In 2019, Bolivia saw one of its most turbulent political crises in recent memory. The OAS accused the government of committing electoral fraud to secure Evo Morales a controversial fourth term in office. One of the OAS’s main claims was that there had been a “drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results revealed after the closing...
There is nothing more rewarding for an academic -- at least for this academic -- than seeing a student go on to do great things. I've been fortunate to have many wonderful students over the years, but there is no one I am more proud of than Golriz Ghahraman, whom I taught at the University of Auckland long ago and...
[Andreina De Leo is a Legal Researcher at the European Legal Support Center (ELSC).] On June 11, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECt.HR) delivered the much-awaited judgement Baldassi and Others v. France (application no. 15271/16). The Court found by a majority that there was no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) and unanimously that there was a...
[Jennifer Trahan is Clinical Professor, NYU Center for Global Affairs and Megan Fairlie is Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law.] On June 11, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order that exponentially intensifies the United States’ ongoing attack on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its staff. Disturbingly, the Order also targets foreign nationals and, seemingly, US nationals. Regrettably (although predictably), the US is again using...
Along with 271 of my fellow public international law scholars, I have signed the following open letter condemning Israel's plan to illegally annex large swathes of the West Bank. If you are interested in joining the list, please send an email with your name and affiliation to annexationletter@gmail.com before July 1. I will update this post with new names every...
[Yassir Al-Khudayri is an Aryeh Neier Fellow with the Open Society Justice Initiative working on international criminal justice and anti-corruption. He also specializes in indigenous peoples’ rights and children’s rights with a focus on the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.] On May 19, 2020, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared the end of all security coordination with Israel and the United States, including the landmark Oslo Accords...
[Stephen Arthur Lamony is an International Law specialist, ex-Senior Foreign Policy Advisor-Amnesty International and ex-Head of Advocacy and Policy at the global Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC).] Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO), published its first situation report on COVID -19 on January 20, 2020. When it reported a case of “pneumonia of unknown cause” on December 31, 2019. A lot has transpired since then. News...
[Yusra Suedi is a PhD Candidate in Public International Law at the University of Geneva, where she teaches a course on United Nations diplomacy. Twitter: @Yusra_Suedi.] The killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, on 25 May 2020 in Minneapolis by the police while in custody, has triggered solidarity protests all over the world. While protesting, electing different leaders, and national measures...
[Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli is a Colombian lawyer, PhD on international law and international relations. He works as a researcher and lecturer of Public International Law at the Autónoma de Madrid University.] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (hereinafter, also the Court) adopted an important decision in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic the 26th of May -which has the potential to have an impact beyond the specific situation analyzed...
[Sara Kendall is a Senior Lecturer in International Law at The University of Kent in the Faculty of Law. She is also Co-Director of The Centre for Critical International Law.] In early March 2020, the US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo gave a press briefing concerning the ICC Appeals Chamber’s decision on Afghanistan. As is widely known by Opinio Juris’s readership, the ICC’s prosecutor aimed to investigate...
[Olaf Zenker is a Professor at the Department for Anthropology and Philosophy at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). He is a political and legal anthropologist researching (post-)conflict, inequality and justice in Africa and Europe, especially in contexts of normative pluralities including international criminal law.] Kamari Clarke’s Affective Justice is an impressive accomplishment and important contribution to the expanding field of the anthropology of justice, and of...
Analyzing the issue of religious discrimination in counterterrorism laws requires first, to look at the facts: whereas many cases brought to justice until the years 2000s concerned Corsican and Basque separatists[1], people indicted for acts of terrorism today are mostly identified as (radicalized) Islamists. Moreover the attacks of February and November 2015 led to a point of no return where terrorism...