In association with the International Commission of Jurists

October 2012

08 Oct

Julian beat me to Eric Posner's new Slate article on the legality of drone strikes.  I don't agree with everything in it, but I think it's notable that Posner -- echoing his sometime co-author Jack Goldsmith -- rejects the idea that international law permits self-defense against a non-state actor whenever a state is "unable or unwilling" to prevent the NSA...

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08 Oct

In his latest Slate article,  Professor Eric Posner highlights (for non-specialist readers) the  questionable international legal foundation of the Obama Administration's "drone war on terror" in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere (e.g. Libya). The whole idea that the U.S. can infer Pakistan's consent to the strikes due to Pakistan's refusal to object to CIA faxes is not terribly persuasive.  I am...

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08 Oct

Islamic groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for yesterday's Israeli strikes in the Gaza strip. Amnesty International has reported that Rwandan military intelligence services have engaged in torture, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances of civilians. Sudanese state media reports that the border between Sudan and South Sudan will reopen today, after a security agreement was reached last month. Turkish forces fired across the border...

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07 Oct

Upcoming Events On October 11, 2012, the American Society of International Law is organizing a panel on Developing your Faculty Credentials: An International Law Perspective at Tillar House in Washington DC. More information, and free registration, can be found here. On October 25, 2012, the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics is organizing the eighteenth annual Herbert Rubin And Justice Rose...

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07 Oct

I'm currently writing an article for the Journal of International Criminal Justice on the legality of signature drone strikes under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.  I will link to the article when it's done (two weeks or so), but I couldn't resist posting the following quotes -- the first from the New York Times, describing the Obama...

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06 Oct

This week, there was no escaping the second oral argument in the Kiobel case that kicked off the US Supreme Court's term on Monday. If you are not familiar with this case, it concerns the enigmatic Alien Tort Statute which, as part of the Judiciary Act 1789, holds that "the district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action...

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05 Oct

On September 19, the Supreme Court of Nevada ordered a new evidentiary hearing for Mexican national Carlos Gutierrez on his ability to overcome the State's procedural bars to further consideration of his death sentence.  I've posted a copy of the court's order here. Gutierrez was one of 51 Mexican nationals whose convictions and sentences were the subject of the ICJ's Avena decision....

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05 Oct

Over at Lawfare, I've flagged a fine new article in the Military Law Review, "The Case of the Murdering Wives: Reid v. Covert and the Complicated Question of Civilians and Courts-Martial," by Captain Brittany Warren (Vol. 212. 2012, p. 133; link goes to jagcnet.army.mil.) The article goes into fascinating detail about the actual facts and circumstances of Reid v. Covert, as well as a discussion of historical practices dating back to 17th century Britain and the application of the Articles of War to "camp followers."  It then comes back to the present to discuss the circumstances of civilians in courts-martial in US law. Let me add a comment that goes far afield of Captain Warren's article, but one raised in my mind by the detailed discussion she offers of the "murdering wives case" in its own context and time.  (I don't want to suggest that my discussion reflects her views in that article, so I've decided to make it a separate post here at OJ.)   Reid v. Covert is a case sometimes raised in a different context - one for which it is not really dead-on, however, though sometimes referenced in relation to it.  Reid is the question of the extraterritorial application of the US Constitution, and whether a civilian US citizen lawfully present on a US military base in time of peace, with a SOFA in operation (ie, 1950s Germany), is entitled to a regular US civilian trial with all Constitutional protections in a capital murder case rather than trial in military court under the UCMJ - answer, yes. But, if that's Reid, what about a US citizen who has fled the US to places not controlled in law or fact by the US, and is engaged in violent operations against the US from abroad as part of a terrorist group - is that US citizen nonetheless entitled to trial in a regular civilian court, or at least some form of judicial due process, and at least an implication that this US citizen can't be lethally targeted in the way that a non-citizen lawful target could be?
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05 Oct

I wanted to flag for readers one more international law related Federalist Society Teleforum, which will be starting shortly. On the call, which starts at 1 p.m. Eastern at  888-752-3232,  Professor Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason University School of Law and Paul Rosenzweig will discuss the U.S. State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh's recent address on cyberwarfare.  Please feel free to call...

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05 Oct

Russia is considering offering Western companies oil licenses in its Arctic waters. Reuters has an exclusive that the European Union is ready to ban imports of Iranian gas as a part of new sanctions in order to increase the pressure over the nuclear program in the Islamic Republic. A UN representative has told the Security Council there is little time to deal with rebels...

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04 Oct

Aryeh Neier, recently retired president of the Open Society Institute (and former head of Human Rights Watch and the ACLU), has an opinion piece in Project Ricochet this week calling for a no-fly zone over Syria. He calls for it to be imposed by a regional force and NATO.  The US would not lead the effort, though presumably it would...

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04 Oct

Turkey has struck back at Syria, after a mortar attack killed five Turkish civilians in a city close to the Syrian border. In an urgent meeting, NATO has urged Syria to respect international law. Turkey has also requested a response by the UN Security Council, but Russia asked for a day delay. Four UN Peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in West...

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