The Asahi Shimbun is running a couple of interesting features on the International Court of Justice and Japan's relationship with it. One essay features interviews with Japan's current and former members of the ICJ: President Owada and former vice-president Oda. The other explores what might happen if Japan were to somehow send its disputes with China and Korea to the...
Apparently, the answer is yes, according to Professor Jeremi Suri of the University of Texas writing in the New York Times: The Korean crisis has now become a strategic threat to America’s core national interests. The best option is to destroy the North Korean missile on the ground before it is launched. The United States should use a precise airstrike to...
As regular readers of this blog might have noticed, I have become more and more interested China and its engagement with international law issues. Last year, I proposed to the ASIL Planning Committee that we put together a panel of leading U.S. China law scholars. But the ASIL organizers pushed back and put together a much more diverse group than...
Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, visited Chad earlier this year. The Chadian government made no attempt to arrest him, despite the fact that -- as a member of the ICC -- both SC Res. 1593 (the Darfur referral) and the Rome Statute obligated it to cooperate with the Court's arrest warrant. Human rights groups criticized Chad's unwillingness to arrest...
The U.N. General Assembly has voted in favor of the Arms Trade Treaty, which would do what exactly? Its proponents say it will create an international mechanism to regulate the international sale of arms and other weapons. Its critics say it will infringe on the individual rights of citizens and nations to buy and possess weapons by requiring member states...
I was struck by this line from an editorial in an Australian paper about the latest clashes between Sea Shepherd (e.g. the Ninth Circuit's "pirates") and Japanese whalers: [T]hat the International Court of Justice is expected to hear Australia's case to shut down the Antarctic hunt later this year. Three years after the case began, this hearing can't come soon enough. I agree....
A depressingly large number of U.S. media outlets are covering the Italian Supreme Court's decision to order a new trial in the case against Amanda Knox, the American exchange student charged with murdering her British roommate in Italy. Knox was convicted in trial court, but that conviction was overturned on appeal. I say depressing because this is hardly the most significant...
Just in case there was any doubt, the Philippines-China arbitration over the South China Sea will go forward. International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea President Shunji Yanai has appointed a second arbitrator. The [Philippines] Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed on Monday that the Itlos president, Judge Shunji Yanai, appointed Polish Itlos Judge Stanislaw Pawlak to the panel last...
Ben Emmerson, counsel for al-Senussi, has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to refer Libya to the Security Council for ignoring its February 6 decision ordering Libya to transfer al-Senussi to the Court. Here are the key paragraphs: 3. It has been almost six weeks since the Chamber‟s Order of 6 February, and Libya has failed to comply with every one of these...
This according to a bizarre -- and bizarrely inaccurate -- article in the Jerusalem Post. How many errors can you find? An Israeli law firm on Thursday formally announced its request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensada, to open a criminal investigation into violations by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and nine members of Hamas for war...
"Three years ago I could never have dreamed that we would be selling our tomatoes directly to the restaurants in Manila," said Johnny Rola. Just a few years ago the poor farmers in this mountain village in northern Philippines had little hope. They would grow a few staple crops and sell it at the local farmers market. They were...
Was our very own Kevin Jon Heller, and one of his OJ posts, responsible for causing David Barron and Marty Lederman (widely taken as authors of the Justice Department's OLC opinion on the lawfulness of targeting Anwar Al-Awlaki with lethal force) to rewrite their memorandum? Wells Bennett at Lawfare points to an extraordinary passage appearing in a lengthy story in today's...
