In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

04 Sep

A February 2010 cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department concerning a discussion with the IDF's Military Advocate General about the Palestinian Authority's request for the ICC to investigate Operation Cast Lead contains the following remarkable paragraph (emphasis added): Summary: IDF Military Advocate General Mandelblit updated the Ambassador on February 17 on the progress of investigations...

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03 Sep

David Bernstein has a pointless "gotcha" post at Volokh Conspiracy today in which he argues that the Palmer Report somehow contradicts my claim that blockade is only permissible in international armed conflict (IAC), whether between states or between a state and an insurgent group recognized as a belligerent.  Here it is in full: Kevin Jon Heller of University of Melbourne and...

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02 Sep

As Julian noted earlier today, the UN's Palmer Committee has released its report on the Mavi Marmara incident, concluding that Israel's actions regarding the ship were were excessive and unreasonable, but that the blockade of Gaza itself is legal. I have questioned the legality of the blockade before, leading two readers to claim that the Palmer Committee's report contradicts my...

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01 Sep

David Kaye has an interesting compromise proposal on what to do with Qaddafi. Some argue that the new Libyan government would be legally bound to transfer Colonel Qaddafi and his associates to The Hague. Others argue that the I.C.C. must defer to Libyan authorities if they are willing and able to try Colonel Qaddafi fairly in their own courts. A better...

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30 Aug

Apropos of Kevin's post below criticizing China's new criminal procedure law amendments, it is worth noting that some Chinese legal scholars are defending the consistency of such laws with international treaties.  China's draft amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law will further help protect human rights, and conforms rather than contradicts international conventions, legal experts in Beijing have said. The experts made the...

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29 Aug

Not shocking, really. Aug 29, 2011 (Voice of America News/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- Libya's rebel government said Sunday it will not extradite the Libyan man convicted in the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner which killed 270 people when it exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Mohammed al-Alagi, the Transitional National Council's justice minister, told reporters in Tripoli that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi already has been...

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24 Aug

Expect to hear more of this in the next few days from the anti-Obama progressive left. NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be “held accountable” to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday. “NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt...

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23 Aug

Let's assume that the Libyan rebels do prevail and that they end up capturing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.  Does the new Libyan government have a legal obligation to turn him over to the ICC, even if they seek to try him in Libyan courts? Libya is not a member of the ICC Rome Statute, so its only obligation flows from the...

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23 Aug

Reacting to the still-imminent fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya, U.S. presidential candidate (and likely future president if you believe these polls) Mitt Romney has called for the extradition of the mastermind of Lockerbie bombing, Abdelbaset Mohmed Ali al-Megrahi, to the United States.  The demand raises an interesting dilemma.  Megrahi was tried and convicted in a special Scottish tribunal set...

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23 Aug

Time has an interesting article up about Saif's reappearance in Tripoli.  The whole thing is well worth a read, but I was struck by these paragraphs about the ICC: The rebels were not the only ones whose credibility was in doubt on Tuesday. So too was that of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which has indicted...

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