In association with the International Commission of Jurists

June 2010

13 Jun

It looks like the ICC Review Conference has reached consensus on a definition of the "crime of aggression" and the mechanisms governing the ICC Prosecutor's jurisdiction over such a crime.  According to the AFP, the new amendment to the Rome Statute provides: [T]hat the UN Security Council will hold primary responsibility for determining whether an act of aggression has occurred. But where...

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13 Jun

Over at AidWatch (William Easterly's blog), guest blogger Moussa P. Blimpo puts up a post on the role of universities in development in poor countries, in Africa and elsewhere.  There are a lot of tradeoffs, explicit and implied - should universal primary education take precedence over university education, for example.  What is the role of universities in poor countries in...

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11 Jun

John Bellinger has a nice op-ed today pointing out that the 112th Congress is on course to set a record for the fewest treaties ratified during a single session of Congress. Despite the presence of 59 Democrats, the Senate has approved only one treaty (a tax agreement with France) during the 112th Congress. The Obama administration must make more vigorous efforts...

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10 Jun

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Turkish government, in collaboration with Hamas, is considering applying to the International Court of Justice over the Gaza Flotilla incident. The agreement to work together against Israel reportedly came in a Thursday telephone conversation between Turkey's justice minister, Sadullah Ergin and his Hamas counterpart, Muhammad Faraj Al-Ghoul. As the article points out, it is far from...

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10 Jun

The news out of The Hague today is the genocide convictions of Popovic and Beara, both of whom the ICTY trial chamber found to be key leaders of the Srbrenica massacre of 1995.  Each was sentenced to life imprisonment, among the longest sentences for the ICTY. Lesser convictions and sentences were handed down to five other former Bosnian Serb officials....

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08 Jun

I couldn't make it to Kampala for the review conference (not that anyone invited me), but luckily, the magic of the internet means I don't have to go to find out how things are going.  For two really different takes on the negotiations, I highly recommend you follow EJIL Talk's ongoing coverage here and Brett D. Schaefer (of the Heritage...

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07 Jun

A few days ago, I recorded a conversation for Bloggingheads.tv with Mark Leon Goldberg of the invaluable UN Dispatch.  It was a wide ranging discussion -- and long, 45 minutes -- covering everything from the Gaza blockade to the definition of aggression to drone attacks.  Something tells me, though, that the only thing people will remember is my description of...

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07 Jun

I know Ken's busy finishing his book and can't yet reply to Marko's remarkable post.  (And personal congrats, Marko, on the lectureship.  Nottingham is lucky to have you!)  When he does, I hope he'll address the criminal-law aspects of his belief that self-defense justifies targeted killings outside of armed conflict.  I have two scenarios in mind, borrowed and adapted from...

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06 Jun

Despite the increasingly desperate nature of the attacks on Judge Goldstone, I never thought an academic institution would give in to the hysteria: In response to an enquiry by the Alternative Information Center (AIC) about its reported removal of Judge Richard Goldstone from the Board of Governors, Hebrew University of Jerusalem responded by email that: "The Hebrew University of Jerusalem...

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05 Jun

OJ's good friend Marko Milanovic has offered a super-substantive response to my brief comments re self-defense in my not-yet-response to Professor Alston's report on targeted killing and drones.  I will have things to say about that and also my reactions to the interior of the Special Rapporteur's report - happy to say that I avoided any $100 a day fines...

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