As I noted last week, the hybrid international-domestic court set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders has been teetering on the edge of disbanding due to disputes between the international and local Cambodian lawyers on a variety of matters. According to this Financial Times report, almost all the problems have been ironed out, except one: the fee charged by...
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon, which resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to follow an ICJ treaty interpretation, even though the ICJ had compulsory jurisdiction to interpret that treaty. A few months later, Germany's highest constitutional court (the Bundesverfassungsgericht) resolved a similar conflict between domestic and ICJ interpretations by following the ICJ. ...
NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof has been a tireless supporter of international efforts to intervene in the Sudan-Darfur crisis. Today, he has an column (subscription req'd) agreeing with something I said last week about the only plausible "solution" to the Darfur crisis: [T]he top priority for Darfur is something that few people talk about — a negotiated peace agreement. Peacekeepers...
I didn't notice until today this op-ed by Professor Ruth Wedgwood criticizing the ICJ's Bosnia Genocide judgment. For those who aren't avid NYT readers, here is her basic legal criticism: (Continue Reading) The World Court also insists that unless Belgrade gave “direct orders” for particular operations or the Bosnian Serbs were “completely dependent” on Belgrade, there is no liability at all....
The NYT has a depressing but somewhat predictable piece today pummelling the new U.N. Human Rights Council. As the article notes, the new Council has focused almost exclusively on condemning Israel while turning a blind eye to any other potential human rights violator. This debate is getting old. Rather than whining about the U.N., etc., a more interesting question whether...
As I pointed out last week, there was an odd disconnect between the International Court of Justice's finding that Serbia did not commit genocide against Bosnia and judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia finding responsibility for genocide at the highest levels of the Serbia/Yugoslavia government. The IWPR, which has great coverage of this issue, further...
I think we have talked about this before on this blog, but I don't think we ever came to a resolution on Iran's argument that Security Council sanctions against its nuclear program are "illegal." Iran's foreign minister is apparently arguing here that the UNSC resolutions are "politically motivated and unprincipled resolutions" which violate international law, rules and regulations. It...
At least according this report by the the BBC, the foreign non-Cambodian judges slated to participate in the "hybrid" war crimes tribunal of Khmer Rouge-era defendants are threatening to pull out of the pending trials. This would effectively disband one of the more promising models for post-conflict criminal justice - the use of hybrid domestic/international tribunals. I can't...
I'm not sure what I think about this idea, reported in a Malaysian newspaper: An Islamic International Court focusing on Islamic human rights may soon become a reality. Iran’s chief of judiciary system Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroud said in principle, it was a good idea for such an establishment, adding that a secretariat to look into the matter had been formed in...
The NYT has an article today discussing negotiations between the President and Congress on revisions to pending bilateral free-trade agreements. The new Democratic Congress is pushing for greater protection of labor rights in those trade agreements with Panama, Peru, and Colombia. I'm far from an expert on labor rights in trade agreements, but I do find a couple...
One day I will be able to fly a foreign airline like Lufthansa from New York to Seattle. That day is not quite here yet, but (hopefully) it's getting closer. The U.S. and the E.U. announced a long-sought "open skies" agreement Friday that should allow EU based airlines to fly anywhere in the U.S. (and vice versa). Prior...
A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld the use of the "state secrets privilege" to dismiss lawsuit brought by a German national. The underlying lawsuit, brought by Khaled El-Masri in U.S. federal court, alleged that he had been kidnapped by U.S. CIA agents and rendered to a third country for interrogation and torture. The appeals court, like the...
