Nana Namoradze

Conflict in Georgia: Russian intervention.
On August 7 a short war erupted between Georgia and Russia taking hundreds of lives and causing severe damage to both sides. It is yet to be clarified which side started the violence on that particular day, but the fact that Russian tanks started rolling into the country just minutes after the conflict bursted out leads us to conclusion that Russia was long prepared for the war.
On Friday August 7th, while the whole world was watching spectacular opening of the Olympic games, Russia invaded Georgia to “defend its citizens from genocide.” From the first minutes Russian mass media announced 1200 Ossetians had been killed by Georgians, but they provided no proof to that. Knowing Russia from personal experience, I was amazed that they didn’t show any footages of dead people, I expected they would kill 1200 Ossetians themselves and pinch the blame on Georgians, but somehow it didn’t happen, thanks to God, all we heard was numbers.
Russia invaded Georgia with the speed of locusts. Its air forces destroyed what they could, burned down national reservation park with rare types of wood and wild animals, blew up main railway connection with Tbilisi and controlled backbone highway, thus dividing country into two parts, occupied and destroyed Poti port and military vessels of Georgia, arrested and looted containers with various shipments from all over the world, which by the way, has nothing to do with Abkhazia and south Ossetia. I think their goal was to cause as much damage as they could while the world was still watching the Olympic Games. The timing was perfect for Russia. The Olympic Games, not somewhere else, but in the communist China was a big event for the world. The USA was busy with elections, US President Mr.Bush could not help Georgia militarily, his party wanted McCain to win, they wouldn’t dare to undertake any actions that would cause them to loose the elections. But their emissars and senators flew to Georgia every day to express their moral support, ended with sending several tonns of humanitarian aid for the refugees. Also it has to note an importance of assistance from six presidents (France, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia Estonia)who have flown to Tbilisi in the moment when it was under planned bombing by Russian planes. However Tbilisi was not left out of the attention of generals, who became excited at the smell of Georgian blood. The capital was bombed five times, namely the objects that could be classified as strategic, like airport, bridge, radar system, aviation plant. Once these institutions were constructed in the outskirts, but due to the contruction boom in the capital they have been surrounded with multiple dwelling houses and bombing by mere chance has not created tragedy to civilians.Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Mr. Lavrov stated that Russian actions were in complete accordance with international law and with article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The big questions is if he understood the Charter correctly.
Article 2 of the UN charter prohibits the use of force, however there is one exception to the prohibition on the use of force that is accepted beyond all doubt as part of customary international law: that of self-defence.
Article 51 of UN Charter states that ,”Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain inter- national peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security”.
According to this article, the right to self-defence only arises “if an armed attack occurs’. Its is clear that such an attack has occurred, but against Georgia. So, it is Georgia that exercised its right to self-defence and not Russia. Russia has intruded with its tanks on foreign territory, violating article 2 UN Charter , violating territorial integrity of Georgia.[/QUOTE]
Diplomatic measures taken by the President Sarcosy of France, initiating peaceful resolution and ceasefire, was "misinterpreted" by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and due to wrong translation the russians have dragged time to fulfill these recommendations of EC.

Legal Eagle

thank you very much Nana, its perfect!
Now, I will fill it with more legal stuff and thats it
I'll move to next task- preparing for my obligatory exams

Nana Namoradze

My Mom is 88, if you ask her any item from Law, she remembers. At home we have "Kolkhoznoe pravo" ))) Did you know about this?
Study well! If you need any help, ask me.
Also next time take topics from history of law. It is very interesting. Old Chechen laws, for example, how the cases were judged, etc.

Айдамиров

do you have topics like that sis?

__________________
дала барта ца1 бойл нохчийн къам

берег души

Ammm...the bank of the soul was here))


How are you,my freakin` friends?

__________________
all my ideas are imported
all my products are exported
(all my explanations are rubbish)

Nana Namoradze

There are several historical tractats related to how the Justice was managed in ancient times. Georgians have Beka Aghbugha's Laws, simultaneously there were also Ecclesiastic laws governing in the country. and there were unwritten laws that were active in 1950s even in Khevsureti.
When my mom has been there on check of the Court, there were no cases at all. When she asked why, they have answered that they still judged according to their laws of mountain. No docs needed)
Being neighboring countries we could have similar legislation.

Legal Eagle

I just found out that Legal Egle means sly, cunning lawyer
I hate sly people! I chose this name beouse it sounden cute, now I'm stuck with it
I hope that not many people know the meaning of it

Legal Eagle

Kolhoznoe pravo
and we are angry becouse we have economy and filosophy and me nearly revolted becouse of bugalteriya (how do you say it in english?)

Legal Eagle

My teacher has just corrected my paper, its all red
but I have passed the exam, got 14 points out of 20
not so much, but enough for someone who didnt prepare properly

Legal Eagle

I post corrected version for those who are interested

Conflict in Georgia: The question of Russian intervention
On August 7, a short war erupted between Georgia and Russia, taking hundreds of lives and causing severe damage to both sides. It is yet to be clarified which side started the violence on that particular day, but the fact that Russian tanks started rolling into the country just minutes after the conflict broke out leads us to conclude that Russia had been prepared for the war.

On Friday August 7th, while the whole world was watching the spectacular opening of the Olympic Games, Russia invaded Georgia to “defend its citizens from genocide.” From the first minutes, the Russian mass media announced that 1200 Ossetians had been killed by Georgians, but they provided no proof of that. Knowing Russia from personal experience, I was amazed they didn’t show any footage of dead people; I expected they would kill 1200 Ossetians themselves and pinch the blame on Georgians, but somehow it didn’t happen, thank God, and all we heard were the numbers.

Russia invaded Georgia with the speed of locusts. Its air forces destroyed as much they could, burned down national reservation parks with rare types of wood and wild animals, blew up the main railway connection with Tbilisi and controlled the backbone highway, thus dividing country into two parts, occupied and destroyed Poti port and military vessels of Georgia, arrested and looted containers with various shipments from all over the world, which by the way, had nothing to do with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Tbilisi was not left out of the attention of Russian generals, who became excited at the smell of Georgian blood. The capital was bombed five times, targeting objects that could be classified as strategic, like airports, bridges, radar systems, and aviation plants. Once, these institutions had been located in the outskirts of the city, but due to the construction boom in the capital they were now surrounded by multiple dwelling houses. It was pure luck that the bombings did not create tragedy to the civilians living there.
According to me, the main goal of Russia was to cause as much damage as it could, while the world was still watching the Olympic Games. The timing was perfect for Russia. The Olympic Games, taking place in communist China, was a big event for the world. The USA was busy with elections, the US President G.W. Bush could not help Georgia militarily, his political party wanted McCain to be elected, and they wouldn’t dare to undertake any actions that could make them to loose the elections.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Mr. Lavrov, stated that the Russian actions were in complete accordance with international law and with article 51 of the United Nations Charter. The big question is if that is correct.

Article 2 of the UN charter prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes, meaning that they have to be settled peacefully. The days, when war was regarded as the continuation of politics are gone.
There is also the principle of non-intervention in matters within the domestic jurisdiction of any State. Certain kinds of interventions, however, are accepted by international law, such as interventions to rescue nationals or to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe like the one in Kosovo. Certain other kinds of intervention are regarded as unlawful. Interventions to topple or install a particular regime are among these. We can thus classify the Russian intervention as an intervention to topple President Saakashvili’s pro-Western regime and change it to a pro- Russian regime, perhaps, to put its good old friend and former president of Georgia Shevarnadze back into power.

There is one exception to the prohibition on the use of force that is accepted beyond all doubt as part of customary international law: that of self-defence.
Article 51 of UN Charter states that ,”Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain inter- national peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security ”.

According to this article, the right to self-defence only arises “if an armed attack occurs’. It is clear that such an attack occurred - not against Russia, but against Georgia. So, it is Georgia that exercised its right to self-defence and not Russia. Russia intruded with its tanks on foreign territory, thus violating article 2 of the UN Charter, violating the territorial integrity of Georgia.
If Russia seriously thinks that it has acted in accordance with Article 51 of UN Charter, it means that, South Ossetia and Abkhazia were not only officially independent from Georgia, but that they had already become part of Russia. It sounds absurd, because Abkhazia and South Ossetia are considered to be parts of the Georgian territory and they were never officially recognised as independent states.
Let us assume that all of this is not true, and Russia indeed had the right to use force against Georgia. There are two elements to the use of force under article 51 of UN Charter: lack of any alternative to the use of force, and the need for the force used in self-defence not to be excessive.
Russia is a very powerful and country that is rich in oil: it has a lot of other means to put pressure on small countries like Georgia. It could have used its diplomatic means or, even better, economic means – it could just have cut off oil and gas supplies to Georgia.
The second element was also violated by Russia. Its use of force was disproportionate, which many international organisations and leaders of the world have acknowledged from the first days since the beginning of that short war.