The blog is run (so far, solely) by Sonia Cardenas, the Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Human Rights Program at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. Here is her description of the blog: This site explores universal jurisdiction, through the prism of politics and human rights. Universal jurisdiction is the revolutionary idea that...
Over at Lawfare last Friday, Bobby Chesney commented on a NY Times article reporting that military commission charges have been initiated against Ali Musa Daqduq. Chesney describes Daqduq as “a Hezbollah member involved in an attack on American forces in Iraq in which the attackers disguised themselves as American soldiers and Iraqi police and in which several captured American...
Readers interested in watching Ben Wittes desperately try to spin British condemnation of the U.S. approach to the war on terror need only check out his post today on Rahmatullah. As I discussed a couple of months ago, the British Court of Appeals held that Rahmatullah was entitled to be released from U.S. custody because the U.S. had rendered him...
My friend Dapo Akande takes me to task today at EJIL: Talk! for my position on drone strikes directed at combatants attending a funeral or helping the wounded. I will address his curious reluctance to address the text of the Rome Statute in Part II of my response; in this post, I want to address his arguments concerning IHL. Here...
That's the conclusion drawn in this blockbuster report -- which, precisely because it is a blockbuster that makes Israel and the MEK's vast number of Democratic and Republican supporters in the U.S. look bad, has been basically ignored in the "liberal" media: Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed,...
The case involves Luis Moreno-Ocampo's decision to remove Ekkehard Witkopf, then a Senior Trial Lawyer with the OTP, from Lubanga. The following paragraphs from the ILO's judgment best summarize what happened: On 15 December 2008 the Deputy Prosecutor informed the complainant orally that the Executive Committee had decided that he would no longer lead the trial of the Lubanga case on...
Cross-posted at LieberCode. I read with interest the debate between Kevin Heller and Bob Chesney on allegations that recent drone attacks have caused civilian casualties under disturbing circumstances. My views are too extensive for the comments section, so I am taking the liberty of outlining them here -- guest-blogger’s prerogative. Essentially, I think the issue boils down to intent -- which the...
As most readers likely know, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism recently released a 22,000 word report documenting the disturbing U.S. practice of using drones to target individuals attending funerals or attempting to provide aid to individuals wounded in previous drone strikes. Here is the report's central conclusion: A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at...
Cross-posted at LieberCode. On Friday, the Supreme Court Chamber of the ECCC increased the sentence of Kaing Guek Eav (Duch) to life in prison. The Trial Chamber had sentenced Duch to 35 years in prison for crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, but then reduced the sentence by five years in recognition of Duch’s illegal detention by...
I am delighted to announce that Oxford University Press has just published my dear friend Mark Drumbl's new book, "Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy." Here is the description: The international community's efforts to halt child soldiering have yielded some successes. But this pernicious practice persists. It may shift locally, but it endures globally. ...
It's rare that I defend the ICTY, but I feel compelled to do so here. As discussed in this blog post by Laurie Blank, a group of experts in military law have released a report attacking the Trial Chamber's judgment in Prosecutor v. Gotovina for allegedly misapplying basic IHL rules regarding targeting. Unfortunately, the report fundamentally misstates what the Trial...
The Pre-Trial Chamber II (PTC) has confirmed the charges against 4 of the 6 defendants in the Kenya cases. The following is from the PTC's oral summary of their decision: Summary of Decision in Case 1 I will now turn to the merits of Case 1, the Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang...
