[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...
[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...
My favorite line of today's hearing in the Karadzic trial, courtesy of one of the prosecutors: "If necessary, force can be used to secure his presence in the courtroom," Uertz-Retzlaff said. Because nothing says "fair trial" quite like a defendant in restraints....
The Virginia Journal of International Law is delighted to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris this week in this online symposium featuring three pieces recently published by VJIL in Vol. 50:1, available here. On Wednesday, Professor Alexander K.A. Greenawalt, Associate Professor of Law, Pace University School of Law, will discuss Complementarity in Crisis: Uganda, Alternative Justice, and the International Criminal Court....
As both Julian and Ken (at VC) have indicated that they believe Arar was rightly decided by the Second Circuit, it's worth noting that Guido Calabresi -- hardly a flaming liberal -- is dissenting in the case, describing the majority's decision as "extraordinary judicial activism." Scott Horton discusses Calabresi's dissent -- and notes that the majority decision is based on...
Niamh Hayes, a PhD candidate the Irish Centre for Human Rights and an intern on the Karadzic case, has a very useful guest post at the International Law Bureau about how the Trial Chamber might respond to Dr. Karadzic's boycott. The entire post is well worth a read, but I was particularly struck by Niamh's suggestion that Dr. Karadzic's actions...
Maher Arar, a Canadian who was detained by the U.S. and the subject of an "extraordinary rendition" to Syria, has lost his bid to maintain his lawsuit in U.S. courts. By a 7-4 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sitting en banc, has voted to dismiss his suit against U.S. government officials for alleged violations of...
Okey-dokey: The political bureau officer at the NCP Mandoor Al-Mahdi also accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of standing behind the hybrid court proposal. “After Ocampo failed in furthering his agenda through the ICC he now wants to find another entry though the so-called hybrid court” Al-Mahdi said. This week the ICC prosecutor hailed the special tribunal proposal made by...
This isn't going to help the Panel's credibility: The African Union (AU) high level panel on Darfur wanted to find a way out for Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir from the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment, one of the commission members said today in an interview. This week the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) endorsed a report prepared by an eight-member...
Two of our PhD students, James Parker and Rebecca Goodbourn, have asked me to post the following call for papers: Following the success of last year’s Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers’ Workshop on Methodological Approaches to Legal Scholarship, we are pleased to announce the inaugural Melbourne Forum on Doctoral Legal Research. This annual Forum will provide a space for participants to...
If you are going to be around the DC area this upcoming Tuesday morning, and are interested in the current discussion over the issues of the torture memos, my colleagues in the WCL program on law and government have organized a terrific program. Tuesday, November 3, 2009, at Washington College of Law: “The Torture Memos: Lawyers, Ethics, and the Rule of...
From the Sudan Tribune: The Sudanese government today reiterated its rejection the proposal set of an African Union (AU) to setup hybrid tribunals to try Darfur war crimes suspects. Speaking to reporters in Cairo the Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail said that Khartoum accepts the AU report “in its generalities” and the “African solution for the Darfur crisis”. Asked about the hybrid...
