Editorial

 

The field of international law continues to evolve, as Géraldine Giraudeau reminds us in discussing the responsibility of States faced with climate change. Its consideration by the International Court of Justice at the request of the United Nations General Assembly is one step in this direction, as are the opinions requested by various States from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Another innovation in international law is the creation, commented on by Margherita Capacci, of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA), justified by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for by several Western states, pending the creation of a court to prosecute this new type of aggression.

Samson Martirosian comments on another event of this type: the annexation of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, which recently led Armenia to ratify the Rome Statute that founded the International Criminal Court (ICC). By doing so, Armenia hopes to prevent a new attack by Azerbaijan and to hold that state responsible for any war crimes.

Haider A. Khan returns to the issues raised by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sanctions imposed by the United States against Russia and the conflicts between the United States and China, all in an unstable international context. This is evolving towards a multipolar relationship between a ‘global South’ and a ‘global North’, which would enable the countries of the South to build a fairer global financial system that is less dependent on the hegemony of the United States.

François Misser analyses the causes of the security, legal and humanitarian crisis affecting United Nations peace missions in Africa, which has resulted in their withdrawal from several countries, including Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The resulting instability has led to the intervention of private militias of various persuasions, posing new threats to the safety of civilian populations.

 

Ali Aït Abdelmalek and Eleonora Sparano use the cases of France and Italy to analyse the central and global nature of water as a social phenomenon. They compare the sociological and anthropological theories that account for its political, economic, technical and cultural role. Since the dawn of civilisation, water has controlled the drawing of borders and the cultural heritage of human communities.

Kirsten Stade comments on the agreement reached at the COP28 summit, which remains vague on agricultural innovations to reduce emissions, abandons the phasing out of animal agriculture and relies on the technological hype as a solution to the most serious causes of ecosystem damage. She also denounces the silence surrounding the demographic war between pronatalism and the fear of depopulation, with the social impact of the pressures exerted on individuals, especially women.

Cristina Elena Popa Tache and Cătălin-Silviu Săraru take an interdisciplinary approach to studying the origin and evolution of the legal concepts that underpin lawfare in its various forms, from armed conflicts and information wars to territorial disputes. They highlight their ethical dimension and their effects on the reality of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh‘s article, published in 2002 and republished here, remains as relevant as ever. The author examines the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and defends the international community’s recognition of two states. While Israel is recognised by the United Nations, but not by all its neighbours, the Palestinian state is recognised by 135 states, as a state party by the ICC and as a non-member observer state by the UN, but is not recognised by Israel.

In the ‘Variations’ section, Elly Hermon tackles the fundamental theme of the history of the philosophy of religions, focusing on the complex and controversial relationship between the Creator and creation and, from there, between man and nature.

Pierre Calame denounces the “new philanthropy” that the ultra-rich in our societies claim to be theirs, and argues against the transposition of private management, dictated by neo-liberal doctrine, to public action. On the contrary, he defends the role that foundations can play in a context of global interdependence between societies.

In the ‘Debates’ section, Pierre Calame, Solène Morvant-Roux, Armel Prieur, Jean-Michel Servet, Claude Simon and André Tiran take up an article from Le Monde on the issue of ecological transition, linking it to the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, following the collapse of the Second World War, and calling for a new version of the agreement aimed at creating a global ‘carbon currency’ to halt climate collapse.

 

 

Finally, this issue includes the final publication of the Journal of personal notes and recent international news by our late colleague Yves Beigbeder, who died on 29 November this year.

Paul Ghils

A propos de l'auteur :

Doctor in Philosophy, professor emeritus of the Free university of Brussels, He taught language sciences and international relations in Algeria, Gabon, Mexico, Iran and Belgium. From 1985 to 2005, he edited Transnational Associations, the journal of the Union of International Associations (UIA), which also publishes the Yearbook of International Relations), and created the cosmopolitical journal Cosmopolis in 2007. He has published numerous studies at the intersection of philosophy, language science and political science. and the and now edits a terminology and conceptual database on various subfields of international relations, hosted by the European Observatory for Plurilingualism (EOP).