Yael Ronen

Sha'arei Mishpat Academic Center for Law and Science · Law

This article examines the 2019 decision by the Supreme Court of Israel (the Court) in the Namnam case, upholding a ban on family visits to Gaza prisoners incarcerated in Israel and affiliated with Hamas. ¹ This ban was adopted as part of Israel's attempt to pressure Hamas into an exchange of Palestinian detainees and prisoners against missing Israe...

This chapter considers the extent to which the Court has been willing to recognise the applicability of Israel’s constitutional law to actions of the authorities in the Occupied Territories. It further examines the hierarchy in the Court’s case law between Israeli constitutional law and the law of occupation, and the Court’s view on the possibility...

This chapter examines the manner in which the Supreme Court has dealt with the invocation of the Oslo Accords, concluded between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s. It shows that the Court has never upheld petitions by either Israelis or Palestinians, requesting the Court to order the government to refrain from implementing the Accords; to refrain fro...

The generally accepted position today is that international human rights treaties to which an occupying state is a party apply to that state’s actions in occupied territory. The Government of Israel rejects this position. This chapter examines the Court’s view on the issue. The Court often refers to provisions in human rights treaties in its decisi...

This chapter describes the basis for the Court’s jurisdiction over petitions by residents of territory that is not the sovereign territory of Israel, but is ruled under a regime of belligerent occupation. The chapter examines the readiness of the Court to entertain such petitions, given that their subject matter falls within areas that are arguably...

When the IDF took control over the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 it issued a proclamation that the local law would remain in force subject to changes made by military orders. This chapter discusses the Court’s approach to various issues concerning the local law and its relationship with orders promulgated by the military commander, including the scope...

This chapter discusses the Court’s decisions in petitions challenging deportation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. The discussion includes the Court’s decision on the mass deportation of 415 people in 1992, which is the last instance in which this measure was used. The chapter provides a critical analysis of the Court’s interpretation...

The Court has held that in using his powers the military commander in occupied territory must be guided by one, or both, of two considerations: military needs and the welfare of the local population. This chapter examines the way in which the Court has interpreted military needs and the welfare of the population, as well as the obligation of an occ...

Under the Oslo Accords land planning and construction in Areas A and B of the West Bank are the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority. This chapter discusses judicial review of planning and building policies and legal arrangements in Area C, which remain Israel’s responsibility. The chapter’s focus is local planning power, the building-permit...

Judicial review by Israel’s Supreme Court over actions of Israeli authorities in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 is an important element in Israel’s legal and political control of these territories. The Occupation of Justice , Second Edition, presents a comprehensive discussion of the Court’s decisions in exercising this review. This rev...

Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories are not nationals of the occupying power. As long as they remain residents of the Territories they are entitled to remain there. But what is the position if they leave the Territories for an appreciable period of time? Do they retain their residence status, and the consequent right to return to thei...

This chapter examines the way in which the Supreme Court has handled petitions regarding the construction in the West Bank of the separation barrier and its associated regime (the Seam Zone). The Court upheld the legality of the construction of the barrier as a whole, but in specific cases mitigated the harm caused to individuals. As opposed to the...

This chapter introduces the third part of the book, which deals with security measures. It describes the security concerns that underpin the Court’s decisions. It shows that while the Court never examines the legitimacy of establishing settlements, the Court later regards the need to protect the settlers as legitimate grounds for restricting the ri...

One of the main security measures employed by the military authorities in the Occupied Territories has been internment, outside the criminal process. The main form of internment, employed since the beginning of the occupation, has been administrative detention. This form of detention was not considered appropriate when there were mass detentions of...

This chapter traces the Court’s decisions in petitions challenging orders to demolish the family homes of Palestinians who have been involved in hostile activities. It exposes the Court’s failure to adequately examine the legality of this sanction under international law, the wide interpretation the Court has given to the provision that sets the le...

In 2005 Israel withdrew its forces and civilian population from Gaza, and declared that it no longer exercises effective control over the area. At the same time Israel still maintains control over many aspects of life in Gaza, including movement of persons and passage of goods and services. This chapter examines the Court’s approach in petitions re...

As nationals of the occupying power Israeli settlers are not ‘protected persons’ under GCIV. While the Court has recognised this, it has held that for the purposes of the Hague Regulations the settlers are part of the local population in the Occupied Territories for whose benefit the military commander must act. This chapter criticises this view, w...

This chapter discusses cases concerning the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories. As the Court has ruled that the settlement project itself is not justiciable, the main part of the chapter traces the cases on use of land for settlements. It discusses the Elon Moreh case in which the Court held that seizure of private lan...

This chapter examines the Court’s decisions on the applicability of the belligerent law of occupation to the Occupied Territories and the enforcement of that body of law by the Court. It explains the distinction the Court has drawn between customary international law and treaty law. The chapter shows that the Court regards the Hague Regulations as...

This chapter examines the Court’s approach in petitions challenging means and methods of warfare and IDF actions during ongoing hostilities. It shows that while the Court has rejected the government’s argument that such petitions are by their very nature non-justiciable, the scope of review in such cases is narrow. The chapter argues that in cases...

This chapter examines the Court’s review of the practices employed by the authorities in interrogating Palestinians suspected of involvement in hostile activities. In 1999 the Court delivered a judgment prohibiting use of force and other methods of pressure in interrogations. The chapter discusses the Court’s response to allegations of torture or o...

This article examines two propositions relating to the role of the right to self-determination with regard to statehood, as put forward by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its a request pursuant to Article 19(3) of the ICC Statute, for a ruling on the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine. One propos...

This chapter challenges received wisdom that states, operating individually or participating in multinational military operations, are bound by international human rights treaty law when participating in extraterritorial hostilities. It shows that the mechanism for implementing international treaty law is unworkable in such situations. The chapter...

This chapter examines three legal issues that may arise with respect to prosecution before the ICC of nationals of non-parties. One concerns the prohibition on retroactive criminalisation; another is the simultaneous applicability of different criminal codes; and a third is a potential violation of the rights of the non-party States. The chapter ex...

Cambridge Core - International Relations and International Organisations - The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual - edited by Michael A. Newton

The United States Department of Defense Law of War Manual - edited by Michael A. Newton January 2019

Interest in the criminal aspects of the Israeli settlement project in the West Bank is hardly new; it informed the drafting of Additional Protocol I (AP I) and of the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and motivated Israel's rejection of both instruments. The 2009 Palestinian attempt to establish ICC jurisdiction prompted extensive...

International Law Association Study Group on the Conduct of Hostilities in the 21st Century Published in: International Law Studies Journal V. 93. ISSN: 2375-2831

This article concerns three issues regarding the admissibility of the 2009 Palestinian declaration, all of which are linked to the question of statehood. It first argues that the icc Prosecutor may not assume the existence of a Palestinian state because the Palestinians themselves do not make a claim to that effect. It then rejects a purposive inte...

The law of occupation, which was first codified around the turn of the twentieth century, has not often been applied in the century that followed. States have always been reluctant to constrain themselves by its rules, and political, social and economic changes that have taken place through the years have gradually made such constraints difficult e...

The law of occupation, which was first codified around the turn of the twentieth century, has not often been applied in the century that followed. States have always been reluctant to constrain themselves by its rules, and political, social and economic changes that have taken place through the years have gradually made such constraints difficult e...

Following the 2013 revelations on the extent of intelligence gathering through internet service providers, this article concerns the responsibility of internet service providers (ISPs) involved in disclosure of personal data to government authorities under the right to privacy, by reference to the developing, non-binding standards applied to busine...

This collection of essays focusses on the following concepts: sovereignty (the unique, intangible and yet essential characteristic of states), statehood (what it means to be a state, and the process of acquiring or losing statehood) and state responsibility (the legal component of what being a state entails). The unifying theme is that they have al...

In 1990 James Crawford wrote ‘The Creation of the State of Palestine: Too Much Too Soon?’, rejecting the claim that in Resolution 43/177 the UN General Assembly (UNGA) recognised the existence of a State of Palestine. Surprisingly, perhaps, in 2012 a similar question arose, whether UNGA Resolution 67/19, in the operative part of which the General A...

There is no shortage of scholarly literature and policy papers documenting, analysing and informing employment relations, and the relevant legal regimes regulating these relations in domestic and regional contexts in Western capitalist societies. The situation, however, is quite different where international conflicts are concerned. In such context...

This article examines legal and other standards of behaviour applicable to businesses with respect to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The settlements enterprise is particularly convenient as an analytical framework since it involves a violation by the state of an absolute prohibition, Art 49(6) of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which prohibi...

Introduction This chapter considers the evolution of international legal positivism in the context of international humanitarian law (IHL). It espouses an understanding of ‘legal positivism’ as unity of sources, recognising as law only those norms which are generated by a pre-set legal procedure, independent of any inherent value. It is thus closel...

This article is a response to Eugene Kontorovich's 'Israel/Palestine - The ICC's Uncharted "Territory". Kontorovich states that in order to exercise jurisdiction over Israeli settlements in theWest Bank, the International Criminal Court (ICC) would need to determine that the Israeli settlements are indeed situated within the territory of Palestine,...

The successful transition from armed conflict to peace is one of the greatest challenges of contemporary warfare. The laws and principles governing transitions from conflict to peace (jus post bellum) have only recently gained attention in legal scholarship. This volume investigates questions concerning the core of jus post bellum: the law (“jus”),...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication offers a comprehensive study into the development, proliferation, and functions of international adjudicative bodies. The Handbook is divided into six parts. Part 1provides an overview of the origins and evolution of international adjudicatory bodies. Part 2 analyses the orders and families of inter...

This article highlights the challenges to the operation of domestic courts as agents of development of the laws of armed conflict and particularly of the law on the conduct of hostilities. The first part of the article concerns the spillover from various branches of the laws of armed conflict to the law regarding the conduct of hostilities. The sec...

The concepts of statehood and self-determination provide the normative structure on which the international legal order is ultimately premised. As a system of law founded upon the issue of territorial control, ascertaining and determining which entities are entitled to the privileges of statehood continues to be one of the most difficult and comple...

The present chapter considers various areas of intersection between treaties and armed conflict. Section 2 addresses the role of armed conflict in the termination, withdrawal or suspension of treaties. Subsequent sections consider aspects in the relationship between armed conflict and treaties that are premised on the continuing existence of treati...

The military courts operating in the West Bank do not ordinarily regard the criminal system they enforce as governed by the law of occupation. Their reasoning for this view reveals that they perceive themselves as quasi-domestic courts. This approach removes the guarantee of basic protection for protected persons under the law of occupation, leavin...

This chapter examines third party participation in contentious cases in international courts and tribunals. Section II discusses third party participation serving a personal interest in the outcome of the case or in the law that emerges from the case. Section III examines a discrete category of interveners, namely victims of human rights violations...

International legal scholarship presents important critique of positivist approaches to international humanitarian law (IHL), insofar as ‘positivism’ is read to mean unity of sources, recognizing as law only those norms which are generated by a pre-set legal procedure, independent of any inherent value. It is often contended that if state practice...

As the focus of the international legal effort to prevent terrorism shifts to addressing the social processes leading to terrorism, focusing on preventing the spread of terrorist ideology, tension arises between counter-terrorism measures and freedom of expression. This chapter focuses on the principal legal measure adopted in this context, namely...

This article examines the applicability of Israel’s Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom in the West Bank in light of international law, in theory and practice. The first part of the article concerns the need for such applicability in light of alternative domestic and international legal regimes. Subsequently the article explores three bases for th...

This second report of the Committee on Non-State Actors maps the practice of non-State actors (NSAs) in terms of their capacity for international lawmaking and their participation rights in international legal arrangements. It addresses legal issues relating to NSA activity relevant to norm-creation or lawmaking (treaty, customary, general, ‘soft’)...

States that are in transition after a violent conflict or an authoritarian past face daunting challenges in (re)establishing the rule of law. This volume examines in detail attempts that were made in certain significant post-conflict or post-authoritarian situations to strengthen the domestic rule of law with the aid of international law. Attention...

On 21 January the Palestinian Minister of Justice lodged with the ICC Registrar a ‘Declaration Recognizing the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court’ over acts committed on the territory of Palestine since 2002. This article concerns three issues regarding the admissibility of this declaration, all of which are linked to the question of...

This article analyses the way in which the use of the rights to family life and to private life has evolved as a bar to the deportation of immigrants. The analysis focuses on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with respect to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which uses a rights-based fra...

This article examines the participation of non-state actors, and particularly non-state territorial entities and NGOs in ICJ proceedings from both a doctrinal and a practical perspective. An evaluation of the practice of the ICJ against the framework of its Statute sheds light both on the ICJ’s openness to the expanding variety of actors in the int...

This article provides an analysis and a critique of the law governing the employment relationship between Israeli employers and Palestinian employees in industries operating in the West Bank. Through an analysis of Israeli jurisprudence it highlights the intersection among different areas of law: choice of law, public international law (in particul...

Attempts to bring issues related to the laws of armed conflict before domestic courts encounter numerous procedural and substantive obstacles. As a result, there is almost no domestic jurisprudence dealing directly with the law on the conduct of hostilities as a matter of state responsibility. Domestic courts have nonetheless contributed to the dev...

This article concerns quasi-states, namely territorial entities that operate in an effective manner similar to that of states, but do not claim to be states. As a consequence, they may be exempt, wholly or partly, from the obligations and constraints which international law places on states. This places a strain on the international legal system, p...

Yaël Ronen analyses the international legal ramifications of illegal territorial regimes, namely the illegal annexation of territory or illegal declarations of independence, by reference to the stage of transition from an illegal territorial regime to a lawful one. Six case studies (Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Baltic States, the South African Bantustans...

Yaël Ronen analyses the international legal ramifications of illegal territorial regimes, namely the illegal annexation of territory or illegal declarations of independence, by reference to the stage of transition from an illegal territorial regime to a lawful one. Six case studies (Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Baltic States, the South African Bantustans...

This article analyses the way in which the use of the rights to family life and to private life has evolved as a bar to deportation of immigrants. The analysis focuses on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) with respect to the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which uses a rights-based framewo...

In the context of post-conflict restructuring of the legal system, the use of international law is often perceived as a stabilizing factor, contributing to the protection of fundamental rights and protecting the separation of powers by imposing a more stringent standard for protection of human rights than domestic law does. However, international l...

This article considers the initiative of UN Security Council Resolution 1624 (2005) in criminalizing incitement to terrorist acts, in the light of criminal and international human rights law. The analysis is informed by the specific type of terrorism with which Resolution 1624 (2005) is concerned, namely ‘modern’ terrorism. The article argues that...

This chapter discusses the future of Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus. It examines the prospect of their repatriation to Turkey within the framework of the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Cyprus. Although ordinarily repatriation has a positive connotation of going home, in the case of the Turkish settlers, repatriation or homecoming may m...

Controversy over the Iranian nuclear policy has been mounting in both legal and political circles since the early 2000s. Most recently, the IAEA, tasked with verifying compliance of member states with the NPT, has been expressing concern that Iran's nuclear efforts are directed not solely at peaceful uses but also at military purposes. In response,...

The article examines the notion of superior responsibility of civilians for international crimes committed in civilian settings. The doctrine of superior responsibility grew out of the military doctrine of command responsibility, and its evolution is informed by this origin. Jurisprudence and academic writers emphasize that the doctrine is also app...

This article considers the initiative of UN Security Council Resolution 1624(2005) to criminalize incitement to terrorist acts, in light of criminal and international human rights law. The analysis is informed by the specific type of terrorism with which Resolution 1624(2005) is concerned, namely ‘modern’ terrorism. The article argues that the rati...

This article analyses ius in bellum questions arising from the 2006 war in Lebanon between Israel and Hizbollah. In particular, it examines Israel's claim to self-defence, Hizbollah's and Lebanon's international responsibility for the attack to which Israel responded. The analysis highlights the evolving role of irregular forces, and its impact on...

The term 'illegal occupation' has in various cases been used in both political and legal texts to the term 'illegal occupation'. Yet the meaning and significance of this legal category has never been systematically investigated. This article offers such an investigation, with reference to UN practice in which specific situations of occupation have...