In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Regions

31 Mar

In September 2011, Alexander Blackman, a Sergeant in the Royal Marines serving in Afghanistan, executed a Taliban fighter who had been incapacitated by his wounds.This was no spur-of-the-moment killing, as video recovered one year later makes clear. Here is the Court Martial's summary of Blackman's actions, as shown on the video: [The insurgent] had been seriously wounded having been engaged lawfully by an Apache helicopter...

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19 Mar

Last week, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) sent shockwaves through the international community by issuing a report that -- for the first time in UN history -- claims Israel's treatment of Palestinians amounts to the crime of apartheid. Here is ESCWA's description of the report, entitled “Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid,"...

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18 Mar

This morning President Trump tweeted that "Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!" But that's not how NATO commitments work. And so this afternoon, former US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder gave President Trump a tutorial in nine tweets. Maybe we can...

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11 Mar

It is difficult to overstate the horrors the US inflicted on Cambodia from the air during the Vietnam War: 230,000 sorties involving 113,000 different sites; 500,000 tonnes of bombs, as much as the US dropped in the entire Pacific theatre during WW II; at least 50,000, and probably closer to 150,000, innocent civilians killed. Even worse, that bombing campaign, along with...

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15 Feb

As has been widely reported, 17 international-law scholars -- including yours truly -- recently submitted a 105-page communication to the Office of the Prosecutor alleging that Australia's treatment of refugees involves the commission of multiple crimes against humanity, including imprisonment, torture, deportation, and persecution. The communication is a tremendous piece of work, prepared in large part by the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and...

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23 Jan

Finally, a Republican bill we can all get behind! The American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017: A bill was introduced to the House of Representatives in early January that, among other things, calls for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations. Sponsored by Senator Mike Rogers, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act (aka H.R. 193) had been previously introduced by the...

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19 Jan

[Simon Chesterman is Dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. He is also Editor of the Asian Journal of International Law and Secretary-General of the Asian Society of International Law. Educated in Melbourne, Beijing, Amsterdam, and Oxford, Simon’s teaching experience includes periods at Melbourne, Oxford, Columbia, Sciences Po, and New York University.] An academic learns most through errors...

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18 Jan

[Judge Xue Hanqin is a judge on the International Court of Justice. This post is part of a joint Opinio Juris/EJIL:Talk! symposium. For the latest symposium post on EJIL:Talk!, click here.] The rise of the new economies, particularly those in Asia, has caused considerable apprehension in the West. The concern is not just about shift of wealth to the East, but...

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17 Jan

[B.S. Chimni is Professor of International Law at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.This post is part of a joint Opinio Juris/EJIL:Talk! symposium. For the latest symposium post on EJIL:Talk!, click here.] In the current issue of European Journal of International Law Professor Simon Chesterman has written an important essay on the Asian approach to international law and international institutions, addressing in...

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