In association with the International Commission of Jurists

June 2014

22 Jun

Events The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals will take place  on 18 July 2014 in Geneva. The seminar, the program of which is found here, will focus on the dialogue between the International Law Commission and international courts and tribunals. Members of the ILC, experts and practitioners will take part. The event is open to all. Calls for Papers The Editorial...

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20 Jun

Most of the discussion about Abu Khattallah's capture in Libya has focused on the operation's basis -- or lack thereof -- in domestic US law. Less attention has been paid to whether international law permitted the US to use force on Libyan soil. As Marty Lederman recently noted at Just Security, Abu Khattallah's capture can potentially be justified on two different grounds:...

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20 Jun

I'm not sure how I missed this, but these are very strong -- and atypically blunt -- allegations by Fatou Bensouda: The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to investigate reports that the UN peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) deliberately contributed in covering up crimes in the restive region. In reference to US-based Foreign Policy...

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18 Jun

My blogospheric colleagues have begun debating whether the Administration has sufficient domestic legal authority to proceed with what the Times has called a “targeted, highly selective campaign of airstrikes against Sunni militants in Iraq” – reportedly now under contemplation. Jack Goldsmith, for example, thinks it might, under the 2002 statute authorizing the President to use military force against the government of Iraq for the purpose of ridding it of its “weapons of mass destruction.” My friends at Just Security and elsewhere have usefully debunked this notion, and related others (like the idea I’ve argued against here, that ISIS can be considered any kind of “associate” of Al Qaeda). But while I’d contest the idea that the discussion so far is “premature” – it is no doubt precisely a topic with which Administration lawyers are currently struggling – the doubtful legality of such a set of strikes under domestic law is made even worse by the likely illegality of such strikes under international law. That is, even if the United States could come up with a domestic statutory basis for some military action in Iraq – extant Title 50 covert action authorities are quite broad, for example – it would still struggle for the approval of our allies on international legal grounds. Here’s my thinking.
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17 Jun

Full disclosure: Taylor is represented by John Jones QC, who is my colleague at Doughty Street Chambers. Charles Taylor has filed a disturbing motion with the Special Court for Sierra Leone's Residual Mechanism, requesting that he be transferred from prison in the UK to a prison in Rwanda because of his mistreatment by the British government. Here are the key paragraphs from the motion's introduction: Charles...

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16 Jun

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Three armed groups from northern Mali have agreed to begin peace talks with the government aimed at resolving long-standing disputes in the country.  More than 50,000 children in South Sudan face death from disease and hunger, the United Nations has warned while seeking over $1bn to support those...

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16 Jun

Not surprisingly, drone strikes that kill American citizens have received the most attention in the press. So it's important to emphasize that the US kills citizens of its allies, as well, such as the two Australians recently vaporized in Yemen: TWO Australian citizens have been killed in a US airstrike in Yemen in what is the first known example of Australian...

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15 Jun

Events BIICL is organising an event on 'Due Diligence: From Rhetoric to Practice' on Monday June 16, 2014 from 3.00-7.45pm. The event brings together expert speakers from a variety of backgrounds, including lawyers, academics, the private sector and non-governmental organisations. Their expertise will highlight the pertinent aspects of the UN Guiding Principles as a framework for all current approaches in this area as well...

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14 Jun

This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin had a chuckle at Libya's newest excuse why it missed the deadline for filing submissions to the ICC. He also called your attention to the work of Breaking the Silence, an Israeli NGO collecting testimonials from IDF on the treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Deborah discussed ongoing confusion between al Qaeda and ISIS, and the...

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12 Jun

[caption id="attachment_30807" align="alignnone" width="130"] photo: NYU Law School[/caption] I am sad to mark the passing of one of the giants of international law, and one of my teachers, Professor Andreas Lowenfeld of NYU Law School. His career was exemplary; Andy operated at the highest levels of practice and academia. In an era when so many scholars and practitioners become hyper-focused on...

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12 Jun

My co-author John Yoo and I have a piece up on Forbes today arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court missed a grand opportunity in Bond v. U.S. to place constitutional limits on the treaty power.  We take aim at Missouri v. Holland head-on.  We criticize the interpretation of the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act adopted by the opinion for the Court...

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11 Jun

Since I’ve given the New York Times grief in the past about using the name “Al Qaeda” to refer to non-Al Qaeda radical Islamist groups, I wanted to give them due credit for yesterday’s piece describing the takeover of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as having been accomplished by Sunni militants. The Times piece...

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