OK, that is a little overdramatic. Still, the U.S. government has effectively switched sides in the upcoming Supreme Court case: Kiobel v Royal Dutch Shell. In the first incarnation of this case, the U.S. government had filed a brief supporting the petitioners and rejecting the lower court's holding that corporations cannot be sued under the Alien Tort Statute. But in a...
I wanted to thank Professors Allen, Kraska, and Noyes for their contributions to our discussion on US ratification of UNCLOS. I've learned a great deal from their posts and I hope our readers have as well. I wanted to remind our readers, however, that we will hear from two leading scholars tomorrow -- Jeremy Rabkin and Steven Groves -- who...
[Dr. James Kraska, Commander, U.S. Navy, is the Howard S. Levie Chair of Operational Law at the U.S. Naval War College]. Thanks for the opportunity to talk a bit about the major national security and strategic interests of the United States in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is also a pleasure to exchange thoughts on the...
From the first class I ever took on international law, I've heard (mostly negative) references to the U.S. refusal to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. I've heard again and again throughout my studies about how the U.S. was shirking its global responsibilities as well as how the U.S. was hurting its own national interests by...
That's the question being asked this past week over at US News & World Report's Debate Club. To answer it, US News assembled 7 experts who, with the exception of Bruce Schneier, replied in some form of the negative (see e.g. the responses of Herb Lin (no, or not yet), James Lewis (it's not workable) Sean Lawson (it would be...
[Dov Jacobs is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Leiden University. He can be followed on his blog, Spreading the Jam] On the 30th of May, the SCSL sentenced Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison. The sentencing judgment raises a number of interesting issues. Some commentators, such as William Schabas, or on this blog, Marina Aksenova, have discussed the...
[Mark A. Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor at Washington and Lee University and author of Reimagining Child Soldiers (OUP, 2012).] Assuredly, discussion of the Charles Taylor sentence might revolve around its length – 50 years, for a 64 year-old man – and the proportionality between such a heavy sentence and the fact that most (but certainly not all) of his criminal...
Dear Readers, After seven years of broadcasting our opinions, we'd like to know your opinion about us, so from today until July 11 we're holding our first Opinio Juris Readers' Survey. We'd like to know who are readers are, what they think about the blog and what they would like to see on the blog. The blog and the blogosphere have evolved a lot...
Like most people who believe in international criminal justice, I'm frustrated by the Sudanese government's ability to stonewall the ICC regarding its innumerable crimes in Darfur. But reactions like these don't help: Moreno-Ocampo, who stands down as ICC chief prosecutor in two weeks, called on the Security Council to take tougher action to detain President Omar al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials...
Calls for Papers The American Society of International Law is looking for panel and paper proposals for its 2013 Annual Meeting, International Law in a Multipolar World. Submissions should be in before June 22, 2012. The Australian Journal of International Law has issued a call for articles, case notes and book reviews for its 2012 Annual Volume. Deadline for submissions is June...
Dear readers, I need your advice. I was recently asked by a good journal to peer review a short essay about international criminal law. The essay was quite good, and I would have had no qualms about recommending its publication, but I had the strangest sense of deja vu as I read it. It didn't take me long to realize...
The Office of the Prosecutor has filed its response to Libya's challenge to the admissibility of the cases against Saif Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senussi. There are a number of interesting aspects to the response. First, it says nothing about the case of al-Senussi. That's a curious omission, given that the response specifically points out with regard to Saif (para. 41)...
