That essentially was the question raised in the recent Ninth Circuit case of Humanitarian Law Project v. Mukasey. The answer to the question is no. The Plaintiffs were hoping to train members of one terrorist group, PKK, by helping them (1) to use humanitarian and international law to peacefully resolve disputes; (2) to engage in political advocacy on...
I have posted a substantially revised and expanded version of my essay "What Happens to the Acquitted?" on SSRN. Here again is the abstract of the essay, which is forthcoming in the Leiden Journal of International Law:According to the ICTR, Emmanuel Bagambiki is an innocent man. The Trial Chamber and the Appeals chamber have each unanimously acquitted the former...
As I have noted before, human-rights groups have consistently and justifiably criticized the ICTR for failing to take seriously the systematic sexual violence committed against women during the 1994 genocide. Similar criticisms are now being leveled at the ICC regarding its investigation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo:Congolese activists have launched an appeal at the...
The past few days has seen an intense internal EU debate over the stance the EU should take concerning the status of Kosovo. It is interesting to see how talk about international law was deployed as a tool of statecraft. As discussed in my last post, Russia has had a turn toward “legalization” as it became clear that the...
State Department Legal Adviser (& former OJ Guest Blogger) John Bellinger gave a major speech at Oxford University yesterday, entitled "Prisoners in War: Contemporary Challenges to the Geneva Conventions." If you care about U.S. detention policies, it's a must-read. For starters, it serves as a great encapsulation of U.S. legal arguments in defense of past and present detention...
Regarding Julian’s post on a possible Serbian suit in the ICJ over Kosovo, see also the following from AP and from AFP. According to these reports, the Serbs may seek a request by the Security Council of an advisory opinion from the ICJ concerning the status of Kosovo. They seem to want the Council to take up the...
Chambers and Partners has published their list of the top law firms for public international law. The top tier (or "band 1" as they call it): Clifford Chance Debevoise and Plimpton Eversheds Frere Cholmeley Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Latham and Watkins Shearman and Sterling White and Case The full post also includes a list of top PIL attorneys who are not affiliated with the top ranking firms. Chambers' description...
This month, Kosovo is planning to declare independence with the support of the EU and the United States. Russia and Serbia are dead-set opposed and Russia in particular is making all sorts of ugly noises about any potential Security Council resolutions on this topic. Serbia is also getting ready to try to block independence, although it seems like they...
[We are pleased to have the following contribution from Steve Charnovitz of George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC. Prof. Charnovitz is a well-known expert on international trade. Some of his many publications are available here. ] On December 9, 2007, Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), gave a thoughtful speech on trade and climate...
Today Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. You can read the Nobel Committee's presentation speech here, Al Gore's Nobel Lecture here, and the IPCC's Nobel Lecture here. A few quick thoughts on the award. First, scientists have become increasingly common recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. ...
I’ve just returned from a week in Brussels where I gave a public presentation concerning the Transnistrian conflict in Moldova, with reference to the various other so-called “frozen” conflicts such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. But the word I heard time and again was: “Kosovo.” Monday, December 10th, is the deadline for the negotiations on Kosovo’s final...
Now this story from the New York Times Magazine is what I call an innovative idea for lawmaking: When the New Zealand police force said they were open to suggestions about how to rewrite national policing laws, they meant it. In September, they posted the 1958 Police Act online and invited Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike to visit the site and type...
