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Revue québécoise de droit international / Quebec Journal of International Law / Revista quebequense de derecho internacional
Number of Followers: 2

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 0828-9999 - ISSN (Online) 2561-6994
Published by Érudit

[157 journals]

Les amnisties des crimes internationaux : recherche sur
l’état du droit
- Abstract: Olivier Grondin
  The use of amnesty measures at the end of a conflict is not a new phenomenon. This practice can be found in peace agreements from mid-17th century. However, the relatively recent rise in international and regional jurisdictions, both criminal and dedicated to the protection of human rights, have led to a reconsideration of this practice, especially as concerns international crimes. In the context of this reconsideration, numerous jurists and international organizations affirmed that there exists an absolute prohibition of amnesties for international crimes. This article contends that while it is generally prohibited to offer amnesty for international crimes, this prohibition is not of an imperative nature. It would thus be possible, depending on each situation, to offer such amnesties. This is done in two steps. Firstly, we search within international recognitions of states’ power to grant amnesties, in order to observe the existence of such an inherent prohibition. Secondly, we explore the different limitations to states’ power to grant amnesties stemming from their various international obligations. It results that while there exist numerous constraints that circumscribe the possibility for states to implement amnesty measures for international crimes, they remain possible depending on necessity or the impossibility of enforcement of criminal action.
L’évolution du droit international des eaux transfrontalières en
Amérique du Nord
- Abstract: Yenny Vega Cárdenas
  Problems related to the availability of fresh water have intensified in the past years. The importance of developing innovative politico-legal models for the management and governance of resources at the national and international level is a major issue nowadays. It is in this context that we will analyze the evolution of the international law applicable to transboundary waters in North America, namely as concerns relations between Canada and the United States as well as between the United States and Mexico. We observe that the tensions, negotiations and solutions selected for the distribution of water vastly differ within the continent itself, realities which reflect the double rationality related to the management of shared water resources. We will outline more specifically the opposition between those who favor the creation of new water markets and those who encourage the conservation of water and the environment.
Le recours à l’accord mixte au fil de l’évolution temporelle et
matérielle de la compétence de l’Union européenne en matière
commerciale
- Abstract: France Morrissette
  This study examines the obligation to use the mixed agreement where the EU (ex-EC) had nevertheless asserted its exclusive commercial competence to justify the conclusion of the agreement. The analysis highlights that the material content of the Common Commercial Policy (CCP) has undergone a non-linear evolution in the course of the historical transformations of the EU (ex-EC), which has had repercussions on the extent of its competence in respect of commercial agreements and consequently on the necessity and the frequency of recourse to the mixed agreement for its commercial agreements. The study finds that the transformation of the CCP went through three periods. The first period was marked by a decline in the use of mixed agreements in commercial matters due to Opinion 1/75 of the ECJ, which declared that the former EC has an intrinsically exclusive competence in matters of commercial policy whose content is identical to that of a sovereign state, and to the Opinion 1/78, which added that the CCP cannot exclude the more advanced mechanisms of international trade by limiting itself to its classic aspects (customs duties and non-tariff barriers). The second period begins with Opinion 1/94 which excludes from the CCP several non-traditional manifestations of international trade (intellectual property rights and certain services). Such a narrow interpretation of the CCP then imposes the mixed procedure for the conclusion of several Community trade agreements, including the Uruguay Round agreements. The third period begins in 2009 with the Lisbon Treaty and its article 207 TFEU, which gives the EU exclusive competence for practically all WTO matters that Opinion 1/94 had excluded from the CCP. The Daiichi affair confirms this new vision of the CCP and also establishes the foundations of a test intended to specify the connecting factors to this policy. The third period therefore marks a return to a broad interpretation of the CCP which suggests the probability of a decline in the use of the mixed agreement for EU trade agreements in the coming years.
Le rôle des Principes de Paris dans l’institutionnalisation des droits
- Abstract: Nidhal Mekki
  The Paris Principles on the Status and Functioning of National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights have come to embody an evolution that has sprung up in national law for several decades. They mark the growing institutionalization of human rights in domestic law and underline the central role of national institutions as indispensable relays for international human rights law in order to be fully respected in national laws. Indeed, the state and its organs are the first recipients of human rights standards and the responsibility to protect them is their primary responsibility. The Arab States, especially since 2011, when the Arab Spring began, are an interesting case study of the role of the Paris Principles in the institutionalization of human rights. After long decades of dictatorship confining international human rights law from a broadly formal perspective, the political and social upheavals that the region has experienced in recent years offer hope for improvements in the articulation of national laws with international human rights law and better protection of these rights in which national institutions could play a more active role. The study aims to describe the generalization movement of these institutions in the Arab world, to study the interactions they have with the internal and international institutional fabric before concluding with an evaluation of their effectiveness in the protection and promotion of human rights in this part of the world.
The Chinese Hukou System: Reforming Institutions of Inequality Between the
Need for Roots and the Demands of Change
- Abstract: Giulia Raimondo
  Since 1978, economic reform and opening-up in the People’s Republic of China have dramatically reoriented the previous planned economy towards the free market, generating an increasingly dynamic economy. The exodus of the rural labour force from the countryside to the industries of the cities significantly sustained the process of industrialization and economic reform. The rapid economic growth did not, however, coincide with appropriate social developments and has not yet led to a commensurate recognition and extension of socio-economic, civil and political rights. This dichotomy is reflected in the maintenance of the hukou (household registration) system, which limits the mobility of the population discriminating between citizens depending on their hukou status. This contribution will explore the evolution of the Chinese hukou system and its human rights implications. It will consider China’s human rights approach in relation to the management of internal migration and the recent proposals to reform the hukou system. Specific human rights concerns will be underscored with regard to the right of freedom of movement and residence within the territory of a State, which is inexorably intertwined with many other fundamental human rights. Unearthing the far-reaching and transversal human rights impact of the hukou system will unveil the overarching principle of equality and non-discrimination as the ultimate benchmark of protection for Chinese internal migrants. A holistic human rights approach to the recently propounded institutional changes is crucial to uphold China’s economic and social stability as well as to better safeguard its founding principle of equality.
Examens préliminaires à la Cour pénale internationale : fondements
juridiques, pratique du Bureau de la Procureure et développements
judiciaires
- Abstract: Azé Kerté Amoulgam
  Preliminary examinations are an important part of the criminal procedure of the International Criminal Court, as they allow for the determination of the situations that will be investigated and prosecuted. They are conducted discreetly by the Office of the Prosecutor. The Prosecutor may initiate preliminary examinations on her own initiative or on the basis of a referral from a State party or the United Nations Security Council. Preliminary examinations deal with a situation and lead, after the test of jurisdiction, admissibility and the interests of Justice, on a decision of the Prosecutor on whether or not to open an investigation. Depending on the type of referral and the nature of its decision, the Prosecutor will be compelled or not to seek the pre-trial Chamber's authorization before proceeding with the investigation. The Pre-Trial Chamber exercises two types of control over the Prosecutor's decision: absolute control when the Prosecutor decides to proceed to the investigative stage on her own initiative or refuses to investigate because the interests of justice would not be served, and flexible control when the Prosecutor decides not to investigate after a referral. The Office of the Prosecutor is faced with difficult choices and criticism in the way it conducts preliminary examinations, particularly in relation to their duration, their publicization, their role, their control and their treatment.
En matière d’accès à l’avortement, les États-Unis rencontrent-ils
leurs obligations internationales en vertu du Pacte international relatif
aux droits civils et politiques'
- Abstract: Félix Pominville Archambault
  In the United States, abortion is still a highly polarizing issue. Since 2010, there has been a significant increase in the number of legal restrictions on abortion in several states despite the fact that access to abortion has been recognized by the Supreme Court as a constitutional right in 1973 in the decision Roe v. Wade. However, this article goes beyond the United States’ domestic law. Rather, it addresses access to abortion in the United States from a different angle, under-studied, which is public international law. Precisely, the article will demonstrate why, in terms of access to abortion, the United States do not respect their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which they ratified in 1992. In order to determine the obligations of the States that have ratified the ICCPR, the protections related to access to abortion that the Covenant provides will then be illustrated through an analysis of the “jurisprudence” of the Human Rights Committee. Access to abortion in the United States will then be examined. To this end, the evolution and current state of the Supreme Court of the United States' jurisprudence on access to abortion will be analyzed. The reality on the ground will also be analyzed to capture the real effects of legal restrictions limiting access. The current political situation regarding the Supreme Court’s composition will be exposed in order to highlight the political nuances beyond the legal aspect regarding abortion in the United States.
De l’OIt à l’OMC. L’interdiction d’importation des produits
intégrant le travail forcé et les pires formes de travail des enfants :
un appel à la morale '
- Abstract: Kristine Plouffe-Malette
Frans Von Der Dunk and Fabio Tronchetti, Handbook of Space Law,
Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2015
- Abstract: Maria Manoli
Kerry F Crawford, Wartime Sexual Violence: From Silence to Condemnation of
a Weapon of War, Washington, Georgetown University Press, 2017
- Abstract: Olivia Malenfant