[Dr Andrew Forde is a Visiting Fellow at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway. Dr Forde worked for more than 10 years with the Council of Europe and the OSCE. Sheila Paylan is an international human rights lawyer and former legal advisor to the United Nations for more than 15 years. She previously served as...
I had hoped not to write any more posts about the international vs. internationalized tribunal debate. I have written extensively on the topic already, and the prospects for an international tribunal grow dimmer with each passing day. Alas, Patryk Labuda's most recent entry on the topic at Just Security requires a response: although the arguments are the same unpersuasive ones...
Evropeyska Pravda is reporting that, although clearly not its first choice, Ukraine would be willing to accept an internationalized tribunal for the crime of aggression as long as it is based in another state's judicial system. Here are the relevant paragraphs, quoting the Deputy Head of the Office of the President: Ukraine decided on these concessions, Andriy Smirnov admitted for the...
On the morning of June 6th, 2023, Ukraine accused Russia of destroying the Kakhovka Dam in the Dnieper River. A few hours later, during the afternoon on the same day, Russia blamed Ukraine for the destruction. Since then, I searched and collected statements by forty-nine other states addressing the destruction. This post analyses and systematises these forty-nine reactions in order to offer a clearer outlook...
Few emotions rival the existential horror a PhD candidate experiences when asked to justify their topic’s relevance to the discipline. Having adopted “Mass Media and International Law” as my banner, I’ve received a fair share of queries about “where’s the law”. Though the frequency of these challenges has decreased with our discipline’s recent gestures towards multi-disciplinarity, their persistence reflects the...
Ambassador Rein Tammsaar, Estonia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has a new post at Just Security arguing in favour of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression. He says many things I agree with, others that I don't. In this post, I want to address what the Ambassador says about the prospect of the General Assembly endorsing a...
[Lindsay Freeman is the Director of the Technology, Law and Policy Program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. Amanda Ghahremani is a lawyer specializing in international criminal law and a Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. Sophie Lombardo is a second year law student at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Graduate Student Researcher at the Human...
[Kristin Henrard is Professor of International Law at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where she co-directs the Fundamental Rights Centre. The views expressed in this paper are the author’s alone.] A. Introduction When identifying minority issues of most relevance to the war and peace negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine, a first step is the identification of the...
Jennifer Trahan is back with another post at Just Security that tries to argue a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression (STCoA) is superior to the internationalized (hybrid) tribunal favoured by (at least) the the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and most recently the US. It will take a couple of responses to cover all of the ways in which...
A remarkable amount of ink has been spilled concerning the ability of various types of aggression tribunals to set aside Vladimir Putin's personal immunity. I have contributed to the blot, most recently arguing that there would be no legal difference in that regard between a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression (STCoA) and an internationalized tribunal, as the hybrid...
[Judge Zak (Zakeria M.) Yacoob is a Retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.] The Court of the Citizens of the World – a peoples tribunal – was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The tribunal considered charges brought against Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression presented by...
The Court of the Citizens of the World’ - a peoples tribunal - was organized by the Cinema for Peace Foundation, relating to the crime of aggression in Ukraine. The tribunal considered charges brought against Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression presented by a Prosecution team, and heard witness testimony from 20 - 23 February 2023 in public hearings...