This week on Opinio Juris, a guest post by Daniel Bethlehem, following up on a post by Julian Ku last week, offered three more legal bases for the legality of an intervention in Syria. Also continuing on some of last week's themes, Kevin Jon Heller wrote how a recent decision by the ICC's Appeals Chamber confirms his argument on retroactive ad hoc jurisdiction, and Deborah Pearlstein couldn't resist taking...
A big item on the Security Council’s agenda this month is reconsideration of the mandate of the Ombudsperson and Monitoring Regime for Al Qaida Sanctions, pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1989. Of particular interest are measures proposed by Like Minded States this year (including, amongst others, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Costa Rica, and Germany) which suggest a variety...
The United Kingdom has paid $3.5 million to settle a rendition case brought by Libyan dissident Sami al Saadi. The European Court of Human Rights released its decision (.pdf) in the Al Masri v. The Republic of Macedonia case finding he was a victim of CIA rendition. The ICC Appeals Chamber dismissed a challenge from ex-Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo that the...
Two of my favorite things, now together in one hilarious tumblr site. My two favorites: Check them all out here....
Syrian troops have been accused of using Scud missiles in populated areas, according to a US official and Human Rights Watch. The United Kingdom has announced its intent to legalize same-sex marriage in the coming year. Trial Chamber II of the ICTY convicted Bosnian Serb commander Zdravko Tolimir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced him to life in...
I had an interesting -- and respectful -- disagreement with André de Hoogh last week concerning the right of non-states parties to retroactively accept the jurisdiction of the Court pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. I argued in my post that Palestine could accept the Court's jurisdiction retroactive to whenever it became a state under international law. Andre challenged...
As loathe as I am to call any attention to Eric Posner’s latest over on Slate, his piece engaging the Jeh Johnson speech (about the notion that the Al Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 might someday be defeated) is such a blast from the past it’s hard to resist. Turns out the President has really been detaining everyone under...
A quick roundup of congratulations to folks in the broad OJ community ...
Following the EU's example yesterday, the US has recognized Syria's opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and many more world powers are poised to do the same at the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference opens today in Morocco. Human Rights Watch has a report of the Syrian government using incendiary bombs on at least four occasions since mid-November in...
Well, bibliography is too grand for what I've done over at Lawfare, which is put up a list of articles and reports, with links and a brief description, of documents currently in the debate over the regulation of autonomous weapon systems. I will update it periodically - I won't start adding older documents, but as new things come out I'll...
It's that time of year when things get really busy in the law school environment (not to mention the pre-holiday press of government service, firm work, etc.). So, for those of you looking for a momentary break from the memo-drafting, exam-writing, grading, article research, whirlwind of holiday events, etc., I submit to you -- Jimmy Fallon on treaties. The routine...
The WTO General Council yesterday approved Tajikistan's accession package, opening the way for membership 30 days after ratification of the package by Tajikistan. The ACLU will file a petition this morning with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission over the treatment of Jose Padilla by the US government since his designation as 'enemy combatant' in 2001. Mali's Prime Minister resigned after the military arrested him for not...
