Papers by S.J.P. Pertuet
International Criminal Tribunals and Courts, 2019
Paper written for International Criminal Tribunals and Courts - obtained 7/10.
Genocide, which o... more Paper written for International Criminal Tribunals and Courts - obtained 7/10.
Genocide, which official definition is to be found in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention),1 is a term that was originally invented by Lemkin2 after the Second World War (WWII), and legally recognised for the first time shortly after.3 Since the Holocaust, the notion of genocide has developed along with different aspects of it. For the purpose of this essay, two of these aspects will be analysed: first, the development of and constant debate surrounding the rejection of the doctrine of obedience to superior orders and second, the perceptible increasing acceptance of the crime of genocide as the ‘crime of crimes’.
This essay will try to assess whether these developments are welcome in international criminal law, what could be their down-sides, and what solutions could be brought to those down-sides.
Essay for Seminar in International Cooperation in International Matters, 2019
Paper written for Seminar in March 2019 - obtained 8/10.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and t... more Paper written for Seminar in March 2019 - obtained 8/10.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and terrorism are broadly discussed in legal literature, because of the fear they provoke into individuals and States officials on the one hand, and because of the different issues they raise and solutions that have been offered and been partly successful or unsuccessful throughout the years on the second hand. The difficulty to deal with the numerous problems that stem from those topics led States to establish legal documents as well as formal and informal, binding and non-binding, international and regional cooperation mechanisms. Since there exist several treaties and mechanisms, this essay will focus on chemical weapons and on the war on terror following the 9/11 attacks and in the context of the Syrian Civil War.
Following an introduction on WMD and chemical weapons, this essay will focus on the effects that terrorism has had on international cooperation in this context. It will then explore the Syrian Crisis and the cooperation mechanism that was established by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations (UN): The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). The aim of this essay is to assess whether international cooperation in the context of terrorism and WMD, especially CW, has improved or worsened, by comparing the 9/11 attacks consequences on international cooperation with the current cooperation mechanisms and geopolitical climate in the context of the Syrian crisis.
Essay written in October 2018 (final assessment 'Criminal Procedure and Human Rights'), obtained ... more Essay written in October 2018 (final assessment 'Criminal Procedure and Human Rights'), obtained 8/10.
Essay about Targeted Sanctions and Human Rights, written in January 2018 (final assessment 'UN Pe... more Essay about Targeted Sanctions and Human Rights, written in January 2018 (final assessment 'UN Peacekeeping and Peace Enforcement), obtained 7/10.
Paper written in 2017 (final assessment 'Moral Dilemmas in International Relations'), obtained 9/10.
Thesis Chapters by S.J.P. Pertuet
LL.M Thesis, 2020
Considering the events and developments of 2019 in Venezuela, several legal tools will be assesse... more Considering the events and developments of 2019 in Venezuela, several legal tools will be assessed in this thesis to find the best solution available to answer the situation. Chapter 1 will first assess what human rights (HRs) have been breached, in what way and by who, and will analyse the legal framework in this context. It will cover civil and political rights as well as some economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The responsibility for the enjoyment of these rights will be analysed. Second, the alleged violations of many rights that cannot be derogated from – even in a state of emergency – will be analysed notably because they can amount to crimes againt humanity (CAH) as Chapter 2 will show, or can in some instances lead to triggering international mechanisms in case of violations as will Chapter 3 show.
Because Venezuela signed the Rome Statute in 1998 and ratified it on June 7th, 2000, Chapter 2 will describe and analyse what CAH are and how acts can amount to them and assess whether breaches found in Chapter 1 do indeed amount to CAH and whether it can be said that CAH have been committed in Venezuela since the presidential crisis of January 2019. It has been argued that such CAH have been committed even before the situation started escalating after Maduro’s re-election, and as will be seen in Chapter 3, similar findings today would open many possibilities to act.
Chapter 3 will start with assessing the current status of intervention under international law (IL), and in light with Chapter 1, analyse which tools could or could not have been or still be used in 2019. After having explored the possibility to impose sanctions, it will be demonstrated that the current situation amounts to a threat to international peace and security. After explaining this concept, the third section of Chapter 3 will review all the possibilities that exist after such a determination is made. Chapter 3 will finish on the possibility of implementing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Doctrine following the findings made in Chapter 2.
LL.M Thesis, 2021
The Preliminary Chapter will start with exposing and unveiling the existing challenges in the con... more The Preliminary Chapter will start with exposing and unveiling the existing challenges in the context of piracy and armed robbery at sea – which differences will also be covered after having exposed the main international instruments regulating piracy today. Such challenges pertain, inter alia, to the difficulty to apprehend and bring alleged pirates to trial, because of issues of jurisdiction as well as some triggered by the current definitions provided by international law. These challenges extend to the struggle of some States to prosecute and detain convicted pirates. These matters will be covered from an international point of view in Section 1 of the Preliminary Chapter, and in the specific example of the piracy phenomenon in Africa in Section 2 of the same Chapter. Section 3 of the Preliminary Chapter will in turn describe the unexpected consequences briefly cited in the previous paragraph, meaning, inter alia, an apparent displacement of the issue and the subsequent – too many perhaps – regional initiatives that were established to try and fight piracy. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will then explore the possibilities of piracy being covered by international criminal law. Considering the challenges and, in many cases, subsequent impunity in the context of piracy, this thesis will try to answer the following question: could, or should piracy be covered by international criminal law in order to tackle the too many challenges surrounding this crime efficiently and on a long-term basis?
(…)
The second part of this thesis will therefore focus on whether piracy could be considered an international crime, notably to be covered by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute). Leaving aside the crimes of aggression and of genocide which specific features do not appear to coincide with the crime of piracy, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will respectively assess whether piracy could be considered as a war crime or as a crime against humanity. Chapter 2 will first address the existence of a nexus between piracy and armed conflicts, then compare war crimes under the Rome Statute and what types of behaviours are covered under acts of piracy. It will then draw an analogy between child pirates and child soldiers, showing yet another similarity between piracy and war crimes based on the specific example of child pirates. Chapter 3 will first define crimes against humanity and will then compare them under the Rome Statute to acts of piracy. In this context, the requirements for crimes to amount to crimes against humanity will be exposed and compared to the specificities of the crime of piracy, in order to assess whether these chapeau requirements could be considered fulfilled or not. A comparison between certain crimes against humanity and some behaviours amounting to acts of piracy will also be performed in order to assess whether piracy itself could be considered a crime against humanity, and added as such in the Rome Statute.
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Papers by S.J.P. Pertuet
Genocide, which official definition is to be found in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention),1 is a term that was originally invented by Lemkin2 after the Second World War (WWII), and legally recognised for the first time shortly after.3 Since the Holocaust, the notion of genocide has developed along with different aspects of it. For the purpose of this essay, two of these aspects will be analysed: first, the development of and constant debate surrounding the rejection of the doctrine of obedience to superior orders and second, the perceptible increasing acceptance of the crime of genocide as the ‘crime of crimes’.
This essay will try to assess whether these developments are welcome in international criminal law, what could be their down-sides, and what solutions could be brought to those down-sides.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and terrorism are broadly discussed in legal literature, because of the fear they provoke into individuals and States officials on the one hand, and because of the different issues they raise and solutions that have been offered and been partly successful or unsuccessful throughout the years on the second hand. The difficulty to deal with the numerous problems that stem from those topics led States to establish legal documents as well as formal and informal, binding and non-binding, international and regional cooperation mechanisms. Since there exist several treaties and mechanisms, this essay will focus on chemical weapons and on the war on terror following the 9/11 attacks and in the context of the Syrian Civil War.
Following an introduction on WMD and chemical weapons, this essay will focus on the effects that terrorism has had on international cooperation in this context. It will then explore the Syrian Crisis and the cooperation mechanism that was established by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations (UN): The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). The aim of this essay is to assess whether international cooperation in the context of terrorism and WMD, especially CW, has improved or worsened, by comparing the 9/11 attacks consequences on international cooperation with the current cooperation mechanisms and geopolitical climate in the context of the Syrian crisis.
Thesis Chapters by S.J.P. Pertuet
Because Venezuela signed the Rome Statute in 1998 and ratified it on June 7th, 2000, Chapter 2 will describe and analyse what CAH are and how acts can amount to them and assess whether breaches found in Chapter 1 do indeed amount to CAH and whether it can be said that CAH have been committed in Venezuela since the presidential crisis of January 2019. It has been argued that such CAH have been committed even before the situation started escalating after Maduro’s re-election, and as will be seen in Chapter 3, similar findings today would open many possibilities to act.
Chapter 3 will start with assessing the current status of intervention under international law (IL), and in light with Chapter 1, analyse which tools could or could not have been or still be used in 2019. After having explored the possibility to impose sanctions, it will be demonstrated that the current situation amounts to a threat to international peace and security. After explaining this concept, the third section of Chapter 3 will review all the possibilities that exist after such a determination is made. Chapter 3 will finish on the possibility of implementing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) Doctrine following the findings made in Chapter 2.
(…)
The second part of this thesis will therefore focus on whether piracy could be considered an international crime, notably to be covered by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute). Leaving aside the crimes of aggression and of genocide which specific features do not appear to coincide with the crime of piracy, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 will respectively assess whether piracy could be considered as a war crime or as a crime against humanity. Chapter 2 will first address the existence of a nexus between piracy and armed conflicts, then compare war crimes under the Rome Statute and what types of behaviours are covered under acts of piracy. It will then draw an analogy between child pirates and child soldiers, showing yet another similarity between piracy and war crimes based on the specific example of child pirates. Chapter 3 will first define crimes against humanity and will then compare them under the Rome Statute to acts of piracy. In this context, the requirements for crimes to amount to crimes against humanity will be exposed and compared to the specificities of the crime of piracy, in order to assess whether these chapeau requirements could be considered fulfilled or not. A comparison between certain crimes against humanity and some behaviours amounting to acts of piracy will also be performed in order to assess whether piracy itself could be considered a crime against humanity, and added as such in the Rome Statute.