The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has rejected an appeal by Maher Arar, a Canadian national who is suing various U.S. government officials for injuries suffered during his "extraordinary rendition" shortly after 9/11 (h/t to Vince Vitowsky). The court, via Judge Jose Cabranes, held that Arar had failed to state a claim under the Torture Victim...
The Virginia Journal of International Law will continue its partnership with Opinio Juris this week with an online symposium featuring three articles recently published in VJIL Vol. 48-4, available here. Our discussion on Tuesday will focus on the constitutional history of American empire at the turn of the twentieth century. In her article, “They say I am not an American…”: The...
As part of the effort to prove itself more like other disciplines and to move away from the trade school model, there's been a clear trend towards peer-reviewed law journals. Witness this out of Harvard, for law generally. It's a move mostly to be applauded, with the caution that peer review can perpetuate orthodoxies in a way that...
This report suggests that this question will soon be considered by the awkwardly named Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. The question arises in one of the ECCC's first cases where the defendant was allegedly given a royal pardon from an earlier domestic conviction for genocide. On the face of it, this doesn't seem a hard question...
I recently blogged about Trial Chamber I's stunning decision to stay Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's trial because of the Prosecutor's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense. The Court held a hearing on the 24th to determine whether, in light of its decision, Lubanga should be released. It has yet to reach a conclusion — but if the...
The NY Times Week in Review has an article written by Graham Bowley on the effect of recent attacks by Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) on Nigeria’s oil infrastructure and the effects of these attacks on world oil prices. The piece begins:When armed rebels from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked...
Nick Kristof asks the right questions about the lack of outrage against Robert Mugabe among the leaders of African states and discusses what may be the best solution to the horrors that have gripped Zimbabwe over these past months: Africa’s rulers often complain, with justice, that the West’s perceptions of the continent are disproportionately shaped by buffoons and tyrants rather than...
As this WaPo article points out, the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan is likely to be the next source of litigation from detainees seeking to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Of course, Boumediene doesn't make it clear that the writ extends to Guantanamo, but it does not rule out extending the Writ there either. That is part of...
This sounds complicated but important: The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the problems in reaching an agreement have been on the...
Well, two experts on the Darfur conflict in Sudan think so. More evidence for my argument with Kevin (and Angelina Jolie) about the downside of the ICC actions in Sudan. Is the International Criminal Court losing its way in Darfur? We fear it is. Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's approach is fraught with risk -- for the victims of the atrocities...
The government of Canada, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the ICC, is apparently quietly lobbying for a withdrawal of ICC arrest warrants against the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army leaders. According to a diplomatic note obtained by the Star, Canada “has already indicated openness, in principle” to supporting a future request to the UN Security Council to defer charges...
Here's my review in the New York Obsever of Benjamin Wittes' new book, Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror. The book is a must read for foreign relations law specialists, in many ways a companion volume to Jack Goldsmith's The Terror Presidency. Where Jack gives us the inside acount, Ben's...
