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22 Apr

The Chief Prosecutor for the ICTY is defending herself from charges by her former deputy that she improperly agreed to conceal information that could have exposed Serb responsibility for the Bosnian genocide, according to this IWPR report. According to Carla Del Ponte's spokeperson, "the suggestion that there was a deal to conceal evidence is completely false." The mini-tempest was raised by...

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21 Apr

Professor Eric Posner's op-ed in the Saturday WSJ($) (free version now available here) offers a typically unsentimental, hard-eyed assessment of the value of international human rights law. That value, according to Posner, appears to be zero. Here is brief excerpt,(Continue Reading) Today, the future of the international human rights legal regime is bleak. And yet if what matters is not...

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20 Apr

What happens if a foreign national is informed of his VCCR rights and declines the opportunity to invoke them? That was one of the critical issues in the recent death penalty case of Marquez-Burrola v. State, 2007 WL 1140411. Here is an excerpt of the decision from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest court in Oklahoma...

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19 Apr

Although the sweetheart deal Paul Wolfowitz arranged for Shaha Ali Riza strikes me as far more problematic than it does Julian, we should not let that dispute distract our attention from the many other indefensible things Wolfowitz has done as head of the World Bank. Exhibit A: trying to undermine the Bank's traditional emphasis on family planning in developing...

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19 Apr

How did I miss this? Yesterday, Rwanda filed an application against France in the International Court of Justice seeking a declaration that certain French arrest warrants against Rwandan government officials violate international law (only the press release announcing the application, but not the application itself is online. While you are reading the press release, check out the spiffy new...

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19 Apr

‘Tis the season for academic conferences. I’m off today to participate in a conference tomorow, April 20, organized by Professors John Kroger and John Parry at Lewis and Clark Law School, entitled “Crime, War Crimes and the War on Terror.” Addressing the linkages (and tensions) implicit in this theme, the Conference will consist of four panels: (1)...

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19 Apr

I've slammed Amnesty International in the past for their seemingly one-sided criticism of U.S. and Israeli forces, so I should note in all fairness that Amnesty International has a new report out alleging that the Taleban forces in Afghanistan are engaging in intentional and repeated violations of the law of war. The BBC summary is here. The Taleban have...

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19 Apr

[Professor Bill Dodge teaches at Hastings College of Law and is an expert on the Alien Tort Statute] Last September, Opinio Juris hosted an online workshop to consider the forthcoming article by Curt Bradley, Jack Goldsmith, and David Moore, “Sosa, Customary International Law, and the Continuing Relevance of Erie.” The article has now come forth, and I have written a brief response...

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18 Apr

James Gathii of Albany Law School has organized the third annual Third World and International Law (TWAIL) conference, to be held at Albany Law School on April 20 and 21. According to the conference description:One of the primary goals of this two-day conference, to be held between 20th to the 21st of April 2007, is to bring together a...

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18 Apr

I'm wondering if this line will pop up in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. The shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, was a permanent resident alien. I don't know if the National Rifle Association conceives its mission to include the rights of noncitizens to bear arms (a little tricky given the Second Amendment's use of "the People"), or whether...

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17 Apr

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, (the second worst shooting spree in world history) there has been a tremendous outpouring of criticism in the world press, particularly European press, against the United States regarding our gun control laws (or lack thereof). I am quite sympathetic to those arguments. But just to put matters in perspective, I did a...

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