Browsing by study line "International Law"

Tutkielma keskittyy ristiriitaan vihreän siirtymän ja saamelaisille alkuperäiskansana kuuluvien oikeuksien toteutumisen välillä. Useat kansainväliset sopimukset, muun muassa YK:n kansalais- ja poliittisia oikeuksia koskeva yleissopimus, sekä YK:n alkuperäiskansojen oikeuksia koskeva julistus turvaavat saamelaisten itsemääräämisoikeutta sekä oikeutta harjoittaa ja ylläpitää kulttuuriaan, johon kuuluvat myös perinteiset elinkeinot, kuten poronhoito. Samalla ilmastonmuutos vaatii uusiutuvan energian määrän lisäämistä. Tuulivoimaa pidetään yhtenä tärkeimpänä uusiutuvan energian tuotantomuotona. Tuulivoimaprojekteilla on kuitenkin todettu olevan merkittäviä vaikutuksia poronhoidon harjoittamiseen projektien eri vaiheissa rakentamisesta energiantuotantoon. Tutkielman ensimmäinen osa keskittyy tuulivoiman ja poronhoidon väliseen konfliktiin. Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, salliiko kiireellinen vihreän energian tarve tasapainottelua vihreän siirtymän ja saamelaisten oikeuksien toteutumisen välillä, kun arvioidaan, loukkaako tuulivoimaprojekti saamelaisten kulttuurisia oikeuksia KP-sopimuksen 27 artiklan perusteella. Tutkielman toinen osa keskittyy saamelaisten itsemääräämisoikeuden toteutumiseen Suomen järjestelmässä. Oikeus osallistua saamelaisten asioihin vaikuttavaan päätöksentekoon on tärkeä osa saamelaisten itsemääräämisoikeutta. Tutkielmassa selvitetään saamelaisten osallistumisoikeuden toteutumista tuulivoimaa koskevan päätöksenteon näkökulmasta. Lisäksi tutkielmassa arvioidaan vaikutuksia, joita alkuvuonna 2023 kaatuneella hallituksen esityksellä HE 274/2022 vp. olisi ollut saamelaisten osallistumisoikeuden toteutumiseen kansainvälisten ihmisoikeuksien valossa huomioiden ihmisoikeusinstituutioiden ratkaisukäytännön. Tutkielmassa esiteltyjen argumenttien nojalla johtopäätöksinä esitetään ensinnäkin, että jonkinlainen tasapainottelu vihreän siirtymän ja poronhoitoon liittyvien oikeuksien välillä voi olla sallittua, jos kysymyksen katsotaan olevan perustavanlaatuisten oikeuksien välisestä arvioinnista. Keskenään tasapainoteltavat perustavanlaatuiset oikeudet olisivat tässä tapauksessa yhteiskunnan jäsenten oikeus hyvään ja terveelliseen ympäristöön sekä saamelaisten oikeus harjoittaa ja ylläpitää poronhoitoelinkeinoa. Tällainen tilanne voi kuitenkin olla kysymyksessä vain, jos tuulivoiman sijoittaminen alueelle, jossa sillä on vaikutuksia poronhoitoon, on välttämätöntä vihreän energian tuottamiseksi ja elinkelpoiseen ympäristöön liittyvän oikeuden toteuttamiseksi. Mikäli tuulivoimalle on löydettävissä sijainteja, jotka rajoittavat poronhoitoa vähemmän tai ei lainkaan, ei vihreän siirtymän tärkeydellä voi perustella KP-sopimuksen 27 artiklan turvaamien oikeuksien rajoittamista. Suomen järjestelmään liittyen esitetään, että saamelaisten osallistumisoikeudet poronhoitoon vaikuttavaa tuulivoimaa koskevaan päätöksentekoon eivät ole tasolla, jota saamelaisten kansainvälisten alkuperäiskansoja koskevien ihmisoikeuksien täysimääräinen toteutuminen vaatii. Ensinnäkin saamelaiskäräjälain 9 §:ssä säädetty velvoite neuvotella saamelaiskäräjien kanssa päätöksistä, jotka vaikuttavat saamelaisiin tai heidän oikeuksiinsa, koskee vain saamelaisten kotiseutualuetta. Lisäksi velvoite näyttää toteutuvan vaihtelevasti ja paikoin riittämättömällä tavalla. Muulla osalla poronhoitoaluetta, jolla yli 75 % paliskunnista sijaitsee, neuvotteluvelvoite perustuu poronhoitolain 53 §:ään, jonka mukaan velvoite on vain valtion viranomaisilla ja soveltuu vain valtion omistamaa maata koskevaan päätöksentekoon. Poronhoitolain velvoite näyttää painottavan oikeutta elinkeinoon ja takaa saman turvan saamelaisten lisäksi myös alkuperäiskansaan kuulumattomille poronhoitoa harjoittaville henkilöille, eikä siis heijasta riittävällä tavalla saamelaisten alkuperäiskansa-asemaan liittyviä kansainvälisessä oikeudessa tunnustettuja oikeuksia. Lisäksi tutkielmassa esitettyjen näkökulmien perusteella esitetään, että saamelaiskäräjälain uudistamista koskevan hallituksen esityksen 274/2022 vp läpimenolla olisi ollut merkittäviä saamelaisten osallistumisoikeuksia edistäviä vaikutuksia. Tärkeimmät osallistumisoikeutta parantavat vaikutukset olisivat olleet kaikkien saamelaisten kulttuuriin ja perinteisiin elinkeinoihin vaikuttavien päätösten tuomisella esitetyn 9 §:n yhteistyö- ja neuvotteluvelvoitteen piiriin sekä neuvotteluvelvoitteen laajentamisella muun muassa kunnallisvaltuustoihin, jotka käyttävät merkittävää päätöksentekovaltaa maankäyttöä koskevissa asioissa.

This thesis investigates the intersection of personalized advertising and real-time bidding (RTB) within the European data protection framework, with a focus on evaluating the effectiveness of existing data protection laws. Utilizing a combination of doctrinal research, case studies, and interdisciplinary methodologies, the study explores the mechanisms of personalized advertising and the RTB ecosystems, including the utilization of personal data and the involvement of various stakeholders. The study investigates the interests, roles, and compliance work of key participants in RTB. It identifies the complex nature of RTB ecosystems and the absence of coherent guidelines for clarifying the roles of participants under EU data protection law. This lack of clarity has created legal uncertainty for them in complying with the law. Additionally, this research highlights that the current RTB system falls short of meeting consent criteria, compounded by the unclear legal status of the widely used Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), leading to uncertainties in ensuring consent within RTB. Moreover, the study finds that current practices heavily rely on partners to collect and transfer data, often based on contractual obligations and shared within the whole ecosystems which are usually inaccessible to users. This lack of transparency hinders users' ability to control their data and exceeds their expectations of data processing. In summary, this thesis adopts a practical perspective, highlighting the inadequacies of the data protection framework in personalized advertising via RTB, emphasizing the need for clear guidelines in the field to ensure compliance. It advocates leveraging industry organizations to bridge the gap between regulations and implementation, as well as fully utilizing technological tools to detect and enhance data protection levels. Although this thesis offers some insights, more comprehensive research is still required for future compliance with data protection laws in the RTB ecosystems.

In this Master’s thesis, “International Courts: Challenges New and Old - A Deconstruction on the Work of International Courts”, the aim is to critically appraise some characteristics of international courts that seem to hinder their impact and be problematic to their legitimacy. It presupposes that these features are hidden by the conventional legend-building narratives on international courts. To deconstruct this framework in which they operate, the thesis focuses on three features it argues are connected: the type of justice international courts provide; the democratic legitimacy vacuum in which they operate and the effect of fragmentation and the proliferation of international courts. The inspirations for the thesis notably stem from the remarks that other institutions have raised in popularity in tackling issues of international justice, and from the observation that the issues faced by international courts have, to some extent, remained similar for over a century. The thesis also accepts as a starting point that legal theory on the international field lags behind reality and has struggled to provide a comprehensive theoretical framework under which international courts operate. In order to locate the questions to be asked and to provide an explanation of their need and perceived benefits, the thesis first lays out the historical context of the emergence of international courts on the international stage. This historical context is argued to be closely connected to the legend-building narratives on international courts. Next, in chapter three, inspired by the notion of micro and macro justice, the thesis then makes observations on the kind of justice international courts actually can and should aim for and the results they can achieve. It argues that international courts are limited in the type of justice they can provide, and thus unable to alone reach the goals they were created to fulfil. In chapter four, the thesis then notes that the democratic legitimacy of international courts has been considered questionable from their very appearance, an issue argued to be of relevance still today, not least to the glaring lack of a global demos. It is thus observed that due to the reality of the international field, international courts have had to take the role of a norm-creator. The thesis argues that none of the traditional counter-arguments to this problematic feature can be held satisfactory. Further, it is asserted that the absence of a legislative causes problems to international courts both as an interpreter and as a norm-creator. Finally, the thesis then moves on to a more recent development in chapter five, namely legal fragmentation and the proliferation of international courts. While these make the international legal field more complex, create overlapping systems and thus potential power struggles, it is argued that this phenomenon also further affects the issue of democratic legitimacy and the justice provided by international courts. This happens notably because they lessen the control of states on the newly established norms and institutions. Further, while fragmentation might aid international courts in focusing on micro justice, it complicates their norm-creating process. As a conclusion, the thesis summarises the problems it claims are caused by the framework in which international courts operate and how they differ from the legend-building narrative. Additionally, it restates a few possible modest paths of development to tackle each of the noted problems, although it is argued that to truly solve the encountered issues, the establishment of an international legislative would be required. Due to the research question and the multiplicity of issues treated, the methods used in the thesis are a combination of critical analysis with theoretical and historical approaches, with an end-goal to provide a critical legal study on the impact of international courts.

Plastic pollution is a major global environmental challenge that does not spare any corner of the globe. It has been recognised that the earlier international legal framework to address the problem has not been comprehensive or effective. Thus, now, there is a new plastics treaty under negotiations at the United Nations. In Nairobi, where the third round of negotiations was held, activists were demanding decisionmakers to stop waste colonialism. The demand is related to the fact that plastic pollution is most visible in developing countries where waste management systems are inefficient or not existing, even though most of such waste is generated in developed countries. Despite efforts to reduce their exports of plastic waste, developed economies have remained exporters of their plastic waste to developing economies. Thus, this master’s thesis aims to study how colonial structures in international law are contributing to today’s global environmental challenges; and how international law produces waste colonialism. Theoretically, this master’s thesis belongs under an umbrella of law and globalisation; and is based on socio-legal, historical, and comparative approaches to international law.

According to UNICEF, between the years 2005 and 2020 more than 93 000 children have been recruited to armed groups. Child soldiers are often subjected to different forms of exploitation within their own armed group including sexual and gender-based violence. However, the conduct is not explicitly prohibited in international humanitarian law or international criminal law. This thesis aims to clarify the possible ways to prosecute intra-party sexual violence against child soldiers in non-international armed conflicts, especially under Rome Statute. Secondly, the aim is to identify, how these strategies could be applied in the Colombian transitional justice system, which has opened a case concerning the recruitment of underaged persons, including sexual violence as associated conduct. There have been some precedents in other international tribunals, especially the ICC and the SCSL. However, while some of the prosecutions have been successful, there have been also a lot of critiques and the normative framework regarding the prosecution of intra-party sexual violence continues to be in flux. The thesis argues that prosecution of such crimes would not be against the principle of legality as some critiques state, but rather provide a more gender-sensitive and contemporary interpretation of existing laws, that permits the prosecution of sexual violence towards child combatants. On the other hand, this thesis stresses the importance of such prosecution in the Colombian transitional justice system, since it is an opportunity to strengthen the developing legal framework internationally, while nationally it is an opportunity to contribute to the reparation of the victims and to the durable transformation of the society from conflict towards peace.

Over the past 10 years, France has been combatting terrorism though several military interventions in Africa, and especially in the Sahel region. However, over the past years, the French presence has gotten increasingly unpopular and sovereignty claims by the African states grow stronger, which has led to the interventions being shut down one by one, beginning from the intervention in Mali. This thesis gets acquainted with the central political rhetoric and legal justifications offered by France for its military intervention in Mali between 2013-2022. Furthermore, the identified justifications are compared against the global counterterrorism rhetoric and the surrounding legal debates concerning interventionism. The thesis finds that the French counterterrorism rhetoric combined political and legal justifications together in such a way that correlates with the global counterterrorism rhetoric. The findings enhance our understanding on how unilateral military interventions can utilise the global counterterrorism rhetoric in a manner that challenges especially international law on the use of force.

Agreeing on a common migration system in the EU has turned out to be extremely challenging due to various reasons, and when the calls for responsibility-sharing and solidarity have not worked, the EU has turned to rely on third countries. In practice, this means that some of the EU’s migration and border policies have seen a transfer of responsibility, where countries of origin or transit take on some of the migration and border management originally managed by a destination country, in return for financial support. This is a strategy often deployed by wealthier states to prevent migration flows and ease the pressure on their own migration system, going under the name externalisation. As states adopt stricter laws on migration and impose stricter border controls, ways of entering countries are reducing. This consequently leads to people having to rely on irregular means to migrate, paving the way for a ‘migration industry’ that favours profit-driven actors to take advantage of. This Master’s thesis will reflect on this growing trend in the field of migration policy, by focusing on the Northern African countries going under the collective name of Maghreb as the receiving countries of externalised policies. This group of countries have become popular transit (occasionally destination) countries for migrants trying to reach the South European countries in attempts that can best be described as perilous and life-threatening journeys.

Today’s geopolitical situation seems to give the EU and NATO many reasons to combine their forces. Following Russia’s unlawful attack against Ukraine in February 2022, both clubs of sovereign states have found themselves dealing with the same question; how to ensure security of the European continent against external aggressions? While defence is traditionally strongly linked with the core functions of NATO, it is evident that the EU has shown a keen interest in operating in this field as well. While this development is understandable and necessary, it sparks a need to have a thorough relook at the work distribution of these two organizations. Therefore, this thesis concentrates on the following research question: Understanding that a significant majority of Member States of the European Union are also members of NATO, to what extent do these two organizations’ legal mandate to act within the field of security and defence overlap with each other? What could be possible ways to further promote the clarity between the EU’s and NATO’s legal competences in the field? This research is first and foremost rooted in international institutional law, meaning that all aspects of this research are meant to serve the understanding of the regulatory framework in an inter-institutional relationship. While political dimensions are always closely intertwined with this aspect and are thus extensively discussed within the thesis, their main purpose still remains to serve as a tool to grasp the essence of the legal-regulatory side of the relationship. Consequently, this research follows a multi-method approach. The benefit of utilising a combination of methodologies is that it allows me to examine my research question from several perspectives; as my research question is multifaceted and includes both legal, political, and historical dimensions, I believe that this is the best way to gain the most complete picture of the research subject.

Following a long tradition of international criminal justice, the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”) of the International Criminal Court (”ICC”) has also directly targeted high-level international perpetrators to end impunity for the most serious crimes. However, after over two decades in action, the ICC has convicted only five international criminals, none of whom can be considered most responsible for the crimes, and has constantly intervened with the atrocities too slowly. The ICC’s ineffectiveness and the finding that domestic courts also struggle to prosecute international cases suggest that many international perpetrators may currently go completely unpunished, thus creating the so-called “impunity gap” for international crimes. Therefore, the OTP must no longer directly target the high-level offenders but instead consider a different approach for pursuing the same goal. Taking a socio-legal approach, this thesis aims to propose a new strategy for the OTP within an existing legal framework and to examine whether it could solve the problems causing the ICC’s ineffectiveness. With examples from the United States and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this thesis proposes that the OTP must first prosecute several lower-level offenders while actively using plea bargaining to incentivize them to cooperate against their superiors to prosecute the high-level offenders successfully. This thesis argues that implementing the new strategy is crucial for the ICC to hold the most senior international offenders accountable and to build peace in war-torn regions as intended. At the center of this thesis is the finding on how the new strategy could help the OTP overcome its main investigative difficulties in terms of sufficient evidence and reliable witness testimonies. This thesis further argues that because the new strategy would allow the ICC to use its resources more effectively and grow more efficient, it can succeed better despite having a limited budget and global scope. However, the lack of political support and State cooperation limits the impact of the proposed strategy indicating flaws in the Rome Statute. This thesis also argues that the new strategy allows the ICC to produce a more significant deterrent effect while motivating the States to prosecute international cases more effectively. In conclusion, while the results of this thesis suggest that the OTP should implement the proposed strategy, as it would allow the ICC to narrow the impunity gap on behalf of the ICC itself and behalf of national courts, amending the Rome Statute to include provisions for enforcing the cooperation with the States might be required for better results.

As transnational corporations have emerged as some of the most prominent actors within the international system, there have been several attempts to approach them through international legal and normative instruments during the past 50 years. Despite this, there is no established system by which corporate actors can be held directly accountable for human rights abuse under international law. Accessing domestic remedies for human rights abuse by transnational corporations remains a challenge as the abuse often occur in regions where fair and effective court proceedings are unavailable. Extraterritorial court proceedings, on the other hand, entail several practical and legal barriers to the access to remedy, causing a general lack of final court rulings in the field. Against this background, international arbitration has been proposed as an accessible and effective method for the resolution of disputes which concern corporate activities and human rights. In December 2019, the Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration were launched with the intent of facilitating arbitration of disputes in this context. The aim of arbitration under the Hague Rules is to provide those affected by adverse human rights impacts of businesses with the possibility of a remedy and to provide businesses with a mechanism for addressing their adverse human rights impacts. The aim of the study is to examine the potential of international arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution method for cases concerning adverse human rights impacts by transnational corporations. As the underlying issues which give rise to the need for a non-Statebased grievance mechanism, the thesis addresses the limited international legal framework applicable to corporate actors and the barriers to remedy that victims may face in human rights litigation against transnational corporations. Acknowledging that arbitration is not meant as a general substitute for Statebased redress mechanisms, the thesis finds that international arbitration under specialized procedural rules can provide several advantageous features that improve the access to remedy for victims of human rights abuse by transnational corporations. However, the availability and effectiveness of arbitration in this context is dependent on additional mechanisms to be established on the initiative of states, businesses or international institutions. The thesis concludes that business and human rights arbitration is a well-motivated option to be developed further.