In association with the International Commission of Jurists

July 2018

30 Jul

[Briony Potts is a Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists] Sajid Javid, UK Home secretary, has undertaken an extraordinary move that suggests an unprecedented shift in the UK’s previously held position of an absolute stance against the death penalty. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were the last two men of a group known as “the Beatles”, so nicknamed because...

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24 Jul

[Greg Fox is Professor of Law and Director of the Program for International Legal Studies, Wayne State University Law School.  He thanks Ashley Deeks and Brad Roth for their comments.] Among the many confusing reports coming out of the Helsinki Summit on July 16 is the news that Presidents Trump and Putin reached a series of “agreements.”   Whatever these agreements may...

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23 Jul

[Carlos Lopez is a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.] (This is Part II of the blog on the recently released zero draft of a legally binding instrument on Transnational Corporations and human rights. The first part can be found here.) Prevention The draft treaty takes a somewhat sweeping approach to the issue of preventative measures to be required by...

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23 Jul

[Carlos Lopez is a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.] The first draft of one of the most important international human rights treaties of recent years, and instrument addressing on business and human rights has just been released in Geneva by Ecuador’s Ambassador acting as Chair of the process. The “zero draft” strongly focuses on the key issue...

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18 Jul

[Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs.] July 17, International Justice Day, not only marked the 20th anniversary of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”), but also activation of the ICC’s fourth crime, the crime of aggression. These milestones were celebrated by an event at the UN entitled “20th anniversary of the Rome Statute:...

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17 Jul

[Ricardo Arredondo is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Buenos Aires.] [Ed. note: the final paragraph of the post has been revised from the original version.] At a time when the repercussions of the expulsions of diplomats generated by the poisoning of a former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and her daughter Yulia have not yet been hushed, the Greek...

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04 Jul

On Monday, the OTP filed a motion in the Bemba Witness Tampering Case entitled "Detailed Notice of Additional Sentencing Submissions." The OTP argues that, in determining the appropriate sentence for Bemba, Kilolo, and Mangenda, Trial Chamber VII should take into account the fact that the witness tampering by Bemba and his co-defendants led the Appeals Chamber to wrongly acquit Bemba in the...

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