Now that I've had a chance to read through the ICJ's advisory opinion, following are a few initial reactions. (I will consider the separate opinions in another post.) Marko Milanovic has done a great job parsing the main issues that were at bar, namely 1. Whether the ICJ should exercise advisory jurisdiction in this case; 2. How broadly or narrowly the question posed by...
The much-awaited ICJ advisory opinion on Kosovo will be released on July 22 at 3 p.m (local Hague time): On Thursday 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, will deliver its Advisory Opinion on the question of the Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the Provisional...
Dapo Akande has an important post today at EJIL: Talk! that asks, as he puts it, "what exactly was agreed in Kampala on the crime of aggression?" I think this paragraph is particularly important: The opt out provision is the most confusing aspect of the aggression amendments. Who exactly is required to opt out? Once the requisite number of...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confirmed Joan Donoghue as the choice to fill the vacancy on the ICJ left by Judge Thomas Buergenthal. She describes Donoghue as “judicious, fair, an extraordinary international legal counsel, and an excellent choice for the Court.“ Let me also pick up on a comment to my previous post, in which Peter Trooboff defends Donoghue’s independence...
The following is a guest post by Scott Paul, the Making Amends Campaign Fellow with the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict. I'm delighted to welcome Scott to OJ; in his previous life, he was was one of my favorite bloggers -- a regular contributor to The Washington Note and Bolton Watch. Mohammad was approaching a checkpoint with his brother...
Joan Donoghue, the Principal Deputy Legal Adviser in the Department of State, has been selected to be the next United States Judge for the International Court of Justice, according to reliable sources. Donoghue will replace Thomas Buergenthal, who has ably served as a judge on the ICJ since 2000. Donoghue is a career State Department lawyer chosen by...
According to news reports, Oklahoma voters will consider a proposed amendment to their state constitution this fall that would ban "an local courts from considering Shariah or other international law in their rulings." I have little doubt it will pass, and that (since it is an amendment to the OK Constitution) it is constitutional. But it is really unnecessary and overbroad....
The news out of The Hague today is the genocide convictions of Popovic and Beara, both of whom the ICTY trial chamber found to be key leaders of the Srbrenica massacre of 1995. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment, among the longest sentences for the ICTY. Lesser convictions and sentences were handed down to five other former Bosnian Serb officials....
Do we have an emerging consensus that the ICC States-Parties should refrain from adding the crime of aggression to the ICC Statute at its upcoming conference in Kampala? Michael Glennon, the CFR, Harold Koh, David Kaye, and now Richard Goldstone have all come out against adding the crime of aggression. Here is Goldstone: Based on my experience as an international prosecutor,...
[caption id="attachment_12297" align="alignright" width="180" caption="Judge Thomas Buergenthal"][/caption] Sure, some guy named John Paul Stevens is retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court, but there is another big judicial resignation this spring to note. Thomas Buergenthal, the U.S. member of the International Court of Justice, has announced that he will not finish out his term on the court. I am breaking some news...
Last year, the Palestinian National Authority filed a declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. This declaration is controversial, to say the least, because it could potentially give the ICC jurisdiction over Israeli military forces operating in Gaza or the West Bank. Today, the ICC released a summary of the submissions it has received on whether the Palestinian's...
This seems like a nice, uncontroversial way to buttress the ICC Prosecutor's Office: ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo today announced the appointment of Professor Jose Alvarez as his Office’s Special Advisor on International Law. “Professor Alvarez is one of the leading academics in international law,” said Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo. “He has written extensively on the law-making powers of international organisations and on the...
