Wayne State professor on panel at the United Nations

Wayne State's Brad R. Roth, professor of political science and law, participated on a panel at the United Nations sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, on Nov. 5, in New York.

The title of the panel was "The Duty of Non-Recognition of Illegal Situations in International Law: Is the principle ex iniuria non oriturius still valid?" In attendance were seventy to eighty United Nations personnel, including Ambassadors and members of the International Law Commission, as well as staff members of Member State Missions to the United Nations.

It is a "general principle of law" that a wrongful act cannot – at least, by itself – establish a legal right: ex iniuriaius non oritur. The international community thus has a strong interest in seeing to it that the consequences of an internationally wrongful act be denied legal validity. Although "facts on the ground" cannot be ignored – and must sometimes be accommodated in the service of other interests (e.g., the well-being of both foreign nationals and local populations within unlawfully seized territory) – an undue affirmation of an unlawfully created situation may, in itself, constitute an internationally wrongful act.

The International Law Commission has asserted a duty of non-recognition of situations arising from violations of "peremptory norms" (jus cogens), including but not limited to unlawful territorial acquisitions. At issue presently are the implications of this duty for foreign state interactions with the territory of Crimea, which the Russian Federation has purported to annex.

The panelists – all of them renowned specialists in the domain of recognition in international law – discussed the roots, legal nature, sources, scope and effects of the principle of non-recognition.

Panel participants

• Welcome: Boguslaw Winid (permanent representative of thhe Republic of Poland to the United Nations)
• Moderator: Professor Wladyslaw Czaplinski (professor of International and European Union Law and director of the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
• Speakers and presentations:
  • Professor Brad R. Roth (professor of political science and law, Wayne State University); "The Source and Nature of a Principle of Non-Recognition in International Law"
  • Professor Christopher J. Borgen (professor of laaw, St. John's University); "Domestic Effects of Non-Recognition"
  • Professor Khoti C. Kamanga (associate professor of law,, University of Dar es Salaam); "Ex Iniuria vs. Effectiveness – African Experience"
  • Professor Aziz Tuffi Saliba (professor of international law, Federal University of Minas Gerais); "Judicial Practice of Non-Recognition"