[The following is a guest-post by Lt. Col. Chris Jenks, the Chief of the International Law Branch in the Army's Office of the Judge Advocate General. He is blogging in his personal capacity.] The day ICC supporters and detractors alike hoped would come, albeit for very different reasons, arrived on Wednesday, July 21st -- Sudanese President Omar Bashir publicly...
The US Naval War College international law conference, held in June in Newport, Rhode Island, is now online in video format. It was a terrific discussion, with great panels and discussants, and I counted it as a privilege to be there. One reason the video for this conference is so interesting, however, is that the audience - and this year...
With an election scheduled for August 21, Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony "Check Out My Speedo" Abbott were set to debate tomorrow night at 7:30 pm. There was just one problem with that idea...
Dave Hoffman has a post today at Concurring Opinions reporting the results of an empirical study of how often law reviews have cited various blogs. According to the study, blogs have been cited 5460 times since 2006, with the following blogs representing the top-10 in terms of citations: FindLaw's Writ -- 618 citations Volokh Conspiracy -- 402 SCOTUSBlog -- 305 Balkinization -- 259 Patently-O --...
Now that I've had a chance to read through the ICJ's advisory opinion, following are a few initial reactions. (I will consider the separate opinions in another post.) Marko Milanovic has done a great job parsing the main issues that were at bar, namely 1. Whether the ICJ should exercise advisory jurisdiction in this case; 2. How broadly or narrowly the question posed by...
According to the Associated Press: The United Nations' highest court says Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia did not break international law. The nonbinding opinion sets the stage for a renewed push by Kosovo for further international recognition of its independence. Reading the opinion Thursday, International Court of Justice President Hisashi Owada said international law contains no "prohibition on declarations of independence." ...
CIA director Leon Panetta has named a new National Clandestine Service chief, reports Peter Finn in the Washington Post today. The new chief, John Bennett, has been serving as station chief in Pakistan, overseeing in particular the expansion of the drone campaign carried out by the CIA there. One can safely take that as further evidence that the Obama administration...
Two items worth noting. First, as Julian pointed out the other day, Moreno-Ocampo's refusal to comply with the Trial Chamber's order to disclose the identity of an intermediary to Lubanga's defense team has led the Trial Chamber to order Lubanga's release pending appeal. (The OTP filed the appeal today). It is bad enough that the "independent statutory obligation" to protect...
Is this for real? . A Phillippines newspaper is accusing a sitting Philippines Supreme Court justice with plagiarizing articles published in law reviews on matters of international law when he authored a key opinion for the court on reparations for comfort women. The articles supposedly plagiarized include this one by Evan Criddle and Evan Fox-Descent in the Yale Journal of...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld this week the conviction of "Chuckie Taylor" for violating the U.S. Anti-Torture Act, which implements U.S. obligations under the Convention Against Torture. Taylor is the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, currently on trial himself in the Sierra Leone Special Court. The opinion is a good and important one...
Greg McNeal has passed along the sad news that Charles Gittings, a long-time commenter on Opinio Juris, has passed away at an untimely 57. Here is a snippet from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times: Though not a lawyer, Gittings had a life-long interest in military tactics and law that led him to become an invaluable resource to some...
Yes, says Daniel Hannan, a journalist and British MEP. At least under those famous Montevideo factors, now that the E.U. has recently acquired the capacity to sign treaties. I don't know if things are quite so easy. For one thing, the E.U. does not itself necessarily consider itself a state, and it is not exactly clear if other states recognize the...
