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Research Seminar - Thursday 2nd July - Sikander Ahmed Shah

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Location: S2.09

Law, Policy, and Ethics: The Legal and Socio-political Aspects of International Law and Drone Strikes in Pakistan’

Abstract:

While conventional warfare has an established body of legal precedence, the legality and morality of drone strikes by the United States in Pakistan and elsewhere remains ambiguous. Drawing from international treaty law, customary international law, and statistical data on the impact of the strikes, I will explore the legal, political and ethical issues surrounding the use of drones in Pakistan and the broader social costs and repercussions of U.S. Drone Warfare that underpin its unpopularity. I will look at whether drone strikes by the United States in Pakistan are in compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law, how international law views the giving of consent between States for military action, and what this means for the interaction between sovereignty and consent. I will then explore the socio-political realities of drone strikes in Pakistan, scrutinizing the impact of drone strikes on both Pakistani politics and US-Pakistan relationships. This will involve a discussion of the Pakistan army-government relationship, the evolution of international institutions as a result of drone strikes, and the geopolitical dynamics affecting the region. In light of this, it will be my contention that the legal, social and political context of Pakistan necessarily needs to inform ideas, policy imperatives and legislation regarding drone strikes and their usage in unconventional warfare rather than the approach arguably adopted by the West, which for the time-being seems to neglect such considerations and thus increases the human cost of counter-terrorism.

Biography:

Sikander Ahmed Shah is Associate Professor of Public International Law and one of the pioneering members of the Shaikh Ahmad Hassan School of Law at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan. He currently teaches a class on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHL) and several classes based on Public International Law. His research focuses on International Humanitarian Law, Laws of War and Conflict, National Security Law, International Trade Law, and Legal Ethics.

Between 2012 and 2013, Professor Shah served as the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, where he was involved with the formulation of Pakistan’s official legal position on all aspects of foreign relations and international law. In his capacity as Legal Advisor, he represented Pakistan at numerous international conferences including leading Pakistan’s delegation at the Regional Consultation on “Strengthening Legal Protection of Persons Deprived of their Liberty in Relation to Non-international Armed Conflict,” held in Malaysia in 2013.

He is the author of the book “ International Law and Drone Strikes in Pakistan: The Legal and Socio-political Aspects”, published by Routledge, which deals with the treatment of drone strikes under International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.

He is co-authoring a book on the political economy of conflict in Pakistan forthcoming in 2016. The book is being published by Lexington Books| Rowan and Littlefield.

He is also currently a peer reviewer for the International Committee of the Red Cross and has reviewed the latest commentary prepared by the ICRC on Geneva Convention I.

To formulate the foundation of his academic career, he obtained both his B.A. in Economics as well as his Juris Doctorate (Cum Laude) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in the United States. Since then he has been visiting research faculty at Temple Law School, Wayne State Law School and the University of Michigan Law School

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