In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

29 Aug

Not shocking, really. Aug 29, 2011 (Voice of America News/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- Libya's rebel government said Sunday it will not extradite the Libyan man convicted in the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner which killed 270 people when it exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Mohammed al-Alagi, the Transitional National Council's justice minister, told reporters in Tripoli that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi already has been...

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29 Aug

Adam Entous and Siobhan Gorman of the Wall Street Journal's national security reporting team have a good discussion of the targeted killing-drone strike on August 22, 2011 that killed Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, Al-Qaeda's second in command. A considerable part of the Pakistani government's irritation with the conduct of drone strikes is that the US not only does not seek permission -...

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28 Aug

As some readers may know, I spent four years writing television in Los Angeles -- law, cop, and terrorism shows -- before becoming an academic.  When I wrote scripts, I prided myself on accuracy: although I occasionally took artistic license, I always tried to get the law and facts right as best I could.  So it bothers me to no...

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26 Aug

This legal opinion by Oxford prof Guy Goodwin-Gill has been drawing some attention in recent days.  It argues that the planned campaign to establish a Palestinian state this fall at the United Nations has a number of policy and legal pitfalls that could work against the interests of most Palestinians. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Al-Jazeera: You tackle three...

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26 Aug

The Wall Street Journal's Siobhan Gorman has an interesting profile today of Michael Morell, a veteran CIA insider (31 years in) who is tapped to help guide the new director, David Petraeus, as he steps out of the uniform and into the suit, through the maze of internal CIA culture.  (It might be behind the subscriber wall.) In a rare interview,...

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24 Aug

"People of Libya! In response to your own will, fulfilling your most heartfelt wishes, answering your incessant demands for change and regeneration and your longing to strive towards these ends, listening to your incitement to rebel, your armed forces have undertaken the overthrow of the reactionary and corrupt regime, the stench of which has sickened and horrified us all...

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24 Aug

Last week I posted about the challenges to and importance of judicial review of war measures against U.S. citizens.  This post will use the bin Laden killing to explore the issue in the context of targeting --- hopefully in manner accessible to the average reader.  After reviewing issues likely preventing prior judicial adjudication or review of a potentially lethal (“kill...

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24 Aug

Expect to hear more of this in the next few days from the anti-Obama progressive left. NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be “held accountable” to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday. “NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt...

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23 Aug

Let's assume that the Libyan rebels do prevail and that they end up capturing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.  Does the new Libyan government have a legal obligation to turn him over to the ICC, even if they seek to try him in Libyan courts? Libya is not a member of the ICC Rome Statute, so its only obligation flows from the...

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23 Aug

Reacting to the still-imminent fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, U.S. presidential candidate (and likely future president if you believe these polls) Mitt Romney has called for the extradition of the mastermind of Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi, to the United States.  The demand raises an interesting dilemma.  Megrahi was tried and convicted in a special Scottish tribunal set...

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