In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

15 May

Last week, The Huffington Post published an article with the provocative title, Epidemiologist Slams U.S. Coronavirus Response: ‘Close To Genocide By Default’. The epidemiologist in question was Prof. Dr. Gregg Gonsalves, PhD (Public Health, Yale University), who, according to his online curriculum vitae, is an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, as well as an Associate...

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09 May

[Jonathan Turner is a barrister in London and Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI)] Practising advocates know that what is not included in reply submissions is usually more interesting than what is there. One of the omissions in the ICC Prosecutor’s recent Response on the issue of the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in respect of Palestine is that it does not address the argument made by...

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06 May

[Mathias Holvoet works as a Legal Officer at the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Belgium.] This post is a follow-up post on Kevin Jon Heller’s post ‘the OTP Lets Australia off the Hook’, in which he vehemently criticized the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor’s decision not to open a preliminary examination over the situation in Nauru and Manus Island, after denying to qualify...

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05 May

[Uzay Yasar Aysev is a legal consultant for Global Rights Compliance, specialising in international humanitarian law, criminal and refugee law.]  On 22 January 2020, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) submitted a request to Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC I) for a ruling on the scope of the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in Palestine under article 19(3) of the Rome Statute....

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05 May

[Kate Vigneswaran is a Senior Legal Advisor with the International Commission of Jurists.] As other countries across North Africa entered lockdown in March 2020 to prevent and contain the spread of COVID-19, warring parties in Libya ramped up their hostilities. On 24 March 2020, the day after the UN Secretary-General called for a global ceasefire to combat the pandemic, the first diagnosed case of COVID 19 was...

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01 May

[Jennifer Trahan is a Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs.] While hostility by the current administration against the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) commenced already a few years ago, the opening of the Afghanistan investigation this past spring has reignited it.  Yet, a showdown between the US and ICC—particularly ill-timed during the COVID crisis—benefits neither.  The US should refrain from...

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30 Apr

[Elke Schwarz is a Lecturer in Political Theory at Queen Mary University London and Researcher in ethics and technology. This post is part of our symposium on legal, operational, and ethical questions on the use of AI and machine learning in armed conflict.] Artificial Intelligence (AI) in armed conflict is often considered under the cluster of ‘emerging technologies’, but the concept and field of study has its origins...

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27 Apr

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are computer programs that carry out tasks – often associated with human intelligence – that require cognition, planning, reasoning or learning. Machine learning systems are AI systems that are “trained” on and “learn” from data, which ultimately define the way they function. Both are complex software tools, or algorithms, that can be applied to many different tasks. However, AI and machine learning...

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27 Apr

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools are already in use to help identify targets on the battlefield and they might soon power new types of cyber and autonomous weapons. These technologies could have profound implications for the role of humans in armed conflict and there will be important choices ahead. Among the most pressing – for compliance with international...

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27 Apr

Dhruv Sharma responded today at Justice in Conflict to my recent post arguing that the next ICC Prosecutor should come from the P-3. I wasn't planning on responding, because the post generally caricatures what I wrote. But I have to say something about one of Sharma's arguments that is particularly mistaken and dangerous. Here is what he writes after noting...

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24 Apr

[Charles C. Jalloh is Professor of Law, Florida International University and Member, International Law Commission. He is Chair of the Panel of Experts on the Election of the Prosecutor. Sabine Nölke is the former Ambassador of Canada to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (currently Chargée d'affaires of Canada to Ireland) and Chair of the Committee on the Election of the...

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