Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times says that John Brennan has proposed a major reorganization of the CIA that will, to a large extent, break down the deep bureaucratic divide between agency analysts and clandestine operatives. Historically, analysts engage in research and, as their name suggests, intelligence analysis. Some of that was obscure and abstract--for example writing reports on the...
How does an international-law doctrine become conventional wisdom without actually having support in the practice of states? It starts with one article asserting the doctrine, but failing to defend it. Then another article makes the same claim, citing only the first article. And then another. And another. And so on -- until no one remembers that the first article did not...
Last September, Ghana commenced an arbitration under Annex VII of the UN Convention for the Law of Sea seeking judicial confirmation of its rights to explore for oil and other resources in maritime areas disputed by its neighbor Cote D'Ivoire. This past January, the two countries agreed to submit a dispute over maritime boundaries to a special chamber of the International Tribunal for...
Japan has been slowly moving to modify its domestic law, both constitutional and legislative, restricting the use of its military forces outside of Japan. In its latest political discussions, it is worth noting that Komeito, a partner to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has been insisting on the three "Kitagawa" principles as a basis for any new law governing the...
Events On Tuesday, 3 March, Opinio Juris' own Kevin Jon Heller will be giving a Supranational Criminal Law Lecture at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague entitled "What is an International Crime?" The event starts at 19:00 and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Calls for Papers The Board of Editors of Trade, Law and Development [TL&D] is pleased to invite original, unpublished manuscripts for publication in the...
[Patryk I. Labuda is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Before joining the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, he worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan.] Although international criminal law is increasingly assimilated with the International Criminal Court (ICC), hybrid justice remains surprisingly common thirteen...
Events This Friday, February 27, from 12pm to 1pm ET, join the American Society of International Law New Professionals and International Criminal Law Interest Groups for a special online event featuring speakers from the international courts and tribunals in The Hague and other organizations engaged in international criminal law. "Getting Started in International Criminal Law" is part of the ASIL New...
Big news -- and news I wasn't expecting: A former prisoner at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from Australia on Wednesday won a legal challenge to his terrorism conviction before a military court. The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review struck down the March 2007 conviction of David Hicks in a unanimous ruling that reverses what had been one...
Lately, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the future of cyberspace and how to deal with the coordination and collective action problems that are leading to the normalization of cyber insecurity. As I've written previously, I'm skeptical that the standard legal regulatory move -- proscription -- will work at either the individual or the State level. Thus, I've...
[Charlotte Peevers is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Technology, Sydney and author of ‘The Politics of Justifying Force: the Suez Crisis, the Iraq War, and International Law' (Oxford University Press: 2013). Part one of this guest post can be found here.] Legal-Political Authority and International Law Any review of the inquiry hearings would be incomplete without a word from Tony...
Regular readers of the blog know that one of my hobbyhorses is the "unwilling or unable" test for self-defense against non-state actors. As I have often pointed out, scholars seem much more enamored with the test than states. The newest (regrettable) case in point: my friend Claus Kress, who is one of the world's best international-law scholars. Here is what he writes...
[Charlotte Peevers is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Technology, Sydney and author of 'The Politics of Justifying Force: the Suez Crisis, the Iraq War, and International Law' (Oxford University Press: 2013).] In the past few weeks we have learned, though we have suspected for quite some time, that the Chilcot Inquiry will not be in a position to publish...
