As I reported a few weeks ago, the tiny Caribbean nation of Dominica filed a strange and seemingly ridiculous case in the ICJ against Switzerland alleging violations of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Today, wiser heads in Dominica prevailed and Dominica has withdrawn its application. The ICJ's docket is now down to 13 cases with two cases currently...
Extending its string of decisions applying the political question doctrine to U.S. foreign policy, the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday dismissed another lawsuit by a group fo Chileans alleging that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was responsible for their torture, imprisonment, and abuse during the coup that brought Pinochet to power. The court's...
The Council of Europe issued a blistering report today denouncing the U.S. and certain European countries for cooperating in a "reprehensible network" of detaining suspected terrorists in CIA-run secret prisons. I understand the legal arguments against renditions based on the Convention Against Torture. Plainly, countries cannot torture or send someone to a country that is likely to engage...
I'm not sure what I think about this, but international law commentators David Rivkin and Lee Casey have an article today in the Washington Post laying out the legal case for either Israel or the U.N. Security Council to attack or invade Iran. Here is the crux of their argument: . . .Ahmadinejad's rant [against Israel] features a direct...
France, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom have jointly submitted a proposed delimitation of the continental shelf lying beyond the 200 mile limit of their coasts but abutting all four of these countries. This joint submission is made pursuant to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and essentially is a proposed joint settlement. (In contrast to...
The Eleventh Circuit applied the act of state doctrine today (Glen v. Club Med, 05-12648) to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Cubans whose land was expropriated during the 1960 Castro-led revolution. The Cuban government is now going to use that same land to open a Club Med (but of course) and the expropriated Cubans tried to block that deal...
The special investigator assigned to investigate the somewhat mysterious death of Slobodan Milosevic has found that Milosevic died of natural causes. (The full report is here). According the investigation, which was conducted by the ICTY's vice president Kevin Parker, "nothing has been found to support allegations reported in some sections of the media that Mr. Milosevic had been murdered,...
This little gem of a story from a local paper in Annapolis, Maryland is an amusing profile of a guy who cons people by talking, in a self-important way, about international law and international organizations. Here is the opening: At least one thing about Daniel Besser is clear: He's a hell of a storyteller. Ever since the stocky Australian started...
As Kevin has noted, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has annoyed the current government of Rwanda in a variety of cases, most recently from its decision to plea bargain a defendant charged with genocide. This recent commentary from East Africa (HT: War Crimes Prosecution Watch) sums up some of the local frustration with the ICTR, which is planning...
As Peggy noted below, a group of Israeli diplomats and Holocaust survivors is lobbying Israel to bring a case against Iran in the International Court of Justice under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. As Roger has forcefully noted in previous posts, Iran's President has made some pretty hostile comments about Israel saying it should be...
Australian military forces have taken control of security in Dili, the capital of the troubled nation of East Timor. The Australian forces are there at the invitation of the East Timor government, which is struggling with violence within its own military forces. Although Australia is at pains to emphasize its limited role in East Timor, Australia is clearly going to...
The U.S. government often exhibits a silly kneejerk hostility to international institutions. But sometimes, its suspicions and skepticism is totally justified. The latest example of unhelpful U.N. overreach: the U.N. Committee Against Torture's recommendation that the U.S. stop detaining individuals at Guantanamo Bay (which Roger noted below). Here is the Committee's key conclusion: 22. The Committee, noting that detaining persons...
