Tamar Megiddo

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, International Relations, Faculty Member

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Dr. Tamar Megiddo is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research addresses public international law and law and technology. She also serves as a research affiliate at the 'Three Generations of Human Rights' ERC Research Project at the Hebrew University's Faculty of Law.
Megiddo has previously served as a an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the College of Law and Business. She has received her Doctorate and Master’s degree in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law (J.S.D. ’16, LL.M. 12’), and her bachelor’s from the Hebrew University (LL.B. ’09).

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Papers by Tamar Megiddo

Revisiting lessons on the new law of statehood: Palestinian independence in a post-Kosovo world

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Feb 21, 2013

Knowledge Production, Big Data, and Data-driven Customary International Law

Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 23, 2021

This chapter investigates the role of ‘Data-Driven Customary International Law’ in shifting power... more This chapter investigates the role of ‘Data-Driven Customary International Law’ in shifting power relations with respect to the identification of customary international norms. Evidence of states’ practice and legal positions is required to determine that a new norm of customary international law has crystallized. And yet, international courts have often settled for anecdotal evidence and impressionistic analysis. However, recent academic works have crowd-sourced data collection, compiled big datasets, and applied computerized analysis methods to make comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the development of customary norms. I argue that this new mode of knowledge production may democratize both the data collected (giving greater weight to smaller states from the global periphery) and the potential contributors to the production process (including lawyers from different countries and language capabilities). Nevertheless, such production requires scientific sophistication and resources, which once more give actors from rich, developed countries a greater role in developing the law.

Crowdwashing Surveillance; Crowdsourcing Domination

Law & Ethics of Human Rights

Governments regularly rely on citizens’ cooperation in exercising their authority, including the ... more Governments regularly rely on citizens’ cooperation in exercising their authority, including the enforcement of rules. This is not only common, but also a necessary practice in a legal system. Technology makes such reliance easier, facilitating increased enforcement of law at little cost. Emergency provides an added legitimizing logic, encouraging citizens’ cooperation and leading them to uncritically follow the government’s lead to reduce the risk to the nation and to themselves. This article considers governments’ crowdsourcing citizens to monitor and surveil other citizens. One central concern this practice raises is that it allows governments to circumvent the limits of their legitimate authority and to augment their power while also obscuring the actor responsible for the surveillance and enforcement action. Consequently, accountability and public oversight over the government are diminished. Where does conventional enlisting of cooperation from law-abiding citizens end, and cr...

On international law as language: Observations from constructivism - a reply to Maiko Meguro

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Dec 8, 2022

International law as a ground for action

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Dec 8, 2022

Crowdwashing Surveillance; Crowdsourcing Domination

SSRN Electronic Journal

Obscurity and nonbindingness in the regulation of labor migration

Theoretical Inquiries in Law

Labor migration is often regulated internationally through bilateral treaties signed between stat... more Labor migration is often regulated internationally through bilateral treaties signed between states, determining the conditions under which migrants from one state (or both) may travel to the other state and reside there in order to work. These instruments are sometimes designated as memoranda of understanding and regarded as nonbinding agreements. Many remain unpublished and undisclosed. This Article assesses these design choices critically. It considers the interaction between bilateralism, obscurity and nonbindingness. It evaluates and rejects possible justifications for obscurity and nonbindingness. Finally, it argues that these design choices should be resisted. Since bilateral labor agreements do not regulate strictly the bilateral relationship between two states, but rather create rights and obligations for various third-party individuals, they should be required to meet a rule of law requirement of transparency.

Beyond Fragmentation: On International Law's Integrationist Forces

Social Science Research Network, 2018

This article challenges the widespread scholarly assumption that international law is inevitably ... more This article challenges the widespread scholarly assumption that international law is inevitably headed towards increasing fragmentation, resulting from the proliferation of international legal regimes, and particularly international tribunals. Addressing the concerns arising from states' receiving inconsistent guidance from different international legal regimes, I argue that such situations may in fact serve as catalysts for integration efforts on the part of states. Rather than remaining paralyzed in the face of normative conflict, states take a proactive, creative approach and try to reconcile their various international legal obligations, without forsaking their domestic agendas. Furthermore, states then strive to convince their peers as well as international monitoring bodies of their proposed solution. In doing so, they promote harmonization of international legal norms and integration among international law's different legal regimes. They thereby mitigate international law's fragmentation and its adverse effects. Adopting a comprehensive plan to fight tropical diseases, Brazil came across an unexpected hurdle: its international trade obligations. Its ban on the importation of used and recycled tires, which serve as mosquito breeding sites, was challenged by its trading partners in both the Southern Common Market and the World Trade Organization. Unfortunately for Brazil, the two international tribunals rendered conflicting rulings and Brazil was thus forced to choose between disregarding one of the rulings, or abandoning its plan in order to comply with both. Brazil's story has been viewed as the epitome of the dangers of international law's fragmentation. Challenging this accepted narrative, this article uses Brazil's difficult situation to illustrate that its circumstances served in fact as a catalyst of efforts of international legal integration. Rather than becoming paralyzed or turning its back on international law, Brazil remained committed to its international legal obligations and proactively and creatively worked to reconcile them without giving up its domestic agenda.

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The U.S. Approach to International Law: A View from Below

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

Lessons from Kosovo the Law of Statehood and Palestinian Unilateral Independence

On February 17th, 2008, The Republic of Kosovo declared independence. This declaration was met wi... more On February 17th, 2008, The Republic of Kosovo declared independence. This declaration was met with mixed international reaction. At the heart of the controversy lie concerns as to the possible effect and precedential value that the case of Kosovo may have on the international law of statehood. In this paper, we examine the case of Kosovo against the background of the international law of statehood as it has evolved over the past century. We argue that the classical Montevideo criteria for Statehood have not lost their importance, as they fundamentally capture the elements essential for an entity to effectively function as a state. Nevertheless, they are no longer the only yardstick. Additional considerations have played a significant role in borderline cases during recent decades, such as the right to self determination, adherence to peremptory norms of international law, and further considerations such as commitment to protection of human rights or the adoption of democratic institutions. When examining the circumstances of Kosovo, we arrive at the conclusion that it did not meet the classical criteria at the time of its declaration of independence. Consequently, if the independence of Kosovo is to be recognized, it would be reasonable to argue that other factors have had a role in overcoming such deficiency. We then turn to inquire whether these considerations may affect the prospects of a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence. We find that while in some respects a Palestinian unilateral declaration of independence seems to be better situated for recognition than Kosovo&#39;s, in other respects the conditions seem to have not yet fully matured.

The Missing Persons of International Law Scholarship

Beyond Fragmentation: On International Law's Integrationist Forces

LSN: WTO Law (Topic), 2018

Adopting a comprehensive plan to fight tropical diseases, Brazil came across an unexpected hurdle... more Adopting a comprehensive plan to fight tropical diseases, Brazil came across an unexpected hurdle: its international trade obligations. Its ban on the importation of used and recycled tires, which serve as mosquito breeding sites, was challenged by its trading partners in both the Southern Common Market and the World Trade Organization. Unfortunately for Brazil, the two international tribunals rendered conflicting rulings and Brazil was thus forced to choose between disregarding one of the rulings, or abandoning its plan in order to comply with both. Brazil’s story has been viewed as the epitome of the dangers of international law’s fragmentation, resulting from the proliferation of international legal regimes, and particularly international tribunals. Challenging this accepted narrative, this article argues that Brazil’s difficult situation served in fact as a catalyst of efforts of international legal integration. Rather than becoming paralyzed or turning its back on international...

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The Domestic Standing of International Law: A Non-State Account

Despite its central contribution to the construction of the global legal order, the United States... more Despite its central contribution to the construction of the global legal order, the United States has long been perceived to exclude itself from the reach of international law. Its exceptionalist image has been reinforced by statements of political leaders, federal law provisions, and court decisions. This Article argues, however, that in order to appropriately assess international law’s standing in the United States, one must consider not only the position of its formal government but also the interpretation, application, and challenge of international law by non-State actors. Moreover, it stresses the importance of studying not only elite actors’ engagement with international law but also that of individuals, groups, and organizations outside the formal bureaucracy. The Article surveys interventions by government officials, producers, consumers, and civil society representatives in the context of a U.S. policy-making process initiated pursuant to a World Trade Organization ruling....

Online Activism, Digital Domination, and the Rule of Trolls

SSRN Electronic Journal

The internet and social media have revolutionized activism. In response, governments seeking to c... more The internet and social media have revolutionized activism. In response, governments seeking to curb opposition have recently learned to target the very same technologies that gave rise to activist empowerment in the first place. This article challenges the accepted framework for discussing these efforts by governments, focused on surveillance and privacy. It argues, first, that governments’ actions should be evaluated in the aggregate and understood as measures of digital domination, whose harm extends beyond the harm to individual privacy. Applying the republican concept of freedom as non-domination, the article suggests that the core harm resulting from governments’ actions is to activists’ freedom. Since activism is a check on the government, these measures also have devastating consequences for the freedom of the citizenry as a whole. Second, the article argues that governments’ reliance on digital militias allows them to sidestep the limits of their legitimate authority, therefore posing a grave threat to the rule of law. Finally, third, the article underscores that governments deploy digital measures of control beyond surveillance. Rather, they (1) gather information on activists; (2) disrupt communication channels; (3) flood online conversation to drown out the opposition; (4) deploy the state’s coercive power based on information gathered, and (5) mobilize digital militias to bully activists online. The article therefore proposes a new conceptual framework: rather than discuss political freedom through the lens of privacy, we ought to retain appreciation of privacy’s importance but refocus the discussion around individual freedom. Similarly, rather than subsume government control measures under the category of surveillance, we ought to recognize the much broader set of tools employed by them.

Methodological Individualism

LSN: Other Public International Law: Sources (Topic), 2018

International law, we are taught, is the law made by states to govern their relations. Unsurprisi... more International law, we are taught, is the law made by states to govern their relations. Unsurprisingly, international law scholarship has traditionally embraced a corresponding methodological statism. Despite common perceptions, statism remains dominant: at most, elite non-state actors are studied alongside states. This article advocates a turn to ‘constructivist methodological individualism’: a commitment to studying the making, interpretation, implementation, development and breaking of international law by ordinary, individual people, together with the reciprocal engagement of international law with them.

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Obscurity and Non-Bindingness in Regulation of Labor Migration

SSRN Electronic Journal

International Law as a Ground for Action

SSRN Electronic Journal

This paper begins with the observation that, when deciding on a course of action for themselves a... more This paper begins with the observation that, when deciding on a course of action for themselves and their states, individuals sometimes take international law into account, and it sometimes serves for them a reason or a ground for action. It consequently asks why international law would serve as a reason or a ground for action, and whether there is anything international law could do to further encourage people’s consideration of it. The paper proposes a theoretical model which aims to account for those instances in which international law seems to exert a “compliance pull” on individual people. The model suggests there are two types of allegiance to a legal system: a person’s disposition to comply with legal rules, and a person’s fidelity to the system. A legal system's adherence to principles of legality is important for the generation and maintenance of both.

Learning from the BITs: Bilateral Labor Agreements in Comparative Perspective

SSRN Electronic Journal

Inclusion and Representation: The Settlement of Property Claims of the Dispossessed in the Aftermath of an Armed Conflict

Theoretical Inquiries in Law

This Article examines the authority of states to settle individual private property claims in pos... more This Article examines the authority of states to settle individual private property claims in post–conflict negotiations towards settlement. We analyze this question by exploring the limits of states’ authority to take or limit private property rights for the public good. We argue that this authority rests on two cumulative justifications: the inclusion of the property owners among the public that stands to benefit from the public good, and their representation by the government that decides on the taking of the property. In post–conflict settlement, the negotiating states may redistribute both private property and the public good between and within their respective communities. Their authority to redistribute continues to rests on the same justifications of inclusion and representation. Hence, their authority extends only to the redistribution of property of owners who are members of the respective communities that negotiate the agreement, and who are represented by a negotiating g...