BBC reports: A US judge has temporarily blocked the extradition to France of ex-Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to allow his defence to present a new appeal. The judge told the lawyers to present on Thursday evidence to support their claim that France would not abide by a key part of the Geneva Conventions. I think the dispute here is over whether...
Peru's got bigger issues to deal with these days, like recovering from an enormous earthquake. But the government there is still determined to pursue its territorial sea dispute with Chile by bringing a case to the ICJ. (By the way, this would make it the first new case for the ICJ this year). Additionally, its minister of foreign affairs...
Former NY governor and perennial presidential hopeful Mario Cuomo has a confusing and muddled editorial in the LA Times yesterdayclaiming that President Bush lacked the constitutional authority to start the war in Iraq, or to continue it. The war happened because when Bush first indicated his intention to go to war against Iraq, Congress refused to insist on enforcement...
Argentine protesters have marched into Uruguay to protest the construction of a pulp mill that they believe will pollute downriver Argentina. As this dispute heats up, it seems more and more likely that litigation at the ICJ is not going to provide a solution, and that litigation at the ICJ is almost never preferable to bilateral arbitration in these...
Jeremy Rabkin, a long time critic of contemporary international law and institutions, has a more detailed and persuasive attack on the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea in this week's Weekly Standard than his previous joint op-ed with Jack Goldsmith some weeks back. As the U.S. Senate gears up for ratification hearings, Rabkin's voice will no doubt...
As Roger noted, the EU presidency recently sent a public letter to the governor of Texas asking him to declare a moratorium on executions in his state. Texas governor Rick Perry sent a rather tart reply, which can be boiled down to: "Buzz off!". On the other hand, he did commute the death sentence of one convict yesterday,...
In a rare interview with Western journalists, Ugandan rebel leader Vincent Otti, one of four individuals named in an ICC arrest warrant, accuses the ICC of hypocrisy for failing to pursue Ugandan government officials for war crimes. This is not really a surprising argument and Otti is hardly a credible accuser. Indeed, he does not appear to know the...
Remember that Charles Taylor trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, hosted at the ICC in the Hague? Well, things aren't going so well, according to this NYT report. The trial itself is following the Milosevic model, which means that it is pretty much going nowhere. Various interesting tidbits: The ICC, which is hosting the trial, wanted to...
One of the first countries to refer an investigation to the ICC may also be one of the first to seek a withdrawal. This week folks in Uganda are observing the first anniversary of a tentative cease-fire in the 20-year civil war in northern Uganda. As this interesting article from The Monitor reports, northern Uganda is more peaceful than...
Or so says a U.S. district court sitting in Miami in rejecting former Panamian leader Manuel Noriega's attempt to block his extradition to France. As Kevin noted back in January, Noriega has enjoyed POW status ever since he was captured by U.S. forces in Panama and he was scheduled to be released in September. But France has requested his...
President Bush really has managed to alienate a remarkable diversity of people in the last few years. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that pits, essentially, President Bush against his own home state of Texas over the effect of an International Court of Justice judgment requiring procedural remedies to Mexican nationals sentenced to death in...
As many of our readers might have guessed, I generally agree with the approach and conclusions of the Posner/Vermeule book so I have little to add in criticism. Let me jump in therefore to explain why I think their approach is not just correct, but, perhaps more importantly, why their analysis is helpful for advancing the debate over balancing...
