Now that Taylor is finally free, we can turn our attention again to the ongoing saga of who is going to prosecute Saif Gaddafi -- Libya or the ICC. A recent article in the Independent indicates that the correct answer may well be "neither": Ms Taylor said she was “very happy” to be able to return to her family. The proceedings...
Syria's President Assad has expressed regret at the downing of the Turkish jet last month and has vowed to apologize should it be established that the jet was shot down in international airspace. Human Rights Watch has released a report on arbitrary arrests, detention and torture in Syria since the beginning of the civil unrest in March 2011. A Reuters article discusses how the...
At one time in the mid-1990s, it seemed like a week couldn't go by without some large gathering of States seeking to hammer out the terms of a new multilateral treaty with aspirations for universal membership. Such treaty negotiations have become a rarer phenomenon today with most meetings now emphasizing implementation of, and compliance with, existing treaties. And where new...
I have to admit, I've been very surprised by the negative reactions I've received concerning my belief that the ICC should not have expressed regret or apologized to Libya for Melinda Taylor's (alleged) misconduct. It seems that most people -- or at least most of the people who have emailed me -- think that the Court should have done anything...
In my previous post, I noted that Libya's representative to the ICC unequivocally acknowledged that Libyan courts could not prosecute Taylor for the alleged misconduct that led to her detention. Apparently, not all Libyan officials are on the same page; witness what a "senior member of the Libyan attorney-general's office" told the BBC earlier today about Taylor and the others: "They...
Courtesy of Christopher Libertino, my favorite film composer (and former college roommate), I want to point out that a recent post by James Daily on Subculture for the Cultured is about the international law ramifications of the actions of the superhero Daredevil in his current story arc. Daily is an attorney and a research associate at the Hoover Institution's Project on Commercializing Innovation....
The Australian media is reporting that Melinda Taylor is heading home, having being illegally detained by the Libyan government for 25 days. That is fantastic news -- and for Taylor and her family, it does not matter why she is free. Institutionally, however, the reason for her release matters a great deal. So it is very important to note that,...
The ICC turned 10 yesterday. Amnesty International's Secretary General passes judgement here. Militants in Timbuktu, Mali, are destroying Sufi shrines, which they consider idolatrous. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed his concern and ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has warned that the actions can be considered a war crime. Tensions continue to build along the Syria-Turkey border. The UN-backed Group on Syria reached...
Calls for Papers The Institute for Transnational Arbitration is organizing its second Annual Winter Forum in Miami on January 24-25, 2013. It is calling for abstracts of works-in-progress on a broad variety of topics related to international commercial arbitration and international investment law. Abstracts are due by September 1, 2012 and need to be sent to ITAWinterForum2013@gmail.com. Proposals should be made in a...
This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin Jon Heller continued coverage of the Melinda Taylor situation in Libya, pointing out a special report in the Guardian detailing her detention and that so far, the "non-apology apology" issued by the ICC has not helped the situation. In other ICC-related news, he pointed out John Bellinger's editorial on the Court at 10 years old. Kevin additionally...
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One of my favorite playlists on my iPod is a collection of anti-war songs from the Vietnam era. Even though I was alive for only some of it, the mid-60s/early 70s produced my favorite music -- much to the delight of my father, who was a hippie at the time and doesn't understand why I relate so deeply to the...
