A federal district court in Washington D.C. last week ruled that an alleged Colombian terrorist is not a lawful combatant within the meaning of the Geneva Conventions. The case involved a criminal indictment filed against Junvenal Pineda (a.k.a. Simon Trinidad) for conspiracy to commit hostage taking, hostage taking, aiding and abetting and causing an act to be done, and material...
I’ve been coming to terms lately with the fact that I’m obsessed with treaties. Now, to some, this might be a strange subject for an obsession, but I really do like treaties – I like to read newly negotiated treaties; I like to debate who can make treaties, not to mention my interest in comparing how different states interpret...
The African Union has established a commission to investigate accusations that its peacekeepers in western Darfur have been sexually abusing civilian women. Specific allegations include an 11-year-old girl's claim that she was paid for sex then raped by an AU soldier. The AU describes the allegations as "disturbing," but notes that similar allegations have been investigated and found...
This question is not necessarily relevant to the very hot immigration debate in the United States. Mexico's government has raised this slightly, however, in its sometimes harsh criticism of U.S. immigration policies. But Mexico also receives many immigrants. Can Mexico be accused of imposing a double-standard on the U.S.? Some conservatives have suggested this. The answer isn't quite as...
This interesting report on the results of the ICJ's witness testimony confirms my suspicions about the inadequacy of the ICJ's fact-gathering ability in this sort of case. The question here is whether to allocate state responsibility to Serbia for violations of the Genocide Convention. This requires evidence on, among other things, was there a genocide and was it...
This Reuters article nicely highlights how international tribunals have become a growth industry, at least for the Hague (and also for Arusha, Tanzania). The unquestioned capital of all of this is The Hague, which is home to the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the Yugoslavia Criminal Court, and soon, perhaps, the trial of Charles Taylor by...
Bill Hing over at ImmigrationProf Blog has some interesting thoughts on the connection between immigration reform and national security. Quoting a West Point national security expert, he argues that "By bringing the people that are here out of the shadows, and creating an orderly mechanism for identifying and documenting the low-risk individuals who travel to this country to work,...
German authorities have arrested Ignace Murwanashyaka, a Rwandan Hutu rebel leader whose group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, is believed to have committed numerous war crimes in Congo and Rwanda. Although there is currently no international arrest warrant for him, the Rwandan government has said that it intends to ask Germany for his extradition. Rwanda's...
Franz Jägerstätter is not a name most of us know. But to those who have studied the pantheon of great conscientious objectors, his name is well known. Essentially, Jägerstätter was a quiet Austrian peasant who refused to serve in the Third Reich after the 1938 German Anschluss. For this stance he was tried as a deserter and executed in 1943....
Luis Posada Carriles, the Cuban-born terrorist who is currently being held in federal detention in Texas, has filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court seeking his release. The writ claims that his detention violates Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), in which the Supreme Court held that the INS — now ICE — cannot indefinitely...
The lower house of the German parliament has established a commission to investigate claims that the BND, Germany's federal intelligence service, quietly helped the US select bombing targets during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The BND has admitted that two of its agents worked with the US in Baghdad during the invasion, but insists that the agents only...
One common charge leveled at the Bush Administration is that it refuses to consult with Congress on important matters involving foreign affairs. There is some truth to this charge, although I think a lot of it is overblown. Congress is regularly consulted on lots of stuff through their numerous oversight and appropriations powers. They often know what is...
