Apparently, the Bush Administration forgot to tell the Pentagon that global warming is nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by the Left:Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities...
On Sunday, a Taliban ambush on a U.S. convoy in Afghanistan left approximately 10 civilians dead and dozens wounded. It is unclear who is responsible for many of the deaths — and not surprisingly, the U.S military and witnesses are giving very different accounts of the incident:A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled minivan as the American convoy approached, then...
I have written before about the Bush Administration's war on attorneys who defend individuals accused of terrorism. (See here and here.) A new front has now been opened in that war, with the chief U.S. military prosecutor accusing Major Michael Mori, who is representing David Hicks — the Australian scheduled to be the first GITMO detainee tried by...
Although it is still unclear whether cluster munitions violate Additional Protocol I's prohibition of attacks that "employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective," Belgium — so often on the cutting edge of international criminal law — isn't waiting to find out. On Thursday, the Belgian Senate passed a law that...
As someone who is interested in the crime of aggression, I was appalled to learn of Switzerland's recent invasion of Liechtenstein. I can only hope that the responsible individuals are punished appropriately:What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring...
Like Julian, I do not believe that the ICC's involvement in Darfur is in any way a panacea for the region's ills. And I am concerned that the Prosecutor has summonsed (at this point) only one high-ranking official in the Sudan's government, overlooking the complicity of Sudan's President, Omar El Bashir, and Vice-President, Ali Osman Taha, in the Darfur...
In a landmark — and admirably progressive — decision, the Supreme Court of Mexico had held that dismissing HIV+ soldiers from the military is unconstitutional:In a case brought by 11 members of the military, the court declared unconstitutional a law requiring naval officers and soldiers with HIV/AIDS to leave the armed forces. Following the decision, Mexico's armed forces will have to...
Important and exciting ICC news to report: Japan's Cabinet has expressed its desire for Japan to join the ICC. Although the Diet has to pass the necessary legislation, no significant opposition is expected. The following is an excerpt from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations in favor of the move:The JFBA adopted the Resolution Calling for Japan's Proactive Involvement in...
According to the very slick site greatfirewallofchina.org, Opinio Juris can be read in China -- unlike Wikipedia, Amnesty International, the State Department's "democracy" page, the Economist, and Armani. We'll have to try harder. H/T: FP Passport. ...
The ICC's Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression (SWG) met again last month in New York. According to the Financial Times, the SWG is close to achieving consensus on a definition of the crime:Sixty years after the Nuremberg trials made legal history by finding individuals responsible for the second world war, a select group of diplomats, lawyers...
The international law blogosphere is now less lonely — and more gender balanced. The new group blog IntLawGrrls currently has six members, five of whom use pseudonyms of famous women that, with the exception of Mata Hari, I've never heard of. (Which probably makes their point.) The contributors are: Diane Marie Amann (Davis);...
Canada is so close to the United States — yet sometimes it seems thousands of miles away politically. Exhibit 1: the Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously struck down a controversial security-certificate process used to detain terrorism suspects on the ground that the process violates the right to life, liberty, and security of the person:The security certificate process is...
