The most common reaction to my post on Newtown and the drone program has been to point out that there is a difference between killing in peacetime and killing during war -- that we are both legally and morally more willing to accept the loss of innocent life in the latter, even if the loss in both can be considered...
Upcoming Events The next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum takes place on January 7, 2013 at the IDC Radzyner School of Law. Adv. Sigall Horovitz will give a talk entitled "Think Different – Why Israel Should Join the ICC Rome Statute" – a discussion following the UN General Assembly resolution to recognize Palestine as a non-member State observer, and Adv. Ido Rosenzweig will talk on...
There's been an interesting debate in the blogosphere recently about why people find the murder of 20 young children at Newtown so much more horrible than the routine killing of children in Yemen and Pakistan by U.S. drones. Glenn Greenwald and Falguni Sheth, a philosophy professor at Hampshire College, find the selective outrage indefensible. Ben Wittes and the Telegraph's Brendan...
[Jelia Sane is studying for the English Bar at City University, London. She holds an LLM in Public International Law from University College London and has previously interned at the ICC, the Centre for Justice and International Law, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.] The unanimous acquittal and subsequent release of Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui by Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal...
Upcoming Events The ABA Section of International Law presents the 3rd Annual "Live from L," The Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State Thursday, January 10th, 2013 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM US Eastern Time entitled: "International Lawyering for the U.S. Government in an Era of Smart Power: Emerging Issues for the Next Four Years." More information and registration can be found by clicking here. The Oxford...
In the comments to my first post on the ICC and retroactive jurisdiction, Johnboy4546 suggested that the Palestinians might self-refer only the situation in the West Bank to the Court. Such a referral would have two clear advantages for the Palestinians: (1) it would prevent the OTP from investigating Hamas's rocket attacks, which are almost always launched from Gaza, as well...
I'm gearing up for a Spring Semester teaching at Temple's Tokyo campus. As part of my preparations, I've begun to read-into some of the maritime boundary disputes between China and Japan that have caused so much friction between the two nations of late. Recent news reports have emphasized (i) China's moves by air and sea to challenge Japanese control over waters...
[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle.] On December 15, 2012, one phase of the dispute between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Ghana over the “seizure” of the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad while in a Ghanaian port came to an end, when the International Tribunal for the Law of...
I had an interesting -- and respectful -- disagreement with André de Hoogh last week concerning the right of non-states parties to retroactively accept the jurisdiction of the Court pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. I argued in my post that Palestine could accept the Court's jurisdiction retroactive to whenever it became a state under international law. Andre challenged...
Upcoming Events The American Society of International Law's Domestic Courts Interest Group is hosting its annual workshop December 10, 2012, at Duke University School of Law. More information can be found here. On December 18, at 5:30pm, the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings will host the 9th Annual Raymond Aron Lecture, a talk on “The Internationalization of Law” by Collège de...
According to Enough!, the OTP is investigating the actions of M23 and "other parties" in the DRC: In the aftermath of the March 23 Movement, or M23, seizure of Goma, the International Criminal Court, or ICC,Chief Prosecutor Fatoua Bensouda announced that her office is investigating "allegations of ICC crimes by members and leaders of M23, and by other parties taking advantage of the chaos...
In my essay on signature strikes, I criticize (and I'm not alone) the U.S. practice of considering military-age males in an area of known terrorist activity to be lawful targets. That signature, however, pales in comparison to the possibility that the U.S. is targeting "children with potential hostile intent," as well: The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after...
