Dhruv Sharma responded today at Justice in Conflict to my recent post arguing that the next ICC Prosecutor should come from the P-3. I wasn't planning on responding, because the post generally caricatures what I wrote. But I have to say something about one of Sharma's arguments that is particularly mistaken and dangerous. Here is what he writes after noting...
This has been an exceptional symposium, so it's difficult to know what to add. As many of the contributors have noted, the next Prosecutor, whoever she is, has to be a jack-of-all-trades: a skilled lawyer, so she can oversee effective investigations and prosecutions; a talented administrator, so she can herd the hundreds of cats that populate her office; and a...
My colleagues and I really like the name of our blog. And so, apparently, do others! A new Italian blog has just started that also calls itself Opinio Juris. It appears to cover issues of international law and politics as well, which makes its name more than a little frustrating. You'd think the blog could have chosen a different name,...
I wanted to wait a few days to write this post, because in almost every respect I wholeheartedly endorse the Appeals Chamber's recent decision in the Afghanistan situation. The AC corrected fundamental legal errors by the Pre-Trial Chamber concerning the scope of the authorized investigation and the required nexus for war crimes. And, of course, the AC reaffirmed in no...
Last Thursday, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued its decision concerning which states, individuals ,and organizations will be permitted to submit observations on the OTP's request for a jurisdictional ruling in the Palestine situation. The PTC granted leave to 43 of the 45 potential amicus curiae. It denied one request (para. 52) because the individual who submitted it did so on behalf...
A couple of years ago, I helped GLAN and the Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic prepare a 115-page communication to the OTP regarding Australia's unconscionable treatment of refugees and asylum seekers detained on Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Here is the key paragraph from the Executive Summary: The communication finds that there is a reasonable basis...
I just opened twitter to learn that federal prosecutors in Brazil have charged Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes: RIO DE JANEIRO — Federal prosecutors in Brazil on Tuesday charged the American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes for his role in the spreading of cellphone messages that have embarrassed prosecutors and tarnished the image of an anti-corruption task force.In a criminal complaint made public on...
I have posted a draft of the article, which is forthcoming in International Law Studies, the great journal published by the US Naval War College, on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In early 2018, media began to report that the United States was debating whether to “react to some nuclear or missile test with a targeted strike against a North Korean...
On Monday, a group of Nobel Peace laureates issued a remarkable public statement not only condemning Aung San Suu Kyi for actively denying that Myanmar has committed international crimes against the Rohingya, but also calling for her to be prosecuted for those crimes herself: As Nobel Peace laureates, we call on Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to...
On Friday, the Assembly of States Parties unanimously adopted a Swiss proposal to extend the war crime of starvation to non-international armed conflict (NIAC). Previously, for reasons that seem to be largely accidental, the war crime only applied in international armed conflict (IAC). The new war crime is, of course, a welcome development. There is no justification for ever using starvation...
As readers are no doubt aware, the OTP has once again declined -- now for a third time -- to open an investigation into Israel's violent attack on the MV Mavi Marmara. That decision was wholly expected; the only question was how the OTP would deal with the Appeals Chamber's recent decision in the Comoros situation, in which the Chamber...
I have posted the first draft on SSRN. The article is entitled, intending to be provocative, "Genuine" Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention -- Another Ticking Time-Bomb Scenario. Here is the abstract: The activation of the crime of aggression at the ICC has renewed interest in one of the oldest and most fraught questions of the jus ad bellum: whether a state is entitled...