Astrid Coracini and Jennifer Trahan have a new post at Just Security that argues a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression created either by treaty or by a General Assembly-endorsed agreement between Ukraine and the UN would not have to recognise the personal immunity of Russian officials. I disagree, for reasons I have explained in a recent article in...
Via its Minister for the Environment, the Belgian government has announced that it intends to incorporate the crime of ecocide into its Penal Code: A concept now recognized in the national penal codes of 10 countries (Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam and France), the crime of ecocide refers to all illegal actions that lead to the...
[Stephen A. Lamony is an International Lawyer writing from Gulu City, northern Uganda.] Introduction On May 6, 2021, Trial Chamber IX of the International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced Dominic Ongwen to 25 years of imprisonment for murder, rape, and sexual enslavement. On the same day, the Chamber issued an order for submissions on reparations stating that the "reparations phase of the proceedings should...
[Fiona Nelson is Acting Executive Director at the Australian Centre for International Justice. Kobra Moradi is a lawyer at the Australian Centre for International Justice.] November 2020 saw the publication of a redacted version of the Afghanistan Inquiry Report by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. The Inquiry was set up in 2016 to investigate potential war crimes and other serious...
On Tuesday, the Office of the President of Ukraine issued a press release concerning plans for creating a Special Tribunal for Russian Aggression. Most of the information in the press release was boilerplate, reaffirming the need for such a tribunal and expressing hope that the international community will get behind one. One comment, however, set off my lawdar: As noted at...
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was created by the Cambodian government in partnership with the United Nations. Its purpose was to prosecute crimes under international and Cambodian law committed between 1975 and 1979, when Cambodia was ruled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), better known as the ‘Khmer Rouge’. On 22 September 2022, the ECCC’s...
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was created by the Cambodian government in partnership with the United Nations. Its purpose was to prosecute crimes under international and Cambodian law committed between 1975 and 1979, when Cambodia was ruled by the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), better known as the ‘Khmer Rouge’. On 22 September 2022, the ECCC’s...
[Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia. Dr O’Brien is President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and a volunteer with the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Committee. Her work on forced marriage has been cited by the International Criminal Court, she has appeared before the ICC as an amicus...
[Raquel Vazquez Llorente is the Head of Law and Policy, Technology Threats & Opportunities, at WITNESS. Wendy Betts is the Executive Director of eyeWitness, initiated by the International Bar Association.] Traditionally, international justice has adjudicated abuses and crimes that occurred well in the past. For the first time in history, we are seeing active and cooperative investigations from the beginning of a...
As part of my position at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Military Studies, I have started a podcast entitled "Lex Ferenda: Conversations about Law and War." Here is the general description: This podcast involves monthly hour-long video interviews with experts whose work and practice focuses on how international law affects the conduct of military operations. Guests will normally be drawn...
[Chidi Anselm Odinkalu (@ChidiOdinkalu) is a Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School.] [Sharon Nakandha (@SherryKyama) is a Program Manager, Accountability and Justice with Open Society-Africa.] In 20 years of the International Criminal Court’s existence, the leadership of its Registry has been an exclusive monopoly of Europeans. This is a danger to the credibility of the court. As the judges of...
[Adrienne Ringin holds a Bachelor of Arts (International Politics) and Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne and currently works as a research assistant to Dr. Rosemary Grey at the University of Sydney with a focus on sexual and gender-based crimes at the International Criminal Court.] September 26 2022 saw the opening of the trial in the case of The Prosecutor...