In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

17 Jun

Full disclosure: Taylor is represented by John Jones QC, who is my colleague at Doughty Street Chambers. Charles Taylor has filed a disturbing motion with the Special Court for Sierra Leone's Residual Mechanism, requesting that he be transferred from prison in the UK to a prison in Rwanda because of his mistreatment by the British government. Here are the key paragraphs from the motion's introduction: Charles...

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08 Jun

I want to call readers' attention to a remarkable Israeli NGO, Breaking the Silence, which collects the testimony of Israeli soldiers about the brutalization of Palestinians during the occupation. Here is the NGO's self-description: Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to...

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07 Jun

I had a good chuckle this morning when I read Libya's latest attempt to avoid complying with its obligation to surrender Saif Gaddafi to the ICC. (Which, of course, it may be genuinely unable to do, given that he's still being held in Zintan. But that's another story.) The source of my amusement is Libya's new excuse for not being able to...

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01 Jun

Lawfare reports today on a study published in Political Science Quarterly about how ordinary Pakistanis view US drone strikes in their country. According to the post, the study "[c]hallenge[s] the conventional wisdom" that there is "deep opposition" among Pakistanis to drone strikes and that "the associated anger [i]s a major source of the country's rampant anti-Americanism." I don't have access to the...

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26 May

One of the great advantages of being a legal academic is the ability to get involved in actual litigation. I have consulted on a number of cases at the ICTY, ICTR, and ICC over the years, most obviously serving as one of Radovan Karadzic's legal associates, but it's been a while, and I've been itching to get back in the game. So I...

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24 May

Just a reminder to readers: the ICRC's phenomenal database of customary international humanitarian law is available for free online -- and includes a great deal of information that is not available in the two printed volumes. Here is the ICRC's description: Today, the ICRC has made available on its online, free of charge Customary IHL database an update of State practice...

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22 May

Germain Katanga will be sentenced tomorrow, having been convicted of crimes on the basis of an uncharged, unlitigated mode of participation that the Pre-Trial Chamber assured the defence would not be at issue in the trial and that the Trial Chamber first mentioned more than six months after the 30-month trial ended. The Trial Judgment is a horrorshow, replete with statements...

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20 May

[Christopher Gevers is a lecturer at the School of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Disclaimer: Christopher advised the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (the Applicants) on the international legal aspects of the case and assisted in the drafting of their written submissions. Twitter: @ChrisGevers] On May 19, South Africa’s Constitutional Court heard a landmark universal jurisdiction case involving alleged crimes...

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07 May

We have a new challenger in the competition for worst decision by a military commission ever! Judge Pohl has now issued an order in al-Nashiri concluding that Charge IX, Hijacking or Hazarding a Vessel or Aircraft, states a violation of the international laws of war. Here is the definition of that "war crime," 10 U.S.C. § 950t(23): (23) Hijacking or hazarding a vessel or aircraft.— Any person...

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