I have consistently criticized the Bush administration's coddling of Luis Posada Carriles — most recently, its decision to charge him with making false statements during his naturalization interview instead of with committing terrorist acts. Nevertheless, to give credit where credit is due, it seems that the FBI is doing its best to prove that Posada was responsible for the...
Last week, I noted that Japan will become a member the ICC in October. Interestingly, the Japanese government has indicated that it will not consider signing an Article 98 agreement with the U.S. after accession. That refusal will not have much practical effect, although there are approximately 50,000 U.S. soldiers on Japanese territory, more than half of whom...
Following up on my previous post, the military commander in charge of Guantanamo Bay, Rear Admiral Harry Harris, has announced that he no longer supports limiting defense attorneys to three visits with their internee clients:But in an interview with The Miami Herald and Saudi Press Agency on Wednesday evening, Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander, was supportive of the ongoing...
Here is the statement from Takahiro Katsumi on behalf of the Japanese Network for the ICC:Today April 27, 2007 Japan completed its legislative process to accede to the Rome Statute of the ICC when the Diet unanimously approved the accession Bill (197-0). Yesterday 26 August, the Japanese Diet's Upper House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense voted unanimously in favor...
For more on the Bush administration's never-ending struggle to deprive alleged terrorists of meaningful legal representation, see this excellent post by Jack Balkin at Balkinization. Here is a snippet from the disturbing New York Times article that Balkin discusses:The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees...
Not surprisingly, New York has disbarred Lynne Stewart. She attempted to voluntarily resign, but the Court of Appeals held that disbarment was automatic because she was convicted of feloniously making a false statement. I explain here why I believe Stewart's conviction for materially supporting terrorism was unjust. ...
One of the topics I cover in my first-year Law & Society class is the right to freedom of expression. Because New Zealand does not have a written constitution, that right is guaranteed by statute — the Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BORA). New Zealand courts take freedom of expression seriously, but there is no question that BORA...
Although the sweetheart deal Paul Wolfowitz arranged for Shaha Ali Riza strikes me as far more problematic than it does Julian, we should not let that dispute distract our attention from the many other indefensible things Wolfowitz has done as head of the World Bank. Exhibit A: trying to undermine the Bank's traditional emphasis on family planning in developing...
In light of today's tragic events in Virginia, and given that yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, I thought it might be an opportune time to mention an uplifting story: for the first time ever, an Arab Muslim, Khaled Abdelwahab, is set to be named a "Righteous Gentile" by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance authority. The title is reserved for...
In an interesting development, the British government has decided to stop using the term "War on Terror":Development Secretary Hilary Benn will risk the wrath of Tony Blair's closest international ally by warning that US rhetoric has given terrorists a "shared identity". Mr Benn is to say openly that President George Bush's phrase "War on Terror" strengthens small disaffected groups with widely...
Serbia's war-crimes court, established in 2003 to handle "lesser" crimes referred by the ICTY, has convicted four Serbian paramilitaries of murdering six young Bosnian Muslims during the infamous Srebrenica massacre. Although one soldier was acquitted, the case against the defendants was straightforward: they filmed themselves committing the murders:The trophy video - which lasts about 20 minutes - shows several...
In a first for the Tribunal, the ICTR has officially transferred a case to a national court:The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ordered that Michel Bagaragaza, the former head of Rwanda's national tea industry who is accused of involvement in the mass slaughter, be tried by a court in the Netherlands. "The chamber orders the case of prosecutor v. Michel...
