In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

19 Jul

No matter how many times I read the decision, I keep coming back to this paragraph: 51. As a final note, the Chamber cannot overlook the discrepancy between, on the one hand, the Prosecutor’s conclusion that the identified crimes were so evidently not grave enough to justify action by the Court, of which the raison d’être is to investigate and prosecute...

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18 Jul

Here is the first sentence of Avi Bell's new editorial in the Times of Israel: The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court, for the first time in its history, has ordered the ICC Prosecutor to pursue an investigation she has decided to close. Nope. You'd think a law professor might make an effort to understand the Comoros review decision before breathlessly intoning "The...

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17 Jul

In late 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor rejected a request by Comoros to open a formal investigation into Israel's attack on the Mavi Marmara. To my great surprise, the Pre-Trial Chamber (Judge Kovacs dissenting) has now ordered the OTP to reconsider its decision. The order does not require the OTP to open a formal investigation, because the declination was based...

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07 Jul

Ryan -- friend of Opinio Juris and friend of Kevin -- has been appointed Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense. Here is a snippet from NYU's press release: In his new role at the Department of Defense Goodman will focus primarily on national security law and law of armed conflict. “I am very humbled to have...

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03 Jul

Laurie Blank published a post yesterday at Lawfare entitled "The UN Gaza Report: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose." The post accuses the Independent Commission of Inquiry's report on Operation Protective Edge ("Gaza Report") of "completely undermin[ing] the foundational notion of equal application of the law" with regard to three areas of IHL: warnings, civilian vs military objects, and compliance. None of Blank's...

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24 Jun

As regular readers know, Mike and I often sparred on the virtual pages of Opinio Juris. By and large, we did so civilly. But on occasion -- such as when we were debating whether the Bush admininstration's "enhanced interrogation" regime qualified as torture -- things became heated. I made him mad. He made me mad. I doubt either of us...

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21 Jun

The forum is being held this week in Florence, Italy. Here is the description: The Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law was launched in the summer of 2011. It held its inaugural event at the New York University School of Law in May 2012; the second Forum was held at the University of Nottingham in May 2013 and the third...

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03 Jun

Oxford University Press has just published a massive new book on the ICC, "The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court," edited by Leiden's Carsten Stahn. Here is the publisher's description: The International Criminal Court is a controversial and important body within international law; one that is significantly growing in importance, particularly as other international criminal tribunals close down. After...

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01 Jun

Earlier this week, the Appeals Chamber rejected Cote d'Ivoire's challenge to the admissibility of the case against Simone Gbagbo. The challenge was based on Gbagbo's 20-year sentence for disturbing the peace, forming and organising armed gangs, and undermining state security. Like the Pre-Trial Chamber, the Appeals Chamber concluded that Gbagbo's domestic convictions failed to satisfy Art. 17's "same conduct" requirement, making...

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