, but also provides other conflict resolution alternatives that could enable reconciliation and sustainable peace in the region. This book provides an array of opinions and a crucial input for researchers and practitioners alike, while it is also useful to those investigating and possibly involved in prosecutions regarding Palestine or other similar situations before the ICC. Seada Hussein Adem obtained a PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, an LLM from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and an LLB from Haramaya University, Ethiopia./div

This book analyzes Palestine’s acceptance as a State in multilateral frameworks and its legal consequences. Using Palestine as a case study, this book argues that participation in a State-reserved regime is not determined by the traditional requisites of statehood. UNESCO membership unveils the acceptance of Palestine as a State for the limited purpose of the organization, without any immediate or implicit implications for the statehood of Palestine. Palestine’s accessions to various multilateral treaties demonstrate this argument as do its instruments of accession being accepted by the depositaries of both the United Nations Secretary-General and national Governments without requiring any clarification of the statehood question. This book also provides the first in-depth study of the legal relationship of the rights and duties of Palestine with different groups of State Parties; the recent dispute settlement brought by Palestine against the United States and Israel; and theoretical and practical challenges for Palestine in its acceptance as a State in multilateral frameworks. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of international law, legal theory, state law, and Middle East studies.

The purpose of this volume is dual. The first is to provide information about the question of the role that doctrines and practices of international law have played in the emergence and persistence of the phenomenon of socio-cultural fragmentation, and therefore of inter-group conflict, within African states. The second is to provide original thought about the ways in which, prompted by the emergent turn in our time to minority and group rights, international law and multilateral African states have begun the long journey toward modifying those doctrines and practices that have led to such unfortunate results, and have thereby begun to make very valuable contributions to the effort to prevent and/or reduce the incidence of inter-group strife in specific African contexts. The book is not, however, limited in scope by its utilisation of Africa as a case study. The book's core is based on analysis of traditional and contemporary international legal doctrines and practices, their effects in specific contexts, as well as on the role of multilateral institutions in the prevention of internecine conflict within established states. It is hoped that, with the use of African states as case studies, the book will be a contribution to the advancement of scholarly knowledge regarding the general question of the relationship among the doctrines of international law, the activities of multilateral institutions, and the management of the problems of fragmentation and internecine strife within established states the world over. This volume is relevant to international lawyers, specialists in international politics, diplomats, theorists, minority and group rights scholars, historians, and human rights activists in general. It is particularly relevant to the African studies specialist, the statesman and the diplomat.

This collection of thirteen essays explains and analyzes the conflict between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Authority over the granting of sovereignty to Palestinians from the point of view of international law. The dispute--emotional, so far intractable, often violent--is of global, not merely Middle Eastern concern. The essays cover two general topics: the political nature of the conflict and the economic issues. The collection includes eight respected contributions previously published and five newly written essays. The contributors represent a range of political alignments and differing perspectives, providing the widest possible scope for understanding the issues and beliefs relating to the conflict. Includes bibliography and index.

From the Madrid Invitation in 1991 to the introduction of the Oslo process in 1993 to the present, a negotiated settlement has remained the dominant leitmotiv of peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinian people. That the parties have chosen negotiations means that either side's failure to comply with its obligation to negotiate can result in an internationally wrongful act and, in response, countermeasures and other responses. This monograph seeks to advance our understanding of the international law of negotiation and use this as a framework for assessing the Israeli–Palestinian dispute, with the Palestinian people's unsuccessful attempt to join the United Nations as a Member State in autumn 2011 and the successful attempt to join the same institution as a non-Member Observer State in November 2012 providing a case study for this. The legal consequences of these applications are not merely of historical interest; they inform the present rights and obligations of Israel and the Palestinian people. This work fills a significant gap in the existing international law scholarship on the Israeli–Palestinian dispute, which neither engages with this means of dispute settlement generally nor does so specifically within the context of the Palestinian people's engagements with international institutions. 'Based on primary research, this book explores materials that were not analyzed before. It treats a highly political issue with scientific objectivity that strikes a balance between various points of view. The book will be an essential reading to all those involved in peace studies, international negotiations and Israeli-Palestinian conflict'. Mutaz M Qafisheh, Associate Professor of International Law, Hebron University. 'A compelling and innovative account of the legal aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: a must read.' Efraim Karsh, King's College London and Bar-Ilan University, author of Palestine Betrayed. 'A superbly imagined and executed study on Palestine that puts the 'negotiation imperative' at the heart of its narrative, fully interrogating the involvement of public international law at each step of the long and layered history that is vigorously brought to life in these pages. A study that also promises texture, nuance, and depth to the legal analysis it offers-and it delivers handsomely on each of these fronts.' -Dino Kritsiotis, Chair of Public International Law & Head of the International Humanitarian Law Unit, University of Nottingham.

Statehood, territory and international spaces are at the heart of a specific branch of international law: the international law of territory. International territorial disputes and their settlement are investigated from the standpoint of legal titles: acquisition and loss of territorial sovereignty, use of force (annexation, conquest), the right of peoples to self-determination (and secession), ius cogens norms etc. The existence, among others, of de facto states, puppet states, ‘drowning’ and ‘failed’ States shows the Protean character of statehood. Peculiar territorial regimes are likewise examined: international administration, leases, servitudes, protectorates, international cities and territories, as well as the League of Nations Mandates and the United Nations Trusteeship system.

During the last decade of the British Mandate for Palestine (1939–1948), Arabs and Jews used the law as a resource to gain leverage against each other and to influence international opinion. The parties invoked "transformational legal framing" to portray the essentially political-religious conflict as a legal dispute involving claims of justice, injustice, and victimisation, and giving rise to legal/equitable remedies. Employing this form of narrative and framing in multiple "trials" during the first 15 years of the Mandate, the parties continued the practice during the last and most crucial decade of the Mandate. The term "trial" provides an appropriate typology for understanding the adversarial proceedings during those years in which judges, lawyers, witnesses, cross-examination, and legal argumentation played a key role in the conflict. The four trials between 1939 and 1947 produced three different outcomes: the one-state solution in favour of the Palestinian Arabs, the no-state solution, and the two-state solution embodied in the United Nations November 1947 partition resolution, culminating in Israel's independence in May 1948. This study analyses the role of the law during the last decade of the British Mandate for Palestine, making an essential contribution to the literature on lawfare, framing and narrative, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Alex Green argues that states arise under contemporary international law only when two abstract conditions are fulfilled. First, emerging states must constitute 'genuine political communities': collectives within which particular kinds of ethically valuable behaviour are possible. Second, such communities must emerge in a manner consistent with the ethical importance of individual political action. This uniquely 'Grotian' theory of state creation provides a clear legal framework comprising four factual 'antecedents' and five procedural principles, rendering the law of statehood both coherent and normatively attractive.