Almost three years have passed since the Supreme Court's decision in Medellin v. Texas. The only remaining avenue to overturn Medellin and make the ICJ's decision in Avena (holding that the US violated its obligations under the Consular Convention and ordering review of the cases) binding as domestic law -- a federal statute -- has not been passed. Former State...
So, you're a state senator in the deep South. You love freedom, which is why you're a Republican. You know that Shariah (aka Shari'ah) is the enemy of freedom. You also know that, although Shariah currently plays no role in the law of your state, it will eventually supplant the Constitution (sometime in the next four decades, you estimate) unless...
I'm at Harvard Law School today for a symposium, Cybersecurity: Law, Privacy, and Warfare in a Digital World. I'll be talking about my e-SOS paper, how international law deals with cyberthreats, and ways it could do a better job. Anyone who's interested can watch the proceedings; it's being live web-cast here. I wanted to flag a fascinating debate over the future of the Internet that just...
The Tribunal de Grand Instance de Paris has issued its judgment in the unconscionable criminal-libel suit brought by Karine Calvo-Goller against NYU's Joseph Weiler. Weiler, I am happy to report, prevailed on both of the key issues: lack of jurisdiction and whether the lawsuit had so little merit that Calvo-Goller's decision to file it was abuse of process. In terms...
As Roger noted earlier, Bradley Manning has been formally charged with "aiding the enemy," a potentially capital offence. (The military has said that it will not seek the death penalty.) The strength of the charge, however, is difficult to determine. Here is the text of Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: 28. Article 104—Aiding the enemy a. Text of...
According to NBC News, "Pentagon and military officials say some of the classified information released by WikiLeaks contained the names of informants and others who had cooperated with U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, endangering their lives. According to the officials, the U.S. military rounded up many of those named and brought them into their bases for their own protection....
Question to OJ readers. Suppose that you were the chief legal advisor to the US DOS, or to the UK foreign minister, or to NATO, or some country or coalition in which there is active discussion about armed intervention on humanitarian grounds in Libya, for the express purpose of preventing attacks upon the civilian population. What would you regard as the best...
Just a quick update to point out that Pennumbra, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review's online companion, has published the fourth and final installment of my debate with John Dehn on the targeted killing of Al-Aulaqi. You can find the entire debate, including my just-published Closing Argument, here. My thanks to Pennumbra for inviting me to participate, and to John for...
Moreno-Ocampo said the following today: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says information of attacks on civilians by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suggests they could constitute a crime against humanity. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he has assembled a team to collect more information and has been in contact with Libyan officials and army...
The blog is a solo venture run by Mark Kersten, a PhD student in international relations at the LSE. I would explain the subject-matter of the blog, but I think the name speaks for itself. I will say that the posts have been excellent so far; readers interested in international criminal justice should definitely check out, inter alia, this post...
Milan notes in a comment to my previous post that he is "troubled that the Security Council seems not to be referring 'situations' as much as certain crimes committed by certain actors." He is referring to paragraphs 4 and 6 of the SC Resolution: 4. Decides to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since...
The referral is part of a larger set of sanctions against Libya. From the UN News Centre: The Security Council today voted unanimously to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders, while referring the ongoing violent repression of civilian demonstrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In its Resolution...
