The Australian political world is all abuzz at the prospect of Assange running for the Senate in the upcoming federal election, which will be held on September 14. It's not completely clear whom he'll run against, but he will register as a voter in my home state of Victoria and intends to start a new political party, surprisingly entitled the...
My friend Jens Ohlin (Cornell) has just posted a very important article on SSRN entitled "Targeting and the Concept of Intent." Here is the abstract: International law generally prohibits military forces from intentionally targeting civilians; this is the principle of distinction. In contrast, unintended collateral damage is permissible unless the anticipated civilian deaths outweigh the expected military advantage of the strike;...
Okay, I admit it. The ICC is a failure. As Raj Kannappan insightfully notes at the Washington Times, its botched prosecution of Milosevic proves it: Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established with the promise of bringing to justice a host of international criminals, the Court has fallen short of delivering on that promise. Eleven years ago, on February 12, 2002, the...
Last May, I offered some critical thoughts on Opinio Juris about Charles Taylor's 50-year sentence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. I have just finished a short essay (8,000 words) on Taylor's sentence that will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice; you can find the essay on SSRN. Here is the introduction: On 30 May...
The OTP has weighed in on Libya's ongoing challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi. In its view, although there are serious questions concerning whether Libya is investigating the same conduct as the OTP, Libya is currently willing and able to conduct a genuine prosecution. Unfortunately, its conclusion regarding ability rests on a very serious legal error....
Apparently, the U.S. conservative policymaking world has made its peace with the ICC. As long as the ICC doesn't bother the US, the US won't bother the ICC. But the US has no plans to join either. That is the bottom line from this report from Colum Lynch. Have U.S. conservatives really lost the war on the International Criminal Court? A decade...
I know we normally announce call for papers in a group, but I want to highlight a particularly exciting new journal from Oxford University Press, the London Review of International Law. As you'll see, the editors are both distinguished and innovative; I'm sure the journal will prove to be both, as well. I hope readers will consider submitting to it. Call...
Noam Lubell and Nathan Derejko, both at the University of Essex, have posted "A Global Battlefield? Drones and the Geographical Scope of Armed Conflict" on SSRN. The essay will appear in the same Journal of International Criminal Justice symposium as my essay on signature strikes. Their abstract is all of one sentence, so here are the first couple of paragraphs: Defining...
According to the White Paper (p. 6), a US citizen "who is located outside the United States and is an operational leader continually planning attacks against US persons or interests" cannot lawfully be killed unless, inter alia, "an informed, high-level official of the US government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of attack against the United States." Early...
There is much to say about the DoJ White Paper on the targeted killing of US citizens, which reflects the US's idiosyncratic interpretation of international law. In this post I want to focus on the White Paper's primary -- and in my view fatal -- flaw: its complete failure to address the relationship between the organized armed groups that it...
Michael Isikoff has obtained the 16-page memo. It is available here. Analysis later! H/T -- Lawfare....
Here's a gem from Libya's latest submission in its challenge to the admissibility of the case against al-Senussi (emphasis mine): The Libyan Government observes that there has been a recent increase in filings in this case, no doubt due to the retention of new counsel for Mr Al-Senussi. Libya of course understands that counsel for Mr Al-Senussi will rightly want to...
