The use of boycotts as a lawful response to serious international law breaches in Palestine

Abstract

This paper explores the lawfulness of BDS, the Palestinian civil society´s call to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction the State of Israel for its serious and systematic violations of international law against the Palestinian people. To this end, the paper begins by explaining the origins, methods, and objectives of the BDS movement. It then addresses the legal legitimacy of BDS on three levels: within the universal human rights protection system (the UN), in the only regional protection system where it has been addressed (the European system), and within the domestic jurisdictions of states where it has been part of the legal debate in recent years. The paper concludes that calling for BDS is part of the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, which is protected both by international human rights instruments and in most democratic legal systems, and that international and national courts that have addressed these cases have generally understood it as such.