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...
Adding to our already energetic discussion about the ICC and Kampala is the WSJ Editorial Board's contribution today. I share many of the editorial's skeptical views of the ICC and I think even Kevin would not find any "lies" in this article. Here is the crux of their critique, which I mostly share: From the Balkans to East Timor to the...
In many ways, it is more important to note the continuity between Obama and Bush administration policies than to dwell on their differences. Given the political antecedents of the two administrations, the areas where they have adopted the same policy is a sure-fire sign that there is broad consensus in the U.S. on a policy. I think we are getting...
Did the ICJ ruling on Uruguay and Argentina help to resolve the dispute? Sort of. There are some pesky protestors, though, who are not exactly convinced by the ruling. Both sides said Tuesday's decision by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands gave them what they need to resolve their differences, with Argentina taking heart from a part of the...
This seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons that are too obvious to go into here. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine human rights groups are turning the tables on Spain, hoping to open a judicial probe of murders and disappearances committed during the Spanish Civil War and the early years of Gen. Francisco Franco's dictatorship. Lawyers representing Argentine relatives...
The ABA Journal has an interesting article on the Americanization of international arbitration. There's nothing particularly new to our readers in this article. It's a theme that my friend and colleague Tom Stipanowich has written about extensively. I've written a bit about the subject as well. But the fact that the story is being told in...
During the recent "nuclear summit" in Washington, Dutch prime minister Peter Balkenende proposed the creation of a new international tribunal to enforce and punish violations of nuclear non-proliferation agreements. Putting aside the fact that this is a blatant effort to put another international court in his hometown (the Hague), I agree with Prof. Göran Sluiter that this is a dumb...
