Robert P. Barnidge

The 2008 United States-India Nuclear Co-operation Agreement and the Work of the International Law Commission on International Liability for Injurious Consequences Arising Out of Acts not Prohibited by International Law

This article examines the 2008 Agreement for Co-operation Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of India Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy [“123 Agreement”] within the context of the International Law Commissions (ILC) work on international liability for injurious consequences arising out of acts not prohibited by international law. Attention is paid to three issues in particular, namely how international environmental law has developed to interact with vaguely worded environmental protection provisions, such as those in the 123 Agreement, and the role of experts in this regard, the issue of civil nuclear liability, and the question of what international law might require for environmental impact assessments under the 123 Agreement to pass muster.

War and peace: negotiating meaning in Islam

This paper provides a framework for negotiating meaning in Islam on questions of war and peace. It begins by presenting some representative and contrasting understandings of Islam, particularly with regards to militant Islam, and then suggests some ways in which negotiations of meaning can take place in this context. It argues that the varied experiences of those who act in the name of Islam and justify their actions according to the life of Mohammed and devotion to Allah requires a new and radical interpretive framework, a framework that prioritises diversity and a decentralised ethic of understanding over homogenisation and hegemonisation and avoids post-colonial constructions of inevitable inferiority and weakness. Such a framework has the advantage of being more methodologically satisfying because it can better account for and deal with the diverse perspectives and complexities in the debate and better appreciate the political implications and undertones inherent in the practice of interpretation.