In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

06 Nov

[Alvaro Santos is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University Law Center] The current global financial crisis has provoked intense criticism of the regulatory framework for financial markets. Financial market flexibility, once considered the key to successful financial institutions and economic growth, has now come under intense scrutiny. In contrast, labor market flexibility is still promoted by scholars and...

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05 Nov

The depths to which the extreme right will sink to oppose offering quality healthcare to all Americans really knows no bounds: Disgusting.  Absolutely disgusting. P.S. In case you can't read the sign on your computer, it reads “National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany – 1945.”...

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05 Nov

Compare the following.  First, Reed Stevenson for Reuters: Yugoslavia tribunal judges ordered legal counsel for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and adjourned his trial until March 2010 to give the new defence lawyers time to prepare. Karadzic has been acting as his own attorney and has been boycotting the trial which charges him with some of Europe's worst atrocities since World...

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05 Nov

[Professor James Gathii, provides this timely insta-background on today's decision by the the ICC prosecutor to open an investigation into the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. Professor Gaathi teaches at Albany Law School, where he is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and Governor George E. Pataki Professor of International Commercial Law. He publishes extensively on legal developments in...

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05 Nov

As most readers probably know by now, the Trial Chamber has decided to adjourn Dr. Karadzic's trial until 1 March 2010 and appoint stand-by counsel who will step in if, at that time, Dr. Karadzic continues to boycott the trial.  Here are the relevant paragraphs from the decision: 19. On the issue of continuing the trial in the absence of the...

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05 Nov

[Marc Limon is Counsellor of the Mission of the Government of the Maldives to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland] As Professor Knox recognises in his paper, international human rights law is essentially concerned with the relationship between an individual and his or her own State.  This makes it difficult to usefully leverage human rights law in the context...

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05 Nov

[John H. Knox is a Professor at Wake Forest University School of Law] My Essay tries to answer a simple question (simple to state, anyway):  What duties, if any, does human rights law place on states to address climate change?  At first, the answer may seem equally simple.  It may seem evident that climate change already violates human rights, including rights...

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04 Nov

My friends David Sloss, Michael Ramsey, and Bill Dodge are the editors of a remarkable forthcoming book on The U.S. Supreme Court and International Law: Continuity or Change?. They have gathered an all-star cast of scholars to address the role of international law in Supreme Court jurisprudence from 1860 to the present. The book will be published by...

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04 Nov

Let me thank Mark Drumbl once again for taking the time to provide his thoughtful response to my Article. As Mark and I agree on many points, I will focus on what appears to be the clearest point of difference between us:  our respective answers to the practical question of how the ICC should instantiate its complementarity principle.   Absent contrary guidance...

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04 Nov

[Mark A. Drumbl is a Professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law] In Complementarity in Crisis:  Uganda, Alternative Justice, and the International Criminal Court, Professor Alexander Greenawalt strikes a cautionary note.  He underscores that the ICC cannot on its own effectively serve transitional justice interests.   It needs help.   In the end, Sasha concludes that "the Ugandan peace process reveals...

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04 Nov

[Daniel Bodansky, University of Georgia School of Law and OJ guest blogger, sends this dispatch on the state of the Climate Change talks leading up to the Copenhagen Conference.  Professor Bodansky will also be blogging from Copenhagen here at Opinio Juris in December.] Barcelona, 4 November 2009 The UN climate change negotiations resumed on Monday in Barcelona, after only a three week...

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04 Nov

[Alexander K.A. Greenawalt is an Associate Professor at Pace University School of Law] Let me start by thanking Opinio Juris and the Virginia Journal of International Law for hosting this online symposium.  I am also honored that Mark Drumbl has graciously agreed to be my respondent. In 2005, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader...

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