The Blockade of Qatar: Where Coercive Diplomacy Fails, Principles of Law Should Prevail
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Published
Dec 1, 2019
Abstract
Contemporary international law has developed a cautious attitude toward the use of coercive diplomacy, specifically in the deployment of economic sanctions in the form of boycotting or blockading one sovereign state by another. If used unilaterally or collectively, particularly in the absence of a UN mandate, such coercive measures have often failed to change the policies of target states. In particular, economic sanctions have proven ineffectual in achieving the desired results and have instead caused unintended consequences on the complex global economic stage. Economic sanctions have had severe negative impacts on international trade and they often infringe on the basic pillars of human rights, politics, and morals. Indeed, resorting to such sanctions has achieved little success in rectifying disputed matters between opponent states. As such, the debate surrounding the possibility of producing a specific legal framework on the use of economic sanctions continues. To this end, and in light of what the state of Qatar has recently suffered from its neighboring states, this paper argues that the economic sanctions imposed on Qatar are a clear case of an extraterritorial application of sanctions that has generated immense political controversy and international resentment. Furthermore, this dubious application of sanctions and the resulting blockade of Qatar (it is undoubtedly a “blockade”, given the geography of the region and the intensity of actions taken) represent a breach of international legal norms embedded in both customary and treaty law.
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Keywords
BlockadeSanctionsQatarDiplomacyCountermeasures
References
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The UN Charter, http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/index.html.
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The UN International Law Commission, Report on the Work of its 52nd Session (1 May–9 June and 10 July–18 August 2000), GAOR 55th Sess. Supp. No. 10 (A/55/10).
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly resolution 217 A), http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html.
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V. Constantin, The International Law (U. Juridic, Bucharest ed., 2010).
List of Cases
Air Services Case (US. v. Fr.), 18 RIAA (1978) 416.
Banana Dispute between the US and the EU, WTO Secretariat, European Communities-Regime for the Importation, Sale and Distribution of Banana: Resources to Arbitration by the European Communities under Article 22.6 of the DSU, Decision by the Arbitrators, WT/DS27/ARB (April 9, 1999).
Corfu Channel case (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Albania), ICJ Reports 1949.
Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), ICJ Reports 1986.
Case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, ICJ Reports, 2005.
Hungary v. Slovakia, case concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project, ICJ Reports (1998).
Al Ashaal, Abdullah et al., International Humanitarian Law: Scope and Challenges (author’s translation from Arabic), Part 3, 911 (Al Halabi Publications, 2005).
Andrew Torchia, Sanctions slashed Qatar imports in June, non-gas exports affected: data, Reuters, Business News 30 July 2017, at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-trade/sanctions-slashed-qatar-imports-in-june-non-gas-exports-affected-data-idUSKBN1AF0DM?utm_source=34553&utm_medium=partner.
BBC News, Qatar crisis: What you need to know, 19 July 2017, at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40173757.
Bercovitch, Jacob, and Allison Houston, The study of international mediation: Theoretical issues and empirical evidence, in Jacob Bercovitch ed., Resolving International Conflicts: The Theory and Practice of Mediation (Lynne Rienner, 1996).
Carbaugh, Robert J., Are economic sanctions useful in discouraging the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction? Vol. 9 No. 4 World Economics 184 (2008).
Cherif, M., Seeking the UNSC to Hold Israel Accountable for Blockading Gaza (author’s translations from Arabic), Swiss Info, 2009, http://www.swissinfo.ch/ara.
Cortright, David, and George A. Lopez, The Sanctions Decade: Assessing UN Strategies in the 1990s, 205–207 (A Project of the International Peace Academy, 2000).
Drew, Philip J., An analysis of the legality of maritime blockade in the context of twenty-first century humanitarian law, a thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in Law in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Master of Laws, Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada, 7 (2012).
Farrall, Jeremy M., United Nations Sanctions and the Rule of Law 107–120 (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Florea, Dumitriţa, and Chirtoacă, Natalia, Sanctions in the public law, Vol. 13, Issue 1(17) The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration (2013).
Gulf blockade disrupts Qatar Airways flights, Al Jazeera and news agencies, at: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/gulf-blockade-disrupts-qatar-airways-flights-170606081841215.html.
Hehir, J. Bryan, Intervention: From theories to cases, 9 Ethics and Int. Aff. (1995).
Hufbauer, Gary C., Jeffrey J. Schott, Kimberly A. Elliot, and Barbara Oegg, Economic Sanctions Reconsidered 1 (3rd ed., Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2009).
Kern, Alexander, Economic Sanctions Law and Public Policy 8 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Krasner, Stephen D., Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy 3–4 (1999).
Marks, Stephen P., Economic sanctions as human rights violations: Reconciling political and public health imperatives, 89 Am. J. Pub. Health 1509 (1999).
Motley, John L., History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year’s Truce, Complete (1584–1609) (Library of Alexandria, 2004).
Muller, John, and Karl Muller, Sanctions of mass destruction, 3 78 For. Aff. 49 (1999).
Natarajan, Usha, TWAIL and the environment: The state of nature, the nature of the state, and the Arab Spring, 14 Or. Rev. Int’l L. 177 and 185 (2012).
Newsweek ME, June 14, 2017.
O’Connell, Mary E., Debating the law of sanctions, 13 1 European Journal of International Law 63 (2002).
Paraschiv, Daniel Ş., System of Sanctions in Public International Law (C. H. Beck ed., Bucharest, 2012).
Pruitt, Dean G., and Peter J. Carnevale, Negotiation in Social Conflict (Open University Press, 1993).
Qatar launches new 'blockade-busting' maritimes routes, The New Arab, 9 August 2017, at: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/8/9/qatar-launches-new-blockade-busting-maritimes-routes
Reports of International Arbitral Awards, The Venezuelan Preferential Case (Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Venezuela et al.) Vol. IX, 99–110 (1904).
Ronzitti, Natalino in Chiara Franco, Coercive Diplomacy, Sanctions and International Law, ISSN 2280-6164, 2015 IAI, p. 3.
Scelle, Georges, Règles générales du droit de la paix, RCADI, 46 (1933).
SC Press Release, Speakers call for clearer definition, tightening of UN sanctions as Council draws on ‘lessons learned’ to redefine sanctions, SC Press Release 6845 (2000).
Simma, Bruno et al., The Charter of the United Nations: A commentary 621 (1995).
Sheikh Tamim denies Qatar has links to terrorism, Khaleej Times, Qatar, 25 May 2017, at: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/region/qatar/sheikh-tamim-denies-qatar-has-links-to-terrorism.
The Covenant of the League of Nations, 1919, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 73 (translated by Rex Warner, Penguin Books, 1972).
The UN Charter, http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/index.html.
The UN International Law Commission (ILC) Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, in Report of the International Law Commission, Fifty-third session, 23 April–1 June and 2 July–l0 August 2001 (A/56/10).
The UN International Law Commission, Report on the Work of its 52nd Session (1 May–9 June and 10 July–18 August 2000), GAOR 55th Sess. Supp. No. 10 (A/55/10).
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly resolution 217 A), http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html.
UN General Assembly, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 993 United Nations, Treaty Series 3 (1966), http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36c0.html.
V. Constantin, The International Law (U. Juridic, Bucharest ed., 2010).
List of Cases
Air Services Case (US. v. Fr.), 18 RIAA (1978) 416.
Banana Dispute between the US and the EU, WTO Secretariat, European Communities-Regime for the Importation, Sale and Distribution of Banana: Resources to Arbitration by the European Communities under Article 22.6 of the DSU, Decision by the Arbitrators, WT/DS27/ARB (April 9, 1999).
Corfu Channel case (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Albania), ICJ Reports 1949.
Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), ICJ Reports 1986.
Case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, ICJ Reports, 2005.
Hungary v. Slovakia, case concerning the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros Project, ICJ Reports (1998).
How to Cite
Khalaileh, Y. (2019). The Blockade of Qatar: Where Coercive Diplomacy Fails, Principles of Law Should Prevail. International Review of Law, 2018(4). https://doi.org/10.29117/irl.2018.0037
Section
Articles in English