Last October, the Lancet released a report by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health that estimated 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the Iraq war. Right-wingers immediately denounced the report, calling it a "fraud," and even lefty types suggested that the report's methodology was flawed, leading to inflated figures. Politicians — particularly those with a...
On Monday, Canada began its first prosecution under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act 2000, which gives Canadian courts conditional universal jurisdiction -- jurisdiction predicated on the perpetrator being present in Canada -- over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed anywhere in the world:A war crimes trial is underway in Canada for the first...
The BBC reports that the U.S. district court in D.C. has dismissed a lawsuit (Ali v. Rumsfeld) by former U.S. military detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq alleging torture and other severe abuses. Apparently, Chief Judge Thomas Hogan dismissed the lawsuit against Rumsfeld on immunity grounds, but a copy of the opinion is not yet on the D.D.C.'s website. When...
Thanks, Crooks & Liars, for this gem: ...
That's always been true in some cases, of course, but maybe there's more potential today. Two recent examples. The first (report from the WaPo here) involves the scaling back by 40 major banks of Iran-related business, which is hitting home in Tehran more than any form of diplomatic action. The move by the banks is apparently at...
On Monday, the UN Human Rights Council voted to discontinue examining the human rights situations in Iran and Uzbekistan, which it was considering under its confidential complaint procedure (known as the "1503 procedure"). See the Reuters story here. The recommendation to end consideration was made by a five-country committee (one from each UN regional group) called the...
SSRN-bashing — most of it justified — has become something of a cottage industry lately. (See here, here, and here, for example.) My own gripe is a bit different: what annoys me the most about SSRN is the interminable delay between uploading a new version of an essay and having it actually replace the old one. As...
Wow. Big news:Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge of supporting terrorism on Monday before a US military tribunal. Looking somber with his hands clasped in front of him, Hicks, 31, stood beside his military lawyer who told the judge his client would not contest the charge of providing "material support for terrorism. The plea came at a hastily arranged...
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy credited with forcing the final peace settlement in the Bosnia wars, is being accused of making a secret 1995 deal with notorious already-indicted Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic to get Karadzic to give up power. Supposedly, Holbrooke agreed to not hunt Karadzic and prosecute him for war crimes if Karadzic would give up power. Media in...
Just out from Oxford University Press: The Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law, edited by my former University of Georgia colleague Dan Bodansky along with Jutta Brunnee and Ellen Hey. It's an impressive collection of 47 entries, with contributions from the likes of Christopher Stone, Peter Sand, Richard Stewart, Scott Barrett, Benedict Kingsbury, and Steve Ratner. I have...
Iran's seizure last week of 15 UK sailors for allegedly crossing into Iranian territorial waters is part of a very complex diplomatic story intertwined with Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, and longstanding UK-Iranian tensions. But it also raises some international legal questions. For instance, were the UK sailors actually in Iranian waters? The UK sailors had authority from...
On March 25, 1807, two hundred years ago today, Parliament passed An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Here is the key language of the Act: Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the...
