In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

08 Feb

In my initial post yesterday, I discussed some of the ways international tribunals limit the right of defendants to an effective defense. That difficulty, not surprisingly, is not unique to the tribunals; national criminal prosecutions that apply international law – substantively and procedurally – are usually no better, and are often far worse. The current trial...

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08 Feb

On January 26th, the Assembly of State Parties to the International Criminal Court elected six judges to serve nine-year terms. This is the second such election; 18 judges were elected in 2003, six for three-year terms, six for six-year terms, and six for nine-year terms. With the exception of Ekaterina Trendafilova of Bulgaria, the five other judges were...

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07 Feb

In an interesting counterpoint to Roger’s post on the conviction of Abu Hamza, Reuters reports that Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has ordered the release of Mounir el Motassadeq, the first person to be convicted in connection with the attacks on 9/11, pending resolution of defense and prosecution appeals. The court agreed with el Motassadeq’s lawyers that the Hamburg judges...

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07 Feb

My thanks to everyone at Opinio Juris for inviting me to guest blog for the next couple of weeks – especially Julian, who proves his graciousness by letting me blog even though I’ve often used the comments section to criticize his posts. As Peggy said, I currently teach international criminal law and evidence at the University ...

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