FSU College of Law Research Center Blog

Status of Forces Agreement

About.com defines a Status or Forces Agreement as:

An agreement which defines the legal position of a visiting military force deployed in the territory of a friendly state. Agreements delineating the status of visiting military forces may be bilateral or multilateral. Provisions pertaining to the status of visiting forces may be set forth in a separate agreement, or they may form a part of a more comprehensive agreement. These provisions describe how the authorities of a visiting force may control members of that force and the amenability of the force or its members to the local law or to the authority of local officials. To the extent that agreements delineate matters affecting the relations between a military force and civilian authorities and population, they may be considered as civil affairs agreements.

You can read more about Status of Forces Agreements on the US. State Department web site here and on Wikipedia here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Blackwater USA - Legal Status

The legal status in Iraq of security firms such as Blackwater is an interesting question.  The laws of the US probably don't apply, since they are not members of the military military laws don't apply and due to Order #17 of the Coalition Provision Authority they are immune from the Iraqi legal process:

Unless provided otherwise herein, the MNF, the CPA, Foreign Liaison Missions, their Personnel, property, funds and assets, and all International Consultants shall be immune from Iraqi legal process.

Read the entire order here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Where was the HMS Cornwall?

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence has released the location of the HMS Cornwall at the time 15 of its Marines were detained by Iran: "...the merchant vessel was 7.5 nautical miles south east of the Al Faw Peninsula and clearly in Iraqi territorial waters...The position was 29 degrees 50.36 minutes North 048 degrees 43.08 minutes East. This places her 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters."

The FSU College of Law Library has scanned and placed on its website documents and maps from the International Boundary Studies and Limits in the Seas series.  The 1978 International Boundary Study No. 164, Iran-Iraq Boundary, contains a brief description of the boundary, the historical background for the boundary setting, an analysis of the boundary alignment (including latitude and longitude markings at pp. 6-7), and a list of documents. 

The subsequent Limits in the Seas study, No. 114, Iran's Maritime Claims, analyzes the 1993 Iranian "Act on the Marine Areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea."  A map of Iran's claims is part of the study.  Annex 1 (p. 27) contains the text of the Act.

Posted by Mary McCormick

International Laws of War

On Kenneth Anderson's Law of War and Just War Theory Blog there is an interesting post on Bargain theory versus universalism in the law of war. Excerpt:

- the basic condition of the law of war - is it a bargain between states, enforced by some notion of reciprocity (including reprisal as a means of enforcement), or is it a 'universal' paradigm of human rights attaching to individuals as individuals - rights to be treated as noncombatants, irrespective of what the parties to a conflict actually do. This question is at the heart of some of the largest long term problems facing the laws of war today...

Read the whole post here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Law of War

The online version of the Jurist has recently published two op-eds on the laws of war by Geoffrey S. Corn.  They are: When the Law of War Becomes Over-lawyered and For the Sake of Warriors: Accepting the Limits of the Law of War.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions a Reference Guide can be found on the Society of Professional Journalists web site.  This includes both commentary and texts of the Geneva Conventions. 

It can be found here.

Posted by Jon Lutz