In association with the International Commission of Jurists

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22 Jul

Related to my post yesterday about the presence requirement for invoking universal jurisdiction (with respect to the UK's new genocide law amendment), QC Ken Macdonald (visiting professor at the London School of Economics) has proposed in The Times an interesting possible solution to deal with what I would call the "Colin Powell" (or, per Macdonald, "Henry Kissinger") dilemma: Of course a...

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21 Jul

My thanks to Deb for her post on the Preliminary Report.  I won't rehash what she said; I just wanted to offer a few thoughts on the military commissions and the detention policy.  First, I think it is interesting that the Obama administration seems to be conceding that "material support for terrorism" is not a violation of the laws of...

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21 Jul

It has been a fascinating two weeks blogging here, and I certainly learned a lot. Some outstanding questions I haven't answered, but unfortunately tomorrow I must turn from these duties to more tedious legal tasks -- jury duty. Thank you  the OpinioJurists for having me....

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21 Jul

Lite-blogging Ken notes the front page WSJ story today, "Swiss Banks Freeze Out US Clients," July 21, 2009.  The freeze-out is a response to UBS and its fight with the IRS, which wants information on US taxpayers (not necessarily just citizens).  I have two questions, neither of which I will try to answer: First, what is the competitive advantage of a...

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21 Jul

As Ken noted, it was my birthday when I started my blogging stint here, and as I wind down my stint here, I''ll observe another birthday. In a few weeks it will be the first anniversary of the Russo-Georgian war, which saw Russia  conquere Georgian territory and cement its control on those parts of Georgia it already occupied. I trust...

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21 Jul

British Justice Secretary Jack Straw recently proposed amending the United Kingdom's International Criminal Court Act of 2001 (which permits universal jurisdiction prosecution of atrocity crimes) to allow authorities to file cases for atrocities committed as far back as January 1, 1991. This would close a loophole that has been giving safe haven to génocidaires who enter the UK after...

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21 Jul

In 1949, a land that had for hundreds of years been home to Muslim peoples was forcibly seized by outsiders. They implemented a policy of ethnic dislocation and colonization. While some of the Muslims, chafing under the occupation, turned to terrorism,  the recalcitrant state refused to budge even until today. And the occupied country is
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21 Jul

Cross-posted at Balkinization UPDATE: The task force's interim report is here. A related protocol on how cases to be prosecuted will be handled is here. Thanks SCOTUSblog. Among the many stories out today about the Administration’s decision to postpone the final reports of its task forces on detention and interrogation policy, Isikoff’s in Newsweek and Gerstein’s in Politico seem to...

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21 Jul

David Bernstein has another snide post about Human Rights Watch today, this time concerning a presentation Sarah Leah Whitson gave about the Middle East at a panel discussion. I won't bother debating Bernstein's characterization of the presentation; you can watch it here.  I'm more interested in the ease with which Bernstein disposes of the extremely complicated international-law issues raised by...

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20 Jul

I want to thank Opinio Juris for having me over the next couple of weeks as a guest-blogger. I noticed that Eugene Kontorovich's thought-provoking posts last week dealt primarily with the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. My posts to start will not be that focused. If I had to discern one overarching theme for...

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20 Jul

Readers may have noticed we didn't have much to say about last week's ICJ judgment in Costa Rica v. Nicaragua, which involved disputed water rights in the San Juan river (the full judgment is here; for those interested in a short version, the ICJ Registry's summary is here).  Well, Marko Milanovic of EJIL: Talk! (and a former OJ guest blogger)...

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