Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in honor of that day I am planning to do a series of posts in the coming days on different subjects relating to genocide and the Holocaust. Primarily the focus will be on the neglected subject of the intersection between genocide and religion. But today I wanted to just flag a great op-ed in...
The WSJ editorial page has a predictable but still quite powerful defense of Paul Wolfowitz today based on the documents recently released about his case. The upshot: Wolfowitz is the target of a smear campaign aided and abetted by media organs like the NYT. (UPDATE: Prof. Ruth Wedgwood has a similarly outraged defense of Wolfowitz in the LA Times...
In an interesting development, the British government has decided to stop using the term "War on Terror":Development Secretary Hilary Benn will risk the wrath of Tony Blair's closest international ally by warning that US rhetoric has given terrorists a "shared identity". Mr Benn is to say openly that President George Bush's phrase "War on Terror" strengthens small disaffected groups with widely...
Serbia's war-crimes court, established in 2003 to handle "lesser" crimes referred by the ICTY, has convicted four Serbian paramilitaries of murdering six young Bosnian Muslims during the infamous Srebrenica massacre. Although one soldier was acquitted, the case against the defendants was straightforward: they filmed themselves committing the murders:The trophy video - which lasts about 20 minutes - shows several...
In a first for the Tribunal, the ICTR has officially transferred a case to a national court:The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ordered that Michel Bagaragaza, the former head of Rwanda's national tea industry who is accused of involvement in the mass slaughter, be tried by a court in the Netherlands. "The chamber orders the case of prosecutor v. Michel...
This past week, the editors of the Texas International Law Journal hosted a conference on the always controversial Military Commissions Act of 2006. The conference was a bit predictable in that it was full of law professors and advocates criticizing the MCA. But at least their criticisms were knowledgeable and interesting. (Links to webcasts of the conference, which...
[John Knox is a professor at Wake Forest School of Law where he teaches international environmental law. This post is part of an Opinio Juris roundtable discussion of the international law dimensions of the Mass. v. EPA decision.] Roger’s, Dan’s, and Hari’s thoughtful posts explain why Massachusetts v EPA is an important case in several respects, particularly, of course, for...
In a strange turnabout, Yemen's Parliament has voted to retract its previous March 24 vote approving the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Reports are sketchy as to why exactly the Parliament has reversed itself so dramatically. So maybe we should wait a few more days and see if the Parliament reverses itself again. ...
Paul Wolfowitz, who, according to an intriguing profile in this week's New Yorker, has made the fight against government corruption a center piece of his tenure as World Bank President, was forced to issue an apology for arranging a job for his "significant other" (a World Bank employee) at the State Department. As the NYTimes reports, Wolfowitz's favorable treatment...
I have posted a new essay on SSRN, "The Limits of Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute, the First Ecocentric Environmental War Crime." The essay, which is forthcoming in the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, is co-authored with Jessica Lawrence, who graduates from the University of Georgia School of Law next month. Here is the abstract:Article 8(2)(b)(iv) of...
A new association, the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law(INPROL), was recently formed under the auspices of the US Institute of Peace. INPROL’s mission…is to assist international rule of law specialists in their efforts to prevent conflict and stabilize war-torn societies. An internet-based knowledge network, INPROL provides those serving in the field the ability to exchange information...
Federal courts are often requested pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782 to assist with discovery in a case before a foreign or international tribunal. Traditionally that has been understood to exclude discovery before international arbitration tribunals. But last week a federal district court cast doubt on that rule. A New Jersey district court in In re Oxus Gold...
