In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

15 Mar

A couple of weeks ago, I noted that the Pre-Trial Chamber had ordered Libya to return the documents it wrongfully seized from Melinda Taylor during her privileged meeting with Saif Gaddafi. I also predicted that Libya would try to avoid complying with the order by filing various motions challenging the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision. Guess what? Libya has filed two motions in response,...

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14 Mar

This according to a bizarre -- and bizarrely inaccurate -- article in the Jerusalem Post. How many errors can you find? An Israeli law firm on Thursday formally announced its request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensada, to open a criminal investigation into violations by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and nine members of Hamas for war...

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13 Mar

Ken noted last week that Lawfare has been hosting an ongoing debate over Ryan Goodman's fascinating new article "The Power to Kill or Capture Enemy Combatants," which is forthcoming in the European Journal of International Law. I contributed a long post criticizing Goodman's claim that Art. 35(2) of the First Additional Protocol -- which provides that "[i]t is prohibited to employ...

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13 Mar

Like many young, lefty international lawyers, one of my intellectual heroes is Philippe Sands. He is a remarkable scholar and an equally gifted advocate, and he puts both to good use no matter how unpopular the position or client -- as his representation of the Libyan government in its challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi demonstrates. Above...

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10 Mar

I'm grateful to Ken, Wells Bennett, and Marcy Wheeler for speculating that my April 2010 blog post on 18 USC 1119, the foreign-murder statute, is the post referred to in today's New York Times article on the behind-the-scenes machinations that culminated in the CIA using a drone to kill Anwar al-Awlaki. I imagine they are correct; the post fits the timeline...

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07 Mar

As everyone likely knows by now, Rand Paul has ended his remarkable talking filibuster because Attorney General Holder officially responded "no" to the question "Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" Is it just me, or does Holder's answer actually raise more questions than it answers? (1)...

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03 Mar

[Sigall Horovitz is a PhD candidate, teaching fellow and Transitional Justice Project Manager at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a member of ALMA – the Association for the Promotion of IHL. A longer version of this op-ed appears on the website of the Israeli Democracy Institute (in Hebrew).] The Palestinians have threatened to complain to the International Criminal Court (ICC) about Israel’s settlement activities...

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03 Mar

The win in question concerns the privileged documents the Libyan government seized from Melinda Taylor and her OPCD colleagues while they were meeting with Saif Gaddafi in Libya. In late January, the OPCD asked the Pre-Trial Chamber to order Libya to return the documents and destroy any copies it had made of them. Here is what it argued, as summarized...

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01 Mar

My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have explained why Judge Kozinski's opinion in the Sea Shepherd case wrongly considers a political end to be a private end. In this post I want to highlight what is ironic -- though not technically incorrect -- about Judge Kozinski's conclusion that Sea Shepherd committed an act of piracy on "the...

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01 Mar

Eugene Kontorovich has responded at Volokh Conspiracy to my previous post about politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas. I invite interested readers to examine for themselves the various documents Eugene and I discuss; in this final post I simply want to correct a fundamental error on Eugene's part concerning the Harvard Draft Convention on Piracy -- an error...

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27 Feb

Both Eugene and Maggie disagree with my claim that politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas were not traditionally considered piracy under international law, but were instead simply criminal acts that the offended state could prosecute as it saw fit. Here is Eugene (my emphasis; combining two comments): The rule is clear as both a matter of customary international law...

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