At long last, Amnesty has weighed in on the debate between me and Ryan about its methodology for determining whether a state exercises universal jurisdiction over at least one international crime. As I expected, and contrary to Ryan's claim, Amnesty does not consider it sufficient for a state to have incorporated the Rome Statute into its domestic legislation. On the...
Calls for Papers The Stanford Journal of International Law seeks contributions by academics, practitioners, and policymakers for its Symposium titled Governing Intelligence: Transnational Threats & the National Security State, which will take place on May 2, 2014 at Stanford Law School. Governing Intelligence will move beyond the surveillance debate to start an interdisciplinary dialogue about the power and limits of intelligence agencies from a comparative and international perspective. Contributions must address either of the...
British artist Banksy knocks it out of the park again, with a rather unusual rendering of a Nativity scene: As ArtInfo notes, this is not Banksy's first comment on the Israel/Palestine conflict. He painted nine amazing murals directly on the wall in 2005, including a boy drawing a chalk ladder over the wall and a girl floating over the wall with...
Oklahoma City police are obviously upset that the UK has pulled ahead of the US in the competition to have the most absurd definition of terrorism. Hence this: On Friday, Oklahoma City police charged a pair of environmental activists with staging a "terrorism hoax" after they unfurled a pair of banners covered in glitter—a substance local cops considered evidence of a faux biochemical assault. Stefan...
[Eugene Kontorovich is a Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law.] What should an international court do when the judges hearing a case are not around to decide it, as has happened on the ICTY in the Seselj case that Kevin has written about? The death or serious illness of an international judge during the pendency of a case is an entirely foreseeable matter. International...
PRESS RELEASE (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) The Hague, 25 December 2013 MS/PR1593e Acquitted defendants to be immediately apprehended and executed The Trial Chamber on Saturday issued a decision on the status of the freedom of individuals acquitted by the Tribunal. The Chamber unanimously ordered all such individuals immediately apprehended and executed. The Chamber's order is made pursuant to Rule...
Today and tomorrow, we are joining forces again with the American Journal of International Law to bring you a discussion of Kristina Daugirdas' article, "Congress Underestimated": Using the World Bank as a case study, this article casts doubt on the empirical foundation for the claim that international organizations undermine democracy by undermining legislatures, at least in the United States. The article...
So, it's official: the ICTY Trial Chamber has decided to let Judge Niang replace Judge Harhoff on the Seselj case: The Trial Chamber on Friday issued a decision on the continuation of the proceedings in the case of Vojislav Šešelj, following the disqualification of Judge Frederik Harhoff and appointment of Judge Mandiaye Niang to the Bench. The Chamber unanimously ordered that the...
In my previous post, I questioned Ryan's claim that Amnesty International's totals concerning the number of states exercising universal jurisdiction over at least one international crime "may be significantly inflated." I pointed out that, contrary to what he was asserting, the report did not count a state simply because it it had incorporated the Rome Statute into its domestic legislation; on...
Not long ago, Amnesty International released an updated version of its massive study "Universal Jursidiction: A Preliminary Survey of Legislation Around the World." The report concluded, inter alia, that 86% of the world's states exercise universal jurisdiction over at least one kind of international crime. (Most commonly, war crimes.) In a post today at Just Security, my friend and regular sparring...
As the political crisis in Ukraine over the government’s decision not to sign an Association Agreement with the EU passes its second week, this conflict and the positioning over other Russian “Near Abroad” countries (especially Armenia, Moldova, and Georgia) are good examples of the interrelationship of norms and geopolitical strategy. The situation has been largely described in terms of Putin’s reaction to...
The drive from Paarl to Cape Town was only forty-five minutes. The plan was for Nelson Mandela to address the world at the Grand Parade, the great public square adjacent to the Fort of Good Hope, where South Africa’s founding father Jan van Riebeck had established a toehold for the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. ...
