In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

13 Apr

UNTOLD STORIES: HIDDEN HISTORIES OF WAR CRIMES TRIALS A two-day international symposium to uncover and explore some of the less well-known war crimes trials, both international and domestic. Melbourne Law School 15th and 16th October 2010 Presented by The Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, Melbourne Law School, and supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant Organizers: Gerry Simpson, Tim McCormack, Kevin Heller,...

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09 Apr

I don't fully understand the nature of the legal charges against Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon. It sounds like, from this Economist article, that he is being accused of some version of "prosecutorial" and "judicial" misconduct for refusing to follow the terms of Spain's 1977 amnesty law preventing investigations into Franco-era crimes.  Garzon apparently held that there is a consensus that...

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07 Apr

As the Washington Post notes, the Obama administration has authorized the CIA to assassinate Aulaqi wherever he is found.  It is very unlikely that CIA agents qualify as lawful combatants -- they don't distinguish themselves from the civilian population, they don't carry their arms openly, etc.  So, let's assume that CIA agents manage to kill Aulaqi in Afghanistan.  I assume...

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06 Apr

So, it turns out that the US military was lying through its teeth when it claimed that the three Afghan women murdered during a "bungled" Special Operations attack in Afghanistan six weeks ago were not killed by NATO -- read: American -- forces: NATO military officials had already admitted killing two innocent civilians — a district prosecutor and local police...

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04 Apr

Happy Easter, everyone!  I recognize this is a bit of an unpleasant topic to bring up on a holy day, but it is worth noting that the rumblings about litigation against the Vatican and the Pope over the various child-sex-abuse scandals continue.  Lawyers in the UK are actively researching how and whether to bring legal action during the Pope's upcoming...

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03 Apr

Genocide is one of those phrases with both highly potent political ramifications as well as highly complicated legal requirements.  These two characteristics, GUÉNAËL METTRAUX argues in the IHT, make the obsessive focus on whether something is or is not a genocide (Armenia? Srebenica?) a largely hopeless and unhelpful exercise for historical events. The very proposition that legal concepts such as genocide could...

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03 Apr

I love Foreign Policy's blog, Passport.  Along with Democracy Arsenal, it's one of the two best blogs for analysis of (duh) US foreign policy.  Which is why I was shocked to read a recent post by Andrew Swift entitled "Is Karl Rove a War Criminal?", because Swift's analysis would make a first-year law student blush in embarrassment.  Here is how...

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02 Apr

When the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber approved the Prosecutor's request for authority to investigate alleged "crimes against humanity" in Kenya, I didn't notice this long and powerful dissenting opinion (around p. 84) by one of the judges (Hans-Peter Kaul).  The standard for authorizing an investigation is pretty easy to satisfy (at least it sounds that way to me), so the dissent...

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01 Apr

Add another African case to the ICC's docket. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, has given its prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo the green light to investigate the role of senior politicians in Kenya's post-election violence that killed 1,300 Kenyans in 2008. The decision allows Mr. Ocampo to take the next step, which would be passing down indictments against senior Kenyan politicians, some...

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30 Mar

AP reports that a Dutch court of appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling that held the UN could not be sued for its failure to protect Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica: Appeals judges have ruled that relatives of victims of Europe's worst massacre since World War II cannot sue the United Nations for compensation in a Dutch court. Lawyers for...

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