The bankruptcy of the U.S. military-commissions system is currently on full display in the trial of Abd al-Rahim Al-Nashiri. Readers who can stomach the spectacle of a tortured detainee being prosecuted for imaginary war crimes committed at a time when there was no armed conflict between the U.S. and al-Qaeda anywhere in the world can find excellent coverage of the...
Republican congressman Allan West channeled Joe McCarthy yesterday, telling supporters at a rally that "he's heard" as many as 80 Democratic representatives in the House are members of the Communist Party. When asked to clarify his remarks, he wouldn't name names -- but he said he was referring to the Progressive Caucus. No problem, then....
In honor of Ozzie Guillen, the manager of the Miami Marlins, who was forced to apologize today to Miami's Cuban-American community for saying that he admired Fidel Castro's ability to avoid being assassinated by the U.S. for five decades, who said the following? I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination,...
The Texas International Law Journal has published its mini-symposium on Karl Chang's article that argues the law of neutrality provides the applicable legal framework for the United States' conflict with al-Qaeda. There are two responses to the article: one by Rebecca Ingber, who is currently a fellow at Columbia Law School; and one by me. Here is the abstract of...
Mr. Davenport makes some very strong claims in his post concerning the OTP's refusal to accept the Palestinian declaration. Although I am on record with my belief that accepting the declaration would be a terrible political move for the ICC, I have a number of questions about Mr. Davenport's claims. I hope he will take the time to answer them...
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...
