In association with the International Commission of Jurists

A Modest Suggestion for the Ukrainian Parliament (Updated)

26 Feb

According to VOA News, the Ukrainian Parliament would like the ICC to investigate recently-deposed President Yanukovych: Ukraine’s parliament voted on Tuesday to send fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych to be tried for ‘serious crimes’ by the International Criminal Court once he has been captured. A resolution, overwhelmingly supported by the assembly, linked Yanukovych, who was ousted on Saturday and is now on the...

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25 Feb

Opinio Juris readers who are based in London may be interested in coming to a lecture I'll be giving for the ILA at University College London next week. Here is the relevant information: International Law Association (British Branch) Lecture What is an international crime? Wednesday 5 March 2014, 6-7pm Speaker: Professor Kevin Jon Heller (Prof. of Criminal Law, SOAS) Chair: Dr Kimberley Trapp (UCL) Venue: UCL Faculty of Laws Admission: Free...

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24 Feb

Reprieve, the excellent British human-rights organisation, has submitted a communication to the ICC asking it to investigate NATO personnel involved in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. Here is Reprieve's press release: Drone victims are today lodging a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing NATO member states of war crimes over their role in facilitating the US’s covert drone programme in Pakistan. It...

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23 Feb

Calls for Papers TDM is calling for papers for a special issue on "The Pacific Rim and International Economic Law: Opportunities and Risks of the Pacific Century". The formidable scale and pace of economic and legal development in the Pacific Rim region offers considerable opportunities, but also carries certain risks. The forthcoming Pacific Rim TDM Special Issue will collect views of experienced...

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19 Feb

[Rogier Bartels is a Legal Officer (Chambers) at the International Criminal Court and a research-fellow at the Netherlands Defence Academy. The views below are the author’s alone.] The first part of this post discussed that a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) ends when the NIAC-criteria (a certain level of organisation of the parties groups, and a certain intensity of the armed violence)...

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18 Feb

I rarely get excited about a new book before I've read it -- but I'm excited about this one, Mark Lewis's The Birth of the New Justice: The Internationalization of Crime and Punishment, 1919-1950. Here is OUP's description: The Birth of the New Justice is a history of the attempts to instate ad hoc and permanent international criminal courts and new international...

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18 Feb

[Rogier Bartels is a Legal Officer (Chambers) at the International Criminal Court and a research-fellow at the Netherlands Defence Academy. The below post discusses an argument made at a conference organised by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies in June 2012, that is expanded on in a chapter in the forthcoming book Jus Post Bellum (edited by Carsten Stahn et...

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16 Feb

Calls for Papers The University of Cagliari (Italy), Department of Public Law and Social Studies has issued a call for papers with the theme of Conceptualising Accountability in International Economic Law. The University welcomes ”submissions that describe new (previously unpublished) cutting-edge research in the following focus areas : Accountability and Law of International Development Banks; Accountability and WTO Law; Accountability and International...

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13 Feb

I'm currently in Belgium, teaching an intensive course on international criminal law at Katholieke University Leuven. So I was struck by Eugene Kontorovich's most recent post at the Volokh Conspiracy, in which he uses a new Belgian law permitting euthanasia for minors to criticize the Supreme Court's abolition of the juvenile death penalty in Roper v. Simmons. Here is the crux of...

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12 Feb

Although the ICTY's recent high-profile acquittals have been getting all the attention, it's worth noting that the ICTR Appeals Chamber has just acquitted two high-ranking defendants, Augustin Ndindiliyimana, the former chief of staff of the Rwandan paramilitary police, and François-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, the former commander of a military reconnaissance battalion, on the ground that the Trial Chamber erred in concluding that they...

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11 Feb

One of the most frustrating things about China's response to the Philippines arbitration has been the brevity of its legal discussion and analysis.  In particular, I've long thought that China had a pretty good argument that the Annex VII UNCLOS arbitral tribunal does not have jurisdiction over the dispute since, in many ways, territorial disputes are at the heart of the...

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