Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2006) (investigating the assassination of Rafik elHariri)

Full powers is a formal document emanating from the competent authority of a state designating a person or persons to represent the state for negotiating, adopting or authenticating the text of a treaty, for expressing the consent of the state to be bound by a treaty, or for accomplishing any other act with respect to a treaty (Art. 2(1)/c, Vienna Convention)

The first critical United Nations instrument was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. It defined expressly certain human rights and fundamental freedoms that need to be protected.

Responsibility under international law arises  from the breach of a duty or non-performance of an international obligation by a state, even though the facts bring into question the rights and duties under municipal law between the citizens of the claimant state and the state alleged to be responsible.

An act of terrorism amounting to international crime should have an international element, that is, it should involve two or more states. Terrorist activities carried out within a state are criminal offences punishable under the relevant laws of the state concerned. On the other hand, terrorist acts amount to an international crime when:

• Acts are not limited to one particular state but spill over to other states in their effects;

• Acts are carried out with the support or acquiescence of the state where the terrorist organization is located, or they are state-sponsored terrorist acts; and

• Acts are carried out on a large scale and are serious in nature, hence they are the concern of international community and a threat to international peace.

The Council of Europe is an organization of European countries. It was founded in 1949 by ten West European countries. Currently it has 47 members

In limine means “at the threshold,” referring to a motion made before a trial begins. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Article 13 of the Draft Articles states the basic principle: “An act of a State does not constitute a breach of an international obligation unless the State is bound by the obligation in question at the time the act occurs.” Hence, it is important to examine at what point an obligation entered into force for the state, when it ceased to bind the state, or when it was terminated.

The Draft Articles in Chapter V of Part One enlist these defenses under the heading of “circumstances precluding wrongfulness,” though they are not exclusive. It sets out six circumstances (defenses):

• Consent
• Distress
• Necessity
• Self-defense
• Force majeure
• Countermeasures

Under the Rome Statute, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:
• killing members of the group;
• causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and
• forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Persona non grata [Latin: an unacceptable or unwelcome person]: A diplomatic agent who is unacceptable to the receiving state. The sending state should recall such an agent; if this fails to occur, the host state may ignore the presence of the agent or expel him from its territory.

The functional necessity theory, which justifies the privileges and immunities as being necessary to enable the mission to perform its functions.

The Registry of the Court is headed by a Registrar, who is the principal administrative officer of the Court. The Registrar exercises his/ her functions under the authority of the President of the Court. The Registry is responsible for the non-judicial aspects of the administration and servicing of the Court

In September 2006, the General Assembly also adopted a “Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.” The Strategy holds a special significance, because it is for the first time that all members of the United Nations had agreed to a common strategic and operational framework to fight terrorism.

actus reus (guilty act): action or conduct which is a constituent element of a crime, as opposed to the mental state of the accused.

In 1947 the CHR established a SubCommission on the Prevention of
Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, a
panel of 26 experts that was entrusted with the task
of prevention of discrimination and protection of
racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities.
The role of the Sub-Commission ended upon the
establishment of the Human Rights Council,
but a number of its functions subsist within the
Council.

Diplomatic protection is the procedure employed by the State of nationality of the injured person to secure protection of that person, and to obtain reparation for the internationally wrongful act inflicted.

In the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Project case, the ICJ accepted that countermeasures might justify otherwise unlawful conduct “taken in response to a previous international wrongful act of another State” (ICJ 1997, p. 55).

The Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland harbor by French agents on July 10, 1985, which was an attributable conduct. The French Government subsequently admitted that explosives were planted on the ship by agents on the orders of the Directorate General of External Security. New Zealand sought and received an apology and compensation from France for the violation of its sovereignty (No. 1, 1986). The UN Secretary-General mediated in the matter.

A foreign sovereign or state is not amenable to the jurisdiction of the state of the forum unless it voluntarily submits to the jurisdiction of the local courts and the law enforcement agencies. However, there is no bar against the foreign sovereign initiating the proceedings in territorial state. The concept was earlier attached to the person of the sovereign, but later extended to the state and its organs. The two terms, state immunity and sovereign immunity, are often times used interchangeably.