"Non-citizen nationals" - a very small group of "Americans". Anyone born in a state of the United States is a citizen under the 14th Amendment. Almost everyone else born in sovereign US territory (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam) has citizenship at birth by statute. The only folks who don't have citizenship at birth are those born in American Samoa and...
Reports say that over 200 civilians have been massacred in execution-style killings in the Hama region of Syria after government forces bombarded the area with helicopter gunships and tanks yesterday. Following talks with the International Olympic Committee, for the first time Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to London to compete in this year's Olympic Games. Human Rights Watch points out...
Syria has been hit by a wave of defections, with the latest--that of the ambassador to Iraq--coming yesterday. Kofi Annan has urged the UN to "reunite" regarding plans moving forward with Syria, suggesting "consequences" were Syria not to comply with the latest ceasefire calls. A human rights group, Women Under Siege, has reported that sexual violence is being used in Syria as a weapon...
As the rare American legal academic who has both a JD and a PhD in law (the latter, of course, from a law school outside the U.S.), I think this is an exciting development, for all the reasons that Jason Mazzone laid out nicely last year at Balkinization. I imagine Yale's PhD will be very popular, particularly given that the...
Ansar Dine, an al-Qaeda linked group, has destroyed more shrines at a mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, and vowed to continue destroying UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Foreign Policy discusses the issue further here and offers a slideshow of images of the wreckage here. Saudi Arabia has now made it official: it will not be sending female athletes to compete in this year's...
The International Criminal Court handed down the sentence for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, who received 14 years' imprisonment for conscripting, enlisting and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities. The time since March 16, 2006 that he has spent in detention will be deducted from his sentence. Judge Odio Benito wrote a separate and dissenting decision...
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Over at the St. John's Center for Law and Religion Forum, my colleague Mark Movsesian has posted a fascinating conversation with Professor Andrew Preston (Cambridge), author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of the Faith. Preston's book examines the role faith has played in the conduct of U.S. foreign and military policy over the course of our history. In this...
Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre re-enacted their escape in Bosnia this weekend ahead of Ratko Mladic's trial, which resumed today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Tomorrow, the International Criminal Court will deliver the sentence and reparations order for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, convicted March 14, 2012 of conscripting and enlisting child soldiers and using them to...
Courtesy of the European Trade Union Institute. I have no significant commentary to add, other than to say that I'm glad I live outside of the U.S. Here is the chart: Hat-tip: The Atlantic....
This week on Opinio Juris, we had Kevin Jon Heller weighing in on Melinda Taylor's release in Libya and offering thoughts related to whether she should be prosecuted there. Additionally, Kevin Jon proposed a thought experiment regarding ICC-State cooperation in response to the Melinda Taylor situation and gave an analysis offering more evidence as to why Libya is unable to prosecute Saif al-Islam...
