I wanted to call readers' attention to an upcoming web seminar on Libya held by Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. The Program's web seminars are always excellent, and this one -- which features Luis Moreno-Ocampo and Nicholas Burns -- shapes up to be superb. Here are the details: On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, the Program on Humanitarian...
My colleague Anne Orford has a fascinating contribution today to the official blog of the London Review of Books questioning the universality of the supposedly universal international law that underlies the Security Council's authorization of military action in Libya. Here is a taste: In 1954, Carl Schmitt bemoaned the destruction of European international law in the 20th century. According to...
In a post today at Commentary, Boot argues that Taylor's arrest after going into exile makes it more likely that Gaddafi will fight to the death instead of negotiating a gracious exit from power: Once upon a time, an autocrat could step down and live out his days securely in the south of France or some other plush locale. That...
With all the attention being paid to the situations in Libya and Kenya, the situation in Darfur has receded into the background. (Par for the course, unfortunately, with Darfur.) So it's worth noting that the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I has confirmed charges against two Darfuri rebels alleged to have orchestrated a September 2007 attack that killed 12 African Union peacekeepers: On...
Moreno-Ocampo said the following today: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says information of attacks on civilians by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suggests they could constitute a crime against humanity. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he has assembled a team to collect more information and has been in contact with Libyan officials and army...
Milan notes in a comment to my previous post that he is "troubled that the Security Council seems not to be referring 'situations' as much as certain crimes committed by certain actors." He is referring to paragraphs 4 and 6 of the SC Resolution: 4. Decides to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since...
The referral is part of a larger set of sanctions against Libya. From the UN News Centre: The Security Council today voted unanimously to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders, while referring the ongoing violent repression of civilian demonstrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In its Resolution...
Here's something you don't see every day: A disciplinary hearing for the chief defence lawyer for former Liberian President Charles Taylor was adjourned indefinitely Friday after just seven minutes because one judge refused to attend. The hearing by the Special Court for Sierra Leone was to weigh possible punishment for British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths after he stormed out...
Even when Moreno-Ocampo wins, he loses. Pre-Trial Chamber II recently rejected a request by Mohammed Hussein Ali, one of the six Kenyans for whom the OTP has sought summonses, to submit "observations" on the investigation That was an easy call; nothing in the Rome Statute permits a suspect to participate in the investigative process so early. The Pre-Trial Chamber nevertheless...
Last week I noted the remarkable spectacle of the Guardian publishing an editorial that blamed WikiLeaks for releasing a State Department cable that had, in fact, been initially released by the Guardian itself. At the time, my evidence of that fact was circumstantial, based on the time-dates provided by the Guardian and WikiLeaks websites. But no longer -- eight days...
The Guardian published an editorial by a Republican political operative today blaming WikiLeaks for releasing a State Department cable concerning a meeting between Tsvangirai and Susan Rice in which Tsvangirai discussed the possibility of peacefully removing Mugabe from power: Now, in the wake of the WikiLeaks' release, one of the men targeted by US and EU travel and asset freezes, Mugabe's...
True to James Gathii's comment to my last post, the Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, has made it clear that Kenya won't be withdrawing from the ICC anytime soon: Kenya's prime minister on Thursday dismissed as futile a motion by lawmakers to withdraw from the statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC) - a move intended to head...
