Tim McCormack

The ‘Sandline Affair’: Papua New Guinea Resorts to Mercenarism to End the Bougainville Conflict

For at least a decade, die Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been engaged in armed efforts to terminate a secessionist movement on the island of Bougainville off the South East coast of the PNG mainland. In late 1996, the government agreed to hire the firm of Sandline International to provide mercenary assistance, in a desperate bid to regain effective control of Bougainville. In an ironical twist to the cycle of violence and missed opportunities for peaceful resolution of the conflict, the controversial decision to engage Sandline proved to be the very catalyst to facilitate a process which appears to offer a real prospect for a negotiated settlement to the dispute. The public disclosure of the decision of the then-Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan, to resort to mercenarism was condemned by regional governments and resulted in widespread civil disturbance in PNG. Ultimately, the Chan Government was overthrown in a general election and the new government of Prime Minister Bill Skate has participated in the negotiation of an agreement to establish an independent Truce Monitoring Group and an end to me Bougainville conflict.

Anticipatory Self-Defence in the Legislative History of the United Nations Charter

Article 51 of the United Nations Charter states that: Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of selfdefense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. International lawyers are still arguing about the scope of the right of self-defence in Article 51 of the U.N. Charter. Most of the arguments focus on the semantics of Article 51. Those who argue for a “restrictive view” of the provision emphasise the qualifying phrase “if an armed attack occurs”.

A New International Criminal Law Regime

Institution-building in international law is an architecture of compromise. The United Nations, poised to make one of its most ambitious institutional and theoretical leaps since the creation of the human rights system in Geneva, again finds itself caught between the impulse towards universalism and the hesitancies of statism. The institution in question is the proposed International Criminal Court.

Law in the Virtual Battlespace: The Tallin Manual and the Jus in Bello

This paper aims to offer some critical thoughts on the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare as regards its approach to the law of armed conflict. The paper makes some observations on the methodology of drafting the Manual and highlights a few issues of substantive law that illustrate the difficulties in applying the law of armed conflict to cyber operations.

La influencia de los principios humanitarios en la negociación de tratados sobre limitación de armamentos

En este centenario de la I Conferencia Internacional de la Paz de La Haya, es oportuno reflexionar sobre la influencia de los principios humanitarios en la negociacion de tratados multilaterales sobre control de armamentos. Dos de los tres temas de la conferencia de 1899 fueron las leyes de la guerra (o derecho internacional humanitario) y el control de armas y el desarme . No cabe duda de que parte de la motivacion de 1899, y ciertamente de la II Conferencia Internacional de la Paz de La Haya de 1907, al considerar estos dos temas, fue la preocupacion humanitaria por aliviar el sufrimiento de las victimas del conflicto armado 2 . Tras 100 anos de elaboration de leyes en ambos embitos, el aniversario de 1999 es oportuno para evaluar hasta que punto los principios humanitarios han seguido influyendo en los esfuerzos para regular los efectos de determinadas armas.

Appendix IV Trials List with National Archives of Australia Series and Item Number

This unique volume provides a detailed analysis of Australia’s 300 war crimes trials of principally Japanese accused conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Appendix II Regulations for the Trial of War Criminals 1945 (Cth)

This unique volume provides a detailed analysis of Australia’s 300 war crimes trials of principally Japanese accused conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Appendix III Board of Inquiry List of War Crimes

This unique volume provides a detailed analysis of Australia’s 300 war crimes trials of principally Japanese accused conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Appendix I War Crimes Act 1945 (Cth)

This unique volume provides a detailed analysis of Australia’s 300 war crimes trials of principally Japanese accused conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

Australia's War Crimes Trials 1945-51

This unique volume provides a detailed analysis of Australia s 300 war crimes trials of principally Japanese accused conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.