Matters in Syria are going from bad to worse. I am sure this won't do any harm, but it is not going to help either. It will simply give the illusion that the international community is dong something about Syria. Syrian officials suspected of committing or ordering crimes against humanity should face prosecution in the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United...
I found this interview in Der Spiegel of Fritz Vahrenholt, a German renewable energy executive and a former Social Democratic Party figure fascinating since he doesn't fit the profile of most climate change skeptics. Varenholt has a new book coming out, "Die Kalte Sonne" (The Cold Sun), rejecting the IPCC's global warming models and climate change predictions. I don't know what to make...
Should human rights folks still defend him? Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday convicted the crusading human rights judge Baltasar Garzón of illegally ordering wiretapping in a corruption case and suspended him from the courts for 11 years. I don't know much about the background of this case. It appears to be a very serious conviction, unrelated to his more celebrated investigation of Franco-era...
Be careful what you wish for: The leaders at the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa asked the chairperson of the pan-African body to consider moving the case of Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for an opinion ...
I don't know how credible this report is: WikiLeaks may soon take a page from 1960s-era British pirate radio broadcasters and move operations offshore. Financial backers of embattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are reportedly in the market for a boat that would maintain the watchdog site's servers in international waters to avoid U.S. legal authorities, according to FoxNews.com. I also don't know...
France has turned down the ICTY's request that it detain and turn over a former ICTY spokeswoman who has been sentenced to a week in prison for contempt of that court. PARIS — France refused Monday to carry out an arrest mandate from the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal against a French journalist convicted of contempt for revealing confidential information about the...
Big things are afoot in Europe, especially as the United Kingdom inches further and further away from European institutions. The U.K.'s refusal to join the recent fiscal reform plan has gotten all the headlines, but I hadn't realized that the U.K. is also embroiled in an ongoing battle of wills with the European Court of Human Rights over that Court's order...
I am doubtful the ICJ will be able to ultimately settle this ongoing border dispute, but both countries seem to be relying on the ICJ to resolve this matter. Nicaragua filed an action Wednesday against Costa Rica, alleging: In its Application, Nicaragua claims inter alia that “Costa Rica’s unilateral actions . . . threaten to destroy the San Juan de Nicaragua...
What is fascinating about this lawsuit is the focus on getting the "legal advice" as opposed to simply information about the targeted killings policy. The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice charging that the government failed to release information under the Freedom of Information Act on records surrounding questions of the legality of targeted killing,...
Ah, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act...
Yes, at least according to this account by Douglas Gillis in Foreign Policy, the ECCC has been nearly a complete and utter failure (and a waste of money). The main problem seems to be, according to the article, incompetent international judges (or at least one shady German judge). Obviously, the U.N. Secretariat, which was managing this tribunal, seems to have...
Not exactly, especially since the "blockade", is based on Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Still, depending on where the vessels were "boarded", (e.g. in the alleged EEZ?), there might be some problem here. In any event, something like economic harassment seems to be going on. Argentine patrol vessels have boarded 12 Spanish boats, operating under fishing licences issued...
