It's not every day that a law review article comes along that combines two of my interests: greenwashing, whereby large corporations pretend to care about the environment in order to distract people from the fact that they are busily destroying it, and Chevron. So I want to put in a hearty plug for Miriam Cherry and Judd Sneirson's "Chevron, Greenwashing,...
The ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC) has rejected Libya's request to postpone the surrender of Saif Gaddafi so that he can be prosecuted domestically for other crimes. That request was based on Article 95, which reads: Where there is an admissibility challenge under consideration by the Court pursuant to article 18 or 19, the requested State may postpone the...
[Michael Kearney is an LSE Fellow in the Law Department of the London School of Economics] Michael Kearney guest blogs with us to share his knowledge of the Palestinian situation as an external consultant for the Palestinian human rights NGO Al-Haq "I heard from the Americans," Abbas reports. "They said, 'If you will have your state, you will go to the ICC....
As I noted in my previous post, the OTP has implied that it would accept a determination by the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) that Palestine qualifies as a state for purposes of the ICC's jurisdiction. That raises an interesting question: why have the Palestinians never (to the best of my knowledge) asked the ASP to make such a determination? ...
As most readers probably know by now, the Office of the Prosecutor has finally -- after three inexcusable years of inaction -- officially rejected Palestine's attempt to accept the ICC's jurisdiction pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. Politically, I think the OTP has made the right decision; the ICC has enough problems without interjecting itself into one of...
President Obama is set to give a speech later today criticizing Paul Ryan's budget plan. That's all well and good -- the plan is a study in right-wing extremism. But one of Obama's historical references is more than a little problematic. From his prepared remarks (my emphasis): "In this country, broad-based prosperity has never trickled-down from the success of a...
Here is an excerpt from my report on the Chevron-Ecuador Panel at this year's ASIL meetings, published over at ASILcables.org: In my view, the best way to understand Chevron v. Ecuador is as a marriage gone horribly wrong, where, as usual, the children are the biggest losers. In this case, the “children” are theLago Agrio plaintiffs, most of whom are part...
I think it's safe to say that the ECCC is in serious trouble, despite having an excellent International Co-Prosecutor in Andrew Cayley and many intelligent, dedicated staff. As readers probably know, the international reserve co-investigating judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, is resigning his position because interference by the Cambodian government is making it impossible for the Tribunal to investigate new cases. Kasper-Ansermet...
[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State.] Statement Regarding Syria Harold Hongju Koh Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State American Society of International Law Annual Meeting March 30, 2012 It is my honor to speak here again at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law. A year ago, I spoke before this audience about...
Dawood Ismail Ahmed, a Pakistani lawyer and JSD candidate at the University of Chicago, has a very interesting article today at Foreign Policy on Pakistan's opposition to drone strikes. He argues that if Pakistan really wants to put an end to the strikes, which have killed hundreds of innocent Pakistani civilians, it needs to start taking advantage of its options...
Over at EJIL Talk!, Professors Joanna Harrington and Rene Provost note the passage of what Provost has dubbed "Canada's Alien Tort Statute." As for the details, the new Canadian law will now allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada who are victims of terrorism, as well as others if the action has a real and substantial connection to Canada, to...
[Eugene Kontorovich is a Professor of Law at Northwestern School of Law] One of the peculiarities of the Alien Tort Statute is its mix of cosmopolitan conceptions of justice with American exceptionalism. Under the ATS the U.S. has been the only nation in the world allowing for universal jurisdiction ("UJ") in civil suits. So while enforcing international law has been the...
