I obviously disagreed with the ICC's decision to issue the non-apology apology, but I sincerely hoped that it would at least lead to Taylor's release. Unfortunately, Libya has given no indication that, having suitably humiliated both the Court and Bob Carr, it has any intention of releasing her: Carr said Friday’s talks in the Hague between the ICC and Libyan authorities...
I have often chided David Bernstein for his misrepresentation of the work done by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, so it is only fair to call out progressives when they, too, distort that work. Political Animal, which is associated with the Washington Monthly, is one of my favorite progressive blogs. But a recent post by Kathleen Geier that claims...
As Mark Kersten has already ably discussed at Justice in Conflict, the ICC released a statement yesterday regarding Melinda Taylor's detention. Ironically, although I think everything about the statement is profoundly devastating to the Court's credibility, I am actually slightly less bothered than Mark by the "regret" section of the statement: The ICC deeply regrets any events that may have given...
[John E. Noyes is the Roger J. Traynor Professor of Law at California Western School of Law.] I do not share Professor Rabkin’s pessimistic view of the prospect of international arbitration of law of the sea disputes under the Law of the Sea Convention. LOS Convention tribunals and the law of the sea experts who serve as judges and arbitrators have helped...
[Editors Note: We inadvertently posted the incomplete version of this post by Jeremy Rabkin this morning. This post has his response to Prof. Noyes earlier post today. Sorry for the confusion.] [Jeremy Rabkin is Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law.] Craig Allen has performed a valuable service by reporting the range of sea-related treaties where we have already committed to...
[John E. Noyes is the Roger J. Traynor Professor of Law at California Western School of Law.] My thanks again to Julian Ku for organizing this series on U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention. I write to respond to Mr. Groves’s contention, based on U.S. experience in the Gulf of Mexico, that U.S. accession is not needed to further...
According to The Guardian, Libya is now interrogating Taylor and intends to prosecute her for violations of “national security” (read: doing her job and defending Saif) even if the ICC apologizes: Tripoli said on Wednesday night that Taylor, one of four ICC officers who were on an official visit to Libya, had tried to deliver documents to Saif that were not...
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...
Dapo Akande has just posted about the Pre-Trial Chamber's recent conclusion that Art. 95 of the Rome Statute permits Libya to delay surrendering Saif to the Court pending resolution of its admissibility challenge. I don't want to rehash the general issue; readers can simply check out Dapo's post and my post here. Instead, I want to focus on the one...
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...
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...
[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle.] Let me again thank Opinio Juris for hosting this exchange of views on the Law of the Sea Convention and Julian for his timely efforts in facilitating the exchange. The other four contributors each raise important considerations that warrant serious attention and...
