This IHT report suggests the U.S. is about to slash military aid to Bolivia by 96% in response to Bolivia's failure to ratify agreements shielding U.S. soldiers from the jurisdiction of the ICC. The State Department suggests this is because of a U.S. law requiring such aid to be cut, but it is also truee that federal law allows the...
According to this CNN account, the Somali pirates captured last month by the U.S. Navy are challenging the jurisdiction of the Kenyan court that is planning to try them. The U.S. apparently turned over the suspects to Kenya. The pirates were captured in international waters, but as I pointed out here, any nation should still have jurisdiction to try such...
There’s a relatively new blog out there that I think Opinio Juris readers will find interesting and full of insight: The Transitional Justice Forum. The bloggers at TJF cover all sorts of topics on democratic transitions, post-conflict management, international criminal law, and other related areas. TJF’s bloggers are an impressive group including, among others, Mark Drumbl, Christopher Le...
Last week a NAFTA arbitration panel rendered an award in the case of International Thunderbird Gaming Corp. v. Mexico. The essential issue is whether an investment in certain gaming operations based on assurances given by Mexican authorities could give rise to a NAFTA claim when the government subsequently refused to permit such operations.The key facts are as follows: A written...
I received a thoughtful email from a reader yesterday on my post about Darfur, Kristof and O'Reilly. He writes: "Doesn't it beg the question as to 'the extent [to which] in attacking O'Reilly Kristof is attacking conservatives by proxy'? Mainstream media are indeed disturbing, not least because they set up these facile proxies, which figures like O'Reilly and Kristof are...
President Bush has often insisted that “if you harbor a terrorist, you’re equally as guilty as the terrorists.” In that regard, it’s instructive to consider the ongoing extradition battle between Venezuela and the United States over Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently being held in federal detention in Texas. By any definition, Posada richly deserves the description “terrorist,” yet the...
This on-the-ground report from Sudan provides a brief but interesting glimpse at Sudan's effort to avoid transferring defendants to the International Criminal Court. Sudan has created special tribunals to try individuals of suspected war crimes. If its domestic processes are deemed sufficient by the ICC, then the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction over alleged war crimes in Sudan. This has always...
Here is a weird story. An eighth grader in Nevada entered a spelling bee but was eliminated despite spelling the word "discernible" correctly. The mother was livid and threatened legal action. "I'm a momma bear with her bear claws out. Spellers and academic children don't get all the accolades that the sports kids do. This is one of their few...
The U.S. military may transfer custody of U.S. citizen "enemy combatant" to the Iraqi government, according to this AP article. The article suggests that it would be the first time that a U.S. citizen "enemy combatant" is transferred to Iraq, although it would not be the first time that a U.S. citizen enemy combatant has been transferred to a foreign...
In my initial post yesterday, I discussed some of the ways international tribunals limit the right of defendants to an effective defense. That difficulty, not surprisingly, is not unique to the tribunals; national criminal prosecutions that apply international law – substantively and procedurally – are usually no better, and are often far worse. The current trial...
On January 26th, the Assembly of State Parties to the International Criminal Court elected six judges to serve nine-year terms. This is the second such election; 18 judges were elected in 2003, six for three-year terms, six for six-year terms, and six for nine-year terms. With the exception of Ekaterina Trendafilova of Bulgaria, the five other judges were...
There is an angry debate going on right now between liberal columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and conservative television host Bill O'Reilly. Kristof has devoted an entire column yesterday to attacking Bill O'Reilly and launching a fund to pay for Bill O'Reilly to travel to Darfur. "[M]aybe Mr. O'Reilly's concern is cost, so I thought my readers...
