In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

30 Jan

As Julian notes, earlier today the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I ordered Thomas Lubanga to stand trial on three charges relating to the FPLC's use of child soldiers. Here is the ICC's summary of the charges:The Chamber decided that there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is criminally responsible as co-perpetrator for the...

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30 Jan

I thought I would beat Roger to the punch and announce the newest innovation in the Second Life world: the virtual embassy.Sweden is opening an embassy in the internet fantasy world called Second Life - the first country to do so. The project is being run by the Swedish Institute - a promotional body which works alongside the foreign ministry. Institute director...

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24 Jan

Here's something I didn't realize: Manuel Noriega will be released from prison in September, after serving a little more than half of his 30-year sentence:Noriega has been in U.S. custody since surrendering 17 years ago during the U.S. invasion of Panama. He is currently serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering. "He has now come to the point where...

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22 Jan

In his latest post, John Bellinger claims that “[c]ritics will now accept virtually any speculation and rumor and circulate them as fact,” even though “[a]llegations about U.S. military or intelligence activities have become so hyperbolic as to be absurd.” He may well be right on the first count, but he has completely failed to prove the second. With...

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10 Jan

I have a new essay on SSRN, entitled "Retreat from Nuremberg: The Leadership Requirement in the Special Working Group's Definition of Aggression." Here is the abstract:The International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression is contingent upon the Assembly of States Parties adopting a definition of the crime. To that end, the Special Working Group on the...

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10 Jan

In keeping with my recent spate of hopeful posts, it's my pleasure to mention that Israel is poised to appoint its first-ever Muslim minister:An Arab-Israeli legislator of the centre-left Labour Party is to become Israel's first-ever Moslem minister, Israeli news channels reported Wednesday night. Labour Party head Amir Peretz has decided to appoint Raleb Majadele from the central Arab-Israeli town of Baka el-Garbia as science,...

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09 Jan

Ostensibly as a "concession" to the Democratic-controlled Congress, William Haynes II has withdrawn from consideration for a position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The Democrats filibustered his nomination in 2004, but Bush renominated him last year. Opposition to Haynes, who was General Counsel of the Department of Defense, centered on his responsibility, as...

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08 Jan

One of the basic issues regarding Bush's intention to escalate the war in Iraq by committing 20,000 more troops is where the additional troops will come from. As Colin Powell has pointed out, the U.S. military is "about broken" — "[t]he current active Army is not large enough and the Marine Corps is not large enough for the kinds...

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05 Jan

Okay, in less than a week I have found myself in complete agreement with Christopher Hitchens and Charles Krauthammer, both of whom have written exceptional editorials on Saddam's execution. Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse or something? ...

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04 Jan

Here's a sentence I don't write very often: Kudos to President Bush. I'm not particularly enamored with Khalilzad's work in Iraq, and I have a number of issues with his reliably neocon worldview (see here and here), particularly his membership in the Project for the New American Century; his colonial-like attempts to fix Afghanistan's 2004 election, which earned him...

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03 Jan

Two days before Saddam was executed, Iraq's deputy justice minister, Bosho Ibrahim, told the Associated Press that executing Saddam within 30 days of the Cassation Panel’s decision to uphold his death sentence would violate Iraqi law. “The law does not say within 30 days,” he said, “it says after the lapse of 30 days.” The Cassation Panel rejected Ibrahim’s...

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