The publications listed here represent a small selection of the work of GCILS staff members. To see full listings of publications please click through to the University of Glasgow main webpages in each individual staff member profile.
Empathy in frontline humanitarian negotiations: a relational approach to engagement. Journal of International Humanitarian Action
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Humanitarian access—people’s ability to reach aid and aid's ability to reach people—is widely understood to be a central challenge in humanitarian action. One of the most important ways in which humanitarian access is practically secured in conflict settings is through frontline humanitarian negotiations. In this type of negotiation, humanitarians engage in face-to-face interactions with conflict parties to secure safe access to, and protection of, civilian populations in situations of armed conflict. An underdeveloped aspect of such negotiations that is ripe for further exploration is the role of empathy. The purpose of this article is thus to draw on the insights of the empathy literature to explore how empathy shapes humanitarian protection work in the specific domain of frontline humanitarian negotiations. Part one conceptualizes empathy, drawing on the interdisciplinary field of scientific research. Part two introduces the practice of frontline humanitarian negotiation and explains why empathy is critical, particularly in the increasingly fragmented environments that negotiators must operate. Adopting a relational approach, Part three advances a framework for analyzing empathy in frontline humanitarian negotiations. We theorize empathy's salience across four different axes of negotiation, drawing insights gleaned from scholarship and a systematic review of the grey literature on humanitarian negotiation, including field manuals, training materials, and operational guidance. We do not ultimately argue for ‘more empathy’ in this type of work, but rather a more thoughtful approach to empathy—one that entails the cultivation of core empathy-related skill areas, including: emotion regulation, perspective-taking, social awareness, and strategic conveyance of empathy. We contend that this approach could help to alleviate numerous problems in the humanitarian sector, including aid worker burnout.
International Inspections
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International inspections are a common technique of international law. Inspectors visit prison camps, chemical factories, nuclear reactors, and research stations in Antarctica — to assess whether the provisions of international law are complied with. But notwithstanding this practical relevance, international lawyers have tended to neglect international inspections, at least as a general category: what studies exist, tend to focus on particular regimes, providing much detail but insufficient orientation. The present volume takes a different approach. It looks at a wide range of inspection regimes and seeks to identify cross-cutting issues. While reflecting their heterogeneity, its central aim is to situate international inspections in the wider field of international law’s means of control and to highlight elements of unity in diversity. Combining panoramic and kaleidoscopic perspectives, the volume’s sixteen chapters encourage international lawyers to engage more fully with international inspections.
Research Handbook on Secession
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Combining both theoretical and practical insights, the Research Handbook on Secession addresses a wide range of legal issues and concepts surrounding secessions. It considers both well-known examples such as Kosovo and Bangladesh alongside less frequently discussed cases including Somaliland and Palestine. The Research Handbook offers state-of-the-art analysis of international law on – among other topics – statehood, secession, self-determination, as well as comparative constitutional perspectives.
Implications of the reciprocal effect of the relationship between climate change and armed conflict on the rules of IHL
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Selected as second-best paper in the Fifth International Committee of the Red Cross Research Competition on "Climate Change, Environment, and Armed Conflict".
EU general principles in external relations: shaping the EU as a global actor and dealing with its accountability
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The chapter assesses the role that selected general principles of EU law have played in shaping the legal framework for EU external action, strengthening the political and judicial accountability of the EU as a global actor. It investigates the extent to which the CJEU is in a position to employ general principles as a benchmark and interpretative aid in a field that is subject to a high degree of political discretion and to the dynamic development of global challenges. The chapter considers how the Court's limited jurisdiction within the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has affected judicial engagement with general principles protecting institutional prerogatives, on the one hand, and individuals' rights affected by the EU's external action, on the other hand. The chapter also attempts to delineate the systemic limits to the Court's capacity to contribute to the further development of general principles in the field of external relations. The chapter argues that the impact of the EU's general principles of conferral, sincere cooperation, effectiveness, institutional balance, and democracy has been similar to their role within the EU's internal legal sphere. They have provided the basis for the Court to delimit and ensure the lawful exercise of EU and Member State external competences, strengthened the EU's accountability towards individuals, and helped establishing the EU as a global actor in its own right. The chapter demonstrates that general principles have not only been employed by the CJEU as a benchmark and interpretative aid, but that also other EU institutions have recognised the constitutional significance of general principles as a guiding force in the context of international treaty-making and other external action.
Introduction to the symposium on incidental jurisdiction
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The doctrine of incidental jurisdiction has had significant bearing on some of the most important international legal disputes of recent times, challenging one of the truths that international lawyers hold to be self-evident: that the jurisdiction of international courts and tribunals is dependent on the consent of states. But what exactly is this doctrine and why does it deserve to be the focus of this symposium? The doctrine of incidental jurisdiction allows tribunals to bring within their jurisdiction “incidental” or “ancillary” issues that are crucial to answering the question over which the tribunal certainly does have jurisdiction. It is a useful device that in certain, limited situations allows international courts and tribunals to consider legal questions that are beyond the jurisdiction to which states formally consent.
