INTERNATIONAL LAW REVIEW
Year:2014 | Volume:- | Issue:49|Papers Count:11

Legal regime of nuclear non-proliferation imposes upon the IAEA the obligation to ensure the full protection of confidential nuclear information offered by member states. Implementation of mutual obligations requires each party to adhere to its obligations, but the IAEA seemingly is willing to receive more information and broadly monitor Iranian nuclear activities, instead of giving due consideration to the latter's right to have its sensitive information secured. Therefore, recent years have seen daunting challenges, with Iran's concerns have not been sufficiently fulfilled. Violation of the obligation to ensure the full protection of confidential information together with prejudicing the credibility of the non-proliferation verification regime raises the IAEA's responsibility towards Iran and gives it the right to take self-help measures.

After depleted uranium (DU) weapons were used in Yugoslavia and particularly in Iraq, reports about an increase in diseases such as some types of cancer and congenital anomalies in these regions raised concerns about the harmful effects of this class of weaponry on the human health. Although the studies conducted thenceforth have not found conclusive evidence as to the existence of a definitive correlation between depleted uranium and the mentioned diseases, doubts continue to persist. In light of the humanitarian law principles and opinions of international organizations, this article seeks to find out what the legal status of these weapons would be if the aforementioned effects were established and whether it would be possible to use them in armed conflicts.

Third party states responsibility arising from violations of international humanitarian law in internal armed conflicts is in fact part of a more general principle dubbed as "liability arising out of aid and assistance in violation of International Law”, which has a little precedent in International Law proposed only after World War II. Basically, states are free in their international relations in the framework of the rules and standards of international law to have commercial, technical, military and cultural engagements and help each other for different purposes. During the trade and aid, recipient governments sometimes act in violation of international obligations including human rights and humanitarian law. Governments and entities affected by this action, citing the principle of responsibility to aid and assistance, or assistance in violation of international law, consider states who have granted aid to facilitate the wrongful acts of the recipient as responsible. Obviously, this paper, studies the general responsibilities of the aid and assistance or assistance in violation of international humanitarian law by looking upon the internal conflict in Syria. Third state party is responsible for its role in violations of international humanitarian law in the territory under the jurisdiction of the involved state in an internal conflict and not their own territory. The capability of attribution of the violation of international humanitarian law in internal conflicts such as the conflict in Syria to the assisting and supporting governments would be far easier and more convenient course in light of adherence to the criterion of “overall control”.

Banks are the most influential players in the economic arena of the countries in a way that they become the governments’ instrument for implementation of the financial and monetary policies. The free market policy has opened up the market for activities of the bank beyond the place of establishment. The growth and expansion of the multinational banks in the past century have created new problems. One of the most important issues is the insolvency of such internationally active banks which requires an academic investigation to be carried out to unfold the reasons behind such bank failures. Laws of many countries have not dealt with such an eventuality and for this reason, at the time of international banking crises, the effects of bank insolvency spread throughout the world. The principles of separation or unity of the legal personalities of the banks and their subsidiaries and the principle of equal treatment among all creditors as a matter of conflict of laws related to the bank insolvency help to find out the most sensible substantive law in this field. International documents and regulations have provided a proper base for international cooperation among all the countries involved. This cooperation helps to avoid international and domestic financial crises.

The rules of international law concerning the interpretation of treaties are laid down in Articles 31-33 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Those rules have been constantly applied by international tribunals, but what distinguishes the European Court of Human Rights from other tribunals is its emphasis on four specific rules of interpretation, namely, Dynamic Interpretation, Autonomous Concepts, Effective Interpretation and Margin of Appreciation. The present study examines these rules and their application in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Sustainable development is a concept that has penetrated in various areas of international law since its introduction by Brountland Commission in 1970.This concept, has gradually affected international energy law in three dimensions (economic, social and environmental development). In light of this evolution, the concept of sustainable energy has been challenging the economic development and environmental considerations. International law in ensuring the achievement of sustainable energy has been faced with the challenge to increase energy efficiency and renewable energies. Despite the considerable developments of the international energy law, it has not been able to tackle this challenge. All scenarios ahead confirm that the use of clean and renewable energy instead of fossil fuels can establish the idea of sustainable energy in the future. Achieving this goal requires adopting some guidelines and stable patterns on energy area that in a comprehensive plan has been offered by a range of international institutions.

Following the evolution in the concept of peace and security, UN Security Council has considered climate change as a threat against international peace and security since 2007 in its 5663 meetings. The consequences of the climate change will vary around the world. Some countries may encounter severe storms and floods resulted from melting of polar ice caps while others may face droughts. Increasing earth temperature which is one of the most important consequences of climate change endangers human security and life especially in the developing countries. It also exacerbates social and economic poverty and finally results in international and non-international conflicts. Also, there are some hot places in the world which are likely to be the main victims of these changes but the effects would threaten all nations.This article, explaining national and international consequences of climate change, tends to consider the relationship between these changes and international peace and security in light of different state observations in Security Council’s meetings.

A sovereign act of forgiveness for past crimes is granted by a government to all persons (or certain groups of persons) who have been guilty of crime or delict and often conditioned upon their return to obedience. The goal of this paper is to examine main aspects of amnesty. From one side, advocates of amnesty believe that granting amnesty is a need of transitional societies going toward peace and stability while the opponents are on the idea that amnesty cases would expand the culture of impunity and violate the human rights norms in international instruments. To this end, they refer to the decisions adopted by the national and international bodies. Moreover, recent developments in criminalization of international law along with strengthening the universal jurisdiction principle have questioned the legality of amnesty so that the international community only tends to accept the conditioned amnesties.

For almost twenty years, Buy-Back Contracts have been regarded as one of the most legal and contractual mechanisms in dealing with the upstream oil and gas projects in Iran. These contracts have enabled the country not only to attract foreign investments but to address the legal impediments envisaged in the Constitution of Iran, and to restrict the upstream contracts to only contracts that observe the sovereignty of the government and also to maintain the title of the oil and gas to the nation of Iran. This Article while dealing with the various types of Buy-Back Contracts in Iran’s upstream oil and gas projects, will endeavor to compare those contracts with other types of upstream contracts, namely, Production Sharing Contracts, which are exercised by other nations in oil and gas industry.

Before TRIPS coming into force in 1995, countries had authority to construct their own IP systems. Establishing World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), countries had to observe IP rules. One of the most important issues in WIPO is genetic resources and traditional knowledge. In relation to article 27 of TRIPS, countries have authority about protection and designation of protecting system but because of knowledge level difference between countries and locating many of these sources in developing countries, there are many problems between two groups of countries which makes the developing and developed countries to suggest amendments for TRIPS.

Since the process of legalizing domestic documents before producing them to the foreign departments has become an issue, serious efforts have been made concerning the necessity of the examination of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s accession to the title Convention. The reason behind the importance of this convention is the willingness of states to shorten the legalizing process through abolishing the requirement of the foreign public documents to be certified by the diplomatic and consular agencies. Accession to this convention makes reference to the foreign consular and diplomatic agencies unnecessary and brings incomes for the competent domestic authorities while barring incomes for foreign agencies. This paper while explaining the certification and legalization of the domestic documents for reference to the foreign departments as an issue seeks to explore the necessity of Iran’saccession to this convention. Finally, it puts forward some solutions to set the scene for its effective implementation.