I have posted a (long) review of Mark Drumbl's new book Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law on SSRN. The review essay is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review's annual book-review issue. Here is the abstract:In "Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law" (Cambridge University Press, 2007), Mark Drumbl provides an important and compelling critique of international criminal law's ability to...
In April, I ranted about the molasses-like slowness with which SSRN approves new or revised essays. I was assured by an SSRN executive kind enough to reply that the system was going to be improved in the near future — 24 hours for revisions, at most a couple of days for new essays. Five months have passed, long enough to...
Last week, Julian claimed that the ICC and peace in Darfur don't mix, citing a recent article from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (a wonderful organization) that noted the Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki Moon, did not mention the ICC's arrest warrants for Ahmed Haroun and Ali Kushayb during his first visit to the the region. It's true...
Excellent news for the Cambodia tribunal — Nuon Chea, the highest-ranking surviving member of the Khmer Rouge regime, has been arrested:An AFP correspondent saw Nuon Chea being driven from his home in northwest Cambodia and put on a helicopter. He was expected to be flown to the capital Phnom Penh. "Nuon Chea has been shown a warrant but I don't know what...
Many scholars, activists, and government officials have hailed Security Council resolution 1769, which authorizes sending 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, as a major step toward peace in the region. At least one authoritative source, however, is skeptical of the mission's potential: Romeo Dallaire, the former commander of the UN's peacekeeping force in Rwanda. Here are some excerpts from an...
Four detainees have committed suicide at Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately, that number will likely soon increase to five:Sami al-Haj, a Sudanese national, is 250 days into a hunger strike which he began in protest over his detention without charge or trial in January 2002. But British and American doctors, who have been given exclusive access to his interview notes, say...
Given all the bad press that international peacekeepers have been getting -- justifiably -- this is a welcome change:The United Nations all-female Indian police unit in Liberia, the first such unit deployed in peacekeeping missions, not only demonstrates gender equality but also serves as an encouragement for Liberian women to become police officers themselves, the top UN envoy to the...
Ilya Somin and are I miles apart on the political spectrum, but I am in complete agreement with his critique of Posner and Vermeule's claim that "[t]he case for giving emergency power to the president rather than Congress rests on the simple point that a multi-member body cannot act quickly, decisively, and secretly." Here's a taste:It is true that...
According to Mingle 2 -- an online dating site (?) -- Opinio Juris earns the following movie rating: The rating is deserved, according to Mingle 2, because the blog contains the word "torture" 18 times, "death" 4 times, "kill" 2 times, and "gun" once. Don't let your minor children use this site without parental guidance! Hat-Tip: the inestimable Michael Froomkin at Discourse.net. ...
The judicial farce continues:An appeals court has upheld the 19-year prison sentence of a Rwandan human rights activist on genocide-related charges, failing to address the errors of a lower court judgment that violated Rwandan law and fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said today. [snip] The law that established gacaca requires judges who have had a past conflict with an accused to...
Further to my earlier post -- and Jacob Katz Cogan's lengthy elaboration on it -- Colombia announced today that it would not compete for custody of Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia if the U.S. seeks his extradition. Whether the U.S. will do so remains to be seen. ...
As I read Posner and Vermeule's latest — and very interesting — posts, two questions occurred to me. Perhaps they would be gracious enough to answer them. First, Posner writes that "in terms of overall competence in the execution of the war-on-terror, the Bush administration has been reasonably successful. We know that al Qaeda and its affiliates and epigones remain...
