A few weeks ago, I wrote a long post explaining the one way in which the absence of due process in a national prosecution could make a case admissible before the ICC. The post drew a distinction between two different kinds of national prosecutions: (1) one that fails to satisfy international standards of due process; and (2) one that fails...
Story here: Investors can begin construction in six months on three privately run cities in Honduras that will have their own police, laws, government and tax systems now that the government has signed a memorandum of agreement approving the project. . . . The "model cities" will have their own judiciary, laws, governments and police forces. They also will be empowered to...
The UN's High Commissioner on Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged an end to the violence brought about by the anti-Islam film released last week, while Hezbollah's leader called for a week of protests. Myanmar's Aung Sun Suu Kyi has begun her visit to the United States and is slated to receive the highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, and meet...
Upcoming Events On October 1-2, 2012, Leiden University and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will host the Second Annual Expert Seminar on Foreign Investment Law, entitled: Foreign investment in the energy sector: Balancing private and public interests at Leiden University in The Netherlands. Registration is free, but space is limited. Friday, October 12, 2012, St. John's Law Review, St. John's Center for International and Comparative Law and St. John's...
While U.S. embassies around the Middle East continue to face angry mobs, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing also faced its own angry (but less violent) mob today. As China blogger Sinostand reports, hundreds of Chinese citizens threw eggs and rocks at the Japanese Embassy in protest at Japan's actions to nationalize the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea....
The attacks on US embassies in the Arab world did not escape our bloggers' attention this week. Duncan Hollis posted about host states' duties to protect diplomatic and consular premises, and questioned whether Libya and Egypt could be held responsible for the attacks. Julian Ku asked which responses to the death of ambassador Christopher Stevens would be legal under US...
At risk of dipping back into this touchy subject, there's this interesting development as reported in today's NY Times: Google has blocked the film that has provoked embassy (and now KFC) attacks from youTube sites in Libya and Egypt: Google said it decided to block the video in response to violence that killed four American diplomatic personnel in Libya. The company...
As turmoil continues to spread in the Middle East, Google has temporarily blocked access in Libya and Egypt to the inflammatory anti-Muslim video, invoking exceptional circumstances but not relying on its guidelines prohibiting hate speech. It will not come as a surprise to frequent readers of our blog that our own Peter Spiro is quoted as approving of Google's decision, even though it raises questions...
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has begun his first European tour as president and will visit Brussels to discuss economic support, agriculture, job creation and investment in the Egyptian private sector, among other topics. Despite President Mursi’s call for calm, dozens are still protesting the film “Innocence of Muslims” outside the US Embassy in Cairo. Turmoil has reportedly spread to the US...
Here it comes: President Obama is exercising his Commander-in-Chief powers, a la Durand v. Hollins: The U.S. responded to the assault by dispatching two Navy destroyers, dozens of Marines, federal investigators and intelligence assets to Libya to protect Americans and hunt the suspected religious extremists who carried out the attack late Tuesday. U.S. officials described the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher...
The deplorable killing of Chris Stevens in Libya suggests a foreign relations law rationale for banning hate speech. Remember, the Benghazi protests were prompted by this film depicting the prophet Mohammed in not very flattering terms. The equation from the protesters at the US consulate in Benghazi: this film was produced by an American; we will hold America responsible for it. The...
[I posted this originally at the same time as Duncan, so it is a bit repetitive, but I'll leave its content basically as is]. Sad and startling news: U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed yesterday in a rocket attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. This is an addition to another violent attack on the U.S. Embassy in...
