Sources of IDL: The new IFRC disaster law database
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Published Version
Date
2022-02-21
Authors
Cubie, Dug
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Brill
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Abstract
Identifying the canon, or key sources, of any branch of law is a fundamental first step to understanding the obligations, liabilities, rights and potential gaps which exist in regard to a particular subject matter. As a relatively new and evolving area of legal practice and scholarship, there is an even greater need to ensure easy access to sub-national, national, regional and international texts of relevance to disaster law as a means of disseminating the growing body of knowledge and practice on the legal implications of disasters. As the seminal IFRC World Disasters Report of 2000 highlighted, despite the extensive development of international humanitarian law since the 1860s, there was no similar body of law relating to natural and technological disasters. Moreover, the Report lamented the fact that ‘[n]o systematic attempt has been made to pull together the disparate threads of existing law, to formalize customary law or to expand and develop the law in new ways’. This proved to be a clarion call, and over the past 20 years a wealth of legal sources relating to disasters have been identified and developed at the national, regional and international levels. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has been at the forefront of promoting a systematic understanding of the need for legal frameworks to be in place before a disaster strikes. Many governments and other international organisations have also recognised the need for a more comprehensive and coherent approach to the legal implications of disasters, as seen during the work of the International Law Commission on the Draft Articles in the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters. As greater focus has been placed on identifying the legal implications of natural and technological hazards, there has been a concomitant need to easily access domestic, regional and international legal texts and commentaries on the interconnecting legal frameworks applicable in disaster settings. As a result, a variety of different online legal databases and reference tools have been developed over the past 10 years to assist policy-makers, practitioners, civil society and scholars. However, the global community of disaster lawyers is proportionally small, and it is important to ensure that such databases are as comprehensive and as up-to-date as possible. Consequently, in early 2020, the IFRC and Roma Tre University entered into partnership to develop an online resource on disaster law to bring together the disparate legal texts and publications into one central database.
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Keywords
Disasters , Draft Articles in the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters , Legal implications of disasters
Citation
Cubie, D. (2022) 'Sources of IDL: The new IFRC disaster law database', Yearbook of International Disaster Law Online, 3(1), pp. 637-641. https://doi.org/10.1163/26662531_00301_037