In association with the International Commission of Jurists

What If Federal Courts Close Their Doors to Human Rights Litigation?

05 Mar

Maybe, says M. Taylor Fravel at the Diplomat. In a recent press conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared to take an important step towards clarifying China’s claims in the South China Sea – and suggesting what the line might not mean. First, the spokesperson, Hong Lei, distinguished between disputes over “territorial sovereignty of the islands and reefs of the Spratly Islands” and...

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03 Mar

Kudos to Chris Whytock for a wonderful conference yesterday at UC Irvine addressing the topic of human rights litigation in state courts and under state law. The timing of the conference could not have been better, coming on the heels of the Kiobel oral argument on Tuesday, in which the principal defense of Kathleen Sullivan was that corporations should...

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02 Mar

The ABA Journal has a cover story about the threat posed to island states by climate change. This is a topic we have discussed on Opinio Juris at various times. Duncan wrote at length about the Maldives; I had a shorter piece here, and there are various references in the midst of other blog posts. The Journal article is long and...

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02 Mar

Like many readers, I never miss FP's online "Morning Brief," which provides links to numerous interesting international developments.  It's an incredibly useful and erudite feature -- which is why I was so surprised to see the following headline this morning: A U.S. court dismissed charges against the president of Sri Lanka for war crimes. Um, no.  The case did not involve war...

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01 Mar

Sudan and newly-independent South Sudan have featured in many news stories over the last several years; a headline in today’s Washington Post, for example, reads “South Sudan: Sudan bombed 2 oil wells in South Sudan, is massing troops near disputed border.” Elections and the formation of a new state, the on-going saga of Sudan’s leaders and the International Criminal Court, and most recently the threat of more conflict have ensured attention from the international community and the US foreign policy and national security teams. On March 9, Friday, 9-10:30 am, CSIS will host at its Washington DC offices a panel discussion on current events in Sudan and South Sudan by two of the leading academic and NGO experts: Loyola University (Los Angeles) anthropology professor Jok Madut Jok, who is also Undersecretary, Ministry of Culture and Heritage of his homeland, South Sudan; and John Ryle, executive director of the Rift Valley Institute, the leading NGO offering policy and academic expertise on the region, and professor of anthropology and human rights practice at Bard University.  The event  will be moderated by Richard Downie, Deputy Director of the CSIS Africa Program.  RSVP information below the fold.
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29 Feb

It is my pleasure to announce that the Journal of International Criminal Justice, the leading journal in the field, has just published a special issue on the crime of aggression to commemorate its 10th anniversary.  The special issue, which is edited by Claus Kreß and Philippa Webb, contains a variety of fascinating articles on aggression from a number of leading...

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27 Feb

It won't save his job, for reasons Julian mentioned a week or so ago, but it's still good news: Spain's top court acquitted renowned judge Baltasar Garzon on Monday of abuse of power by trying to investigate Franco-era atrocities, in a case that exposed deep wounds dating back to the civil war. Six members of the seven-strong Supreme Court...

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26 Feb

All is proceeding as my colleague Anna Gelpern has foreseen. Indeed. Years ago, she mentioned to me in passing that the markets seemed remarkably unaware, or anyway remarkably sanguine, about the question of whether local law (e.g., Greek law) or foreign law (e.g., English law) governed as the choice-of-law clause for the vast tonnage of European sovereign debt.  Today, we find...

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26 Feb

The blog is run (so far, solely) by Sonia Cardenas, the Charles A. Dana Research Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Human Rights Program at Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  Here is her description of the blog: This site explores universal jurisdiction, through the prism of politics and human rights.  Universal jurisdiction is the revolutionary idea that...

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