11 Treatment of State Obligations (the ‘Umbrella Clause’)

This chapter explores umbrella clauses. In order to protect investor–state commitments and obligations from obsolescence, many investment treaties contain a clause defining the treatment that the host state will give to obligations it has made to investors or investments covered by the treaty. Known commonly as ‘umbrella clauses’, such provisions generally stipulate that ‘each Contracting Party shall observe any obligation it may have entered into with regard to the investments of investors of the other Contracting Party’. The umbrella clause creates an exception to a well-established principle of international law concerning state contracts with, and obligations to, foreign investors. Its intent is to impose an international treaty obligation on host countries that requires them to respect obligations they have entered into with respect to investments protected by the treaty. This places such obligations under the protective umbrella of international law, not just the domestic law that would otherwise normally apply exclusively. The chapter then looks at the formulations and application of the umbrella clause.

Substantive Empirical Results: Government Repression

This chapter utilizes the treatment models described in Chapter 4 to estimate the effects of a treaty on both obligated and unobligated countries. For those that are obligated to the terms of an HRT, it estimates the effect of the treaty on government repression relative to the counterfactual of how that country would have repressed if it were not treaty-obligated. For countries that are not obligated to a given HRT in each year, it estimates the effect of a counterfactual treaty commitment on government repression relative to repression that occurred absent the treaty obligation. By comparing each government's level of repression under its observed treaty commitment status and level of repression that it would have experienced under a counterfactual treaty-obligation condition, statistical models estimate the effect of international human rights law on various government violations of human rights.

Part III The Right to Justice, B Distribution of Jurisdiction between National, Foreign, International, and Internationalized Courts, Principle 21 Measures for Strengthening the Effectiveness of International Legal Principles Concerning Universal and International Jurisdiction

Principle 21 outlines measures for strengthening the effectiveness of international legal principles concerning universal and international jurisdiction. In particular, it requires states to establish universal criminal jurisdiction and highlights their obligations to prosecute or to extradite (aut dedere aut judicare) states may possess under treaty law. The relationship between dedere and judicare might vary depending on the formulation of the relevant treaty obligation. A controversial issue is whether states can assert ‘pure’ universal criminal jurisdiction, and whether the aut dedere aut judicare treaty based formula is opposable to non-state parties. This chapter first provides a contextual and historical background on Principle 21 before discussing its theoretical framework, focusing on the definition and scope of ‘universal jurisdiction’ and the aut dedere aut judicare principle. It also examines how Principle 21 has been exercised in practice.

Part 9 International Cooperation and Judicial Assistance: Coopération Internationale Et Assistance Judiciaire, Art.97 Consultations

This chapter comments on Article 97 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 97 identifies the types of difficulties that may arise with requests for cooperation that require consultation with the Court. The first is insufficient information to execute the request. The second is difficulty in locating the person, a matter relevant to a request for surrender. But a request to locate a person might also concern questioning of an individual or a suspect, and even service of a summons to appear. Finally, article 97 contemplates the possibility that execution of the request might require the requested State to breach a pre-existing treaty obligation. Use of the term ‘pre-existing’ in article 97(c) has nourished arguments to the effect that only treaty obligations adopted prior to entry into force of the Rome Statute may be invoked to resist requests for cooperation.

Sexual disorders in DSM V, ICD 11 - patient focused approach to diagnosis

Both ICD asnd DSM are in process of revision. DSM V should be implemented by 2013 and ICD 11 by 2015. These systems must be compatible by treaty obligation. In this presentation, i will summarize current proposals for changes in the DSM V for the sexual disorders. These proposals are the result of extensive literature reviews, commentaries by advisors, feedback on a publically available website. critiques received after publication and presentation of proposals, and field trials. Initial proposals include having specific duration and severity criteria. Another proposed change will be the listing of co-morbid conditions and the requirement of clinically significant distress or impairment prior to diagnosis. Specific proposals for changes in each diagnosis will be summarized in this presentation.