Kevin kicked off the week with a post about Jean-Pierre Bemba’s claim against the ICC for €70 million following his final acquittal. While Kevin was skeptical about the merits of Bemba’s compensation claim for €22 million based on his decade of wrongful detention, Kevin was more optimistic about the success Bemba’s spoliation claim for €42.4 million resulting from the ICC’s...
Call for Papers The University of London is pleased to announce a workshop on "Rectifying the Protection Gap for 'Climate Refugees': What's Next?" on 6 June 2019. This workshop aims to assess the outcomes of the UN Global Compacts and Task Force, to identify their contributions to ongoing attempts to construct better protection mechanisms for those forced to move as...
[Steven Kay QC is Head of Chambers at 9 Bedford Row. He has appeared as leading counsel in many significant international criminal trials (Tadić, Milošević, Musema, Gotovina, Kenyatta) and Joshua Kern is a Barrister at 9 Bedford Row. He has defended clients at the ICC (Kenyatta), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) (Ieng Sary), and the International Criminal...
The Philippines' withdrawal from the ICC becomes effective this Saturday, March 17. There are domestic legal proceedings underway that have the potential to nullify the withdrawal. But if the withdrawal goes forward, we are faced with an important question: what happens to the OTP's preliminary examination? This is, of course, Burundi redux. In that case, the OTP preserved its ability to...
Jean-Pierre Bemba, recently finally acquitted by the Appeals Chamber, dropped quite the legal bombshell last night on the ICC: he is demanding nearly €70,000,000 from the Court -- €22,000,000 in compensation for the 10 years he spent in detention; €4,000,000 in legal fees; and €42,400,000 for the economic loss he has suffered as a result of the Court's mismanagement of property it...
Dhruv Sharma and Utkarsh Srivastava kicked off the week with an analysis of India’s legal justification of “non-military preemptive action” for the Balakot airstrikes, which included a robust discussion on the law of self-defense. Livio Zilli, a Senior Legal Adviser and UN Representative at the International Commission of Jurists, provided a detailed analysis of the UN Human Rights Committee’s General Comment...
Events The International Nuremberg Principles Academy is pleased to announce an international conference on "Paving the Path of Human Rights: Synergies between International Criminal Law and UN Agenda 2030" on 3-4 May 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany. More information on the conference, including registration, can be found here. Announcements The Codification Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs recently added...
[Srinivas Burra is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Legal Studies, South Asian University, New Delhi.] Recent military strikes between India and Pakistan merit analysis to assess their legality under international law. As discussed (here and here), they have relevance to the discussions on the legality of the use of force, particularly in relation to the emerging debates on the...
[Alexandra Lily Kather is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. Anne Schroeter is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. This post represents the personal views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. This is Part II of a two-part post.] This change of course...
[Alexandra Lily Kather is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. Anne Schroeter is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. This post represents the personal views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. This is Part I of a two-part post.] With ISIL’s territorial control...
Livio Zilli is a Senior Legal Adviser & UN Representative at the International Commission of Jurists. Background Abortion is a highly safe and reliable medical procedure when performed by skilled health care providers in sanitary conditions. In contrast, “illegal” abortions, performed without safeguards, are generally unsafe and lead to high rates of complications and to maternal deaths and morbidity. Some 47,000 women...