Early in my international law education here in the U.S, I learned that dualism was an unfortunate concept that led to the U.S. violating international law obligations by failing to enforce those obligations (usually treaties) domestically. But today's blockbuster decision from a UK court in Miller v. Secretary of State on Brexit should remind us that dualism can also work to...
As part of its “ICTY Legacy Dialogues” events, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”) is organising in the week of 19 June 2017 a conference on the legacy of the ICTY in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. We invite your participation. With the ICTY’s closure scheduled for 31 December 2017, the conference aims to enable others to build on...
The inimitable David Bosco dropped quite the bombshell yesterday at FP.com: The Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC intends to open a formal investigation into the situation in Afghanistan -- a situation that includes, as the OTP discussed in its most recent preliminary-examination report, US torture of detainees between 2003 and 2005. I'll have more to say about the...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa At least 25 people have been killed, six of them police, in two days of violence around the town of Bambari in the troubled Central African Republic, the UN force MINUSCA has said. Twin suicide bombings by suspected Boko Haram fighters have killed at least...
[Christine Schwobel-Patel is Senior Lecturer and co-Director of the Critical Approaches to International Criminal Law research cluster at the University of Liverpool.] The International Criminal Court in The Hague, has been making the headlines in quick succession. In September it became evident that it is changing course, moving away from (protracted and politically sensitive) trials of heads of state and rebel...
This is the first time a political ad has ever left me in tears. Enough said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4AelhV8Ws Vote. You know for whom....
[Marina Lostal is a Lecturer in International Law at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.] On 27 September 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC or the Court) entered a conviction and sentence that marked several firsts in the history of the Court. It found the Accused - Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, guilty of the war crime of intentionally directing attacks...
This Wednesday five of us from Opinio Juris will convene at St. John’s Law School for a roundtable discussion on The New American President and Crises in Global Order. The program is sponsored by St. John’s Center for International and Comparative Law (which I co-direct with Peggy), together with the American Branch of the International Law Association and the New York State...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa South Africa is pulling out of the International Criminal Court (ICC)because its obligations are inconsistent with laws giving sitting leaders diplomatic immunity, according to government officials Sudan urged African members of the International Criminal Court on Friday to follow South Africain withdrawing from the ICC, insisting...
[Steven Ratner is the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.] Ecuador’s announcement that it had severed Julian Assange’s internet connection in its London Embassy can be seen as a cynical manipulation of international law or a principled stance in favor of an important rule. Recall that Assange has been holed up in the embassy since...
Calls for Papers The Cambridge International Law Journal in conjunction with Monckton Chambers will be hosting the Cambridge International and European Law Conference in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge on 23 and 24 of March 2017. More information can be found on the Facebook page here. Call for Papers: 2017 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, Taipei, Taiwan. The...
Just Security published a very interesting post yesterday entitled "Military Attacks on 'Hospital Shields': The Law Itself is Partly to Blame," which seeks to explain why deliberate attacks on hospitals are becoming increasingly common -- in Syria, in Yemen, and elsewhere. The authors acknowledge that deliberate attacks on hospitals are almost always unlawful under IHL, because they violate the principle...
