In association with the International Commission of Jurists

November 2014

15 Nov

This week on Opinio Juris, we had three guest contributions in addition to some of our regular bloggers weighing in on timely issues in international law. The first guest post, from Michael Kearney, discussed his thoughts on the ICC's recent decision regarding the Mavi Marmara report, in which he focused on issues about fact-finding missions, categorization of armed conflict, limitations on territorial jurisdiction,...

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13 Nov

[Gabor Rona is a Visiting Professor of Law and Director, Law and Armed Conflict Project at Cardozo Law School.] Just Security and Lawfare have published dueling AUMF reform proposals, here and here. (The proposals are not those of Just Security or Lawfare, but rather, those of the individual authors. For ease of reference, I’m calling them Just Security and Lawfare.) At...

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13 Nov

Tomorrow I have the good fortune of participating in the Notre Dame Law Review symposium with leading foreign relations scholars. The topic of the symposium is Bond v. United States. The keynote will be given by Paul Clement, who won the case for Petitioner. The focus of my discussion will be the relationship between Supreme Court treaty interpretation...

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13 Nov

Citizenship for sale schemes have become an increasingly common phenomenon as the rich from non-Western states look to upgrade their travel privileges. The likes of Malta, Cyprus, and St. Kitts have had some success selling citizenship to plutocrats from Russia, China and other non-visa waiver countries. The revenues supply a nice fiscal bump at low marginal cost to these small...

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12 Nov

[Jean d’Aspremont is a Professor of International Law, University of Manchester and a Professor of International Legal Theory, University of Amsterdam.] The identification of customary international law is à la mode among international lawyers. Seminars, research handbooks, special symposia in scholarly journals and on-line discussions devoted to the question are mushrooming these days. Arguments and constructions heard on these occasions are sometimes admirably...

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10 Nov

Congratulations to two new members of the bench of the International Court of Justice: James Crawford and Kirill Gevorgian.  Also, congratulations to Joan Donoghue and Mohammed Bennouna on their reelection.  The esteemed judges will commence 9 year terms starting in February 2016. The voting process and requirements for election under the ICJ statute are described here. Voting also took place for a...

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10 Nov

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa A suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum on Monday, a hospital official said. Opposition parties, civil society groups and religious leaders adopted a plan...

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09 Nov

I want to call our London-area readers attention to a very interesting event I'll be chairing on November 19. The event is entitled "Reinforcing International Criminal Justice: Building on the Work of the 1943-48 UN War Crimes Commission"; here is the description: As part of Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy's Research Programme on UN War Crimes Commission which was published in...

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09 Nov

Call for Papers TDM will be publishing a Special Issue on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA) and is hereby inviting contributions dealing with the Agreement and the issues raised by any of its chapters. Of particular interest in the investment chapter are clarifications brought to key substantive provisions such as fair and equitable...

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08 Nov

[Dr Michael Kearney is Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex.] On 6 November 2014 the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court released the report of her preliminary investigation into the Israeli army's attack on a flotilla of ships, which, in 2010, had been sailing towards Palestine with the aim of breaking Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. As a result of this investigation the Prosecutor is of the belief that during the interception and takeover of the ship, the Mavi Maramara, in which ten people were killed, Israeli soldiers committed war crimes. The Prosecutor has decided that further action by the Court is not currently feasible on the grounds that the crimes in question are not of sufficient gravity so as to warrant a full investigation. The following thoughts will address issues arising from the Report other than the actual war crimes. (Due to the manner in which the Report is formatted, and specifically the repetition of paragraph numbers, references to excerpts from the Report's Summary are cited as eg 'para Z ExecSumm'). I don’t think this is an unexpected or an unreasonable conclusion from the Office of the Prosecutor with respect the gravity aspect of a preliminary examination. What this statement should encourage however, is the immediate ratification of the Rome Statute by Palestine. The analysis demonstrates how, while distant from any possibility of alleged criminals taking to the dock in The Hague, the International Criminal Court can play a crucial role in considering Israel’s policies and practices against Palestinians through the lens of criminal justice.
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08 Nov

This week on Opinio Juris, Peter continued his commentary on the Zivotofsky hearing and Kristen posted the transcript of the recent hearing in the Haiti Cholera case. Jens wrote about the DOD's plans for a Defense Clandestine Service, and welcomed the news that President Obama will seek congressional authorization for the ISIS campaign. Kevin discussed the passage in the OTP's Mavi Marmara decision where the OTP...

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07 Nov

According to Marlise Simons at the New York Times, Comoros intends to appeal the OTP's decision not to open a formal investigation into Israel's attack on the MV Mavi Marmara. That's its right -- but it's a right without a remedy, because the judges cannot order the OTP to investigate the attack. The relevant provision in the Rome Statute is Art. 53: 1.        ...

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