In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Human Rights Law

21 Jun

[This guest post is from Jonathan Hafetz, Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall University School of Law. He has also represented several Guantanamo detainees.] The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari last week in seven Guantanamo detainee cases marks the end of an important chapter in the post-9/11 habeas corpus litigation.  It leaves in place the D.C. Circuit’s narrow construction of the constitutional...

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21 Jun

At Justice in Conflict, Mark Kersten is keeping track of developments concerning Taylor's detention.  Checking out some of his links, I was struck (not for the first time, of course) by how little the media knows about how the ICC works -- and by their willingness to think the worst of criminal defense attorneys, even in the absence of any...

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20 Jun

So, you're Bob Carr, Australia's Foreign Minister.  You've decided you want to free Melinda Taylor, ICC lawyer, detained and imprisoned by the Libyan government.  You fly to Libya to meet with government officials.  Do you demand Taylor's immediate release, citing the cooperation provisions of SC Res. 1970?  Do you remind the officials that their consistent refusal to allow Saif legal...

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17 Jun

In early May I discussed the OPCD's motion to disqualify Moreno-Ocampo for making a number of inflammatory statements to the press concerning Saif Gaddafi's guilt.  On June 12, just four days before the end of Moreno-Ocampo's tenure as prosecutor, the Appeals Chamber rejected the motion -- but not without emphasizing that he had, in fact, acted unethically.  The decision focused...

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15 Jun

OK, that is a little overdramatic.  Still, the U.S. government has effectively switched sides in the upcoming Supreme Court case: Kiobel v Royal Dutch Shell.  In the first incarnation of this case, the U.S. government had filed a brief supporting the petitioners and rejecting the lower court's holding that corporations cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statute. But in a...

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13 Jun

I haven't been following this issue at all, but I found this discussion on the possible ramifications of a UK gay marriage law fascinating.The Church of England has put out a paper suggesting (among other things) that any UK law that does not guarantee the right to religious solemnization of gay marriage would violate the ECHR's equality guarantee. I don't...

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11 Jun

[Mark A. Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor at Washington and Lee University and author of Reimagining Child Soldiers (OUP, 2012).] Assuredly, discussion of the Charles Taylor sentence might revolve around its length – 50 years, for a 64 year-old man – and the proportionality between such a heavy sentence and the fact that most (but certainly not all) of his criminal...

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07 Jun

The Office of the Prosecutor has filed its response to Libya's challenge to the admissibility of the cases against Saif Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi.  There are a number of interesting aspects to the response.  First, it says nothing about the case of al-Senussi.  That's a curious omission, given that the response specifically points out with regard to Saif (para. 41)...

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