International Human Rights Law

I am delighted to announce the publication of my book "The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law."  The book can be ordered from Oxford University Press here; Amazon should have it (at a whopping $8.78 discount) in the next few days.  Here for the last time is the cover: Once again, I want to thank...

Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) held in U.S. v. Hamdan that material support for terrorism is a war crime and thus within the jurisdiction of the military commissions.  The decision represents the apotheosis of the US's utterly self-referential approach to international law, because the CMCR managed to reach that conclusion without citing a single non-American...

Apologies for the light blogging the past couple of weeks -- although the upside is that I am now officially Dr. Heller, having successfully defended my dissertation at Leiden University in the Netherlands a few days ago.  It was an amazing (and amazingly formal) experience, and I'll blog about it once I get the official photos from the university. I've been...

In Serbia, not surprisingly: Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of overseeing the worst massacre in Europe since the end of World War II, has been arrested, Serbian authorities said Thursday. Mladic is Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect for his alleged role in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the enclave of Srebrenica,...

Members of Falun Gong have filed suit against Cisco, alleging the company collaborated with the Chinese government to develop and maintain “Golden Shield” technology. As a result of this technology, Falun Gong members have allegedly suffered “severe and gross abuses, including false imprisonment, torture, cruel assault, battery, and wrongful death.” The complaint, filed by my former colleague Lee Boyd and...

According to TPM Muckraker, the DOJ has authorized prosecutors to indict John Edwards.  So in case you were wondering about the Obama administration's priorities, here they are: violating election laws to cover up an affair, not acceptable.  Ordering torture, no problem. Glad we cleared that up....

This according to the New York Times: The charges — brought by prosecutors Mr. Mubarak had appointed — included hints that former subordinates might testify against him, as onetime allies and government insiders turn on one another. A Cairo criminal court is expected to set a trial date within days, and the Egyptian people could soon see the leader...