I don't know very much about the individual prosecutors, but the lineup doesn't exactly strike me as indicative of an anti-African, neo-colonialist international organization: Ms Adesola Adeboyejo is to handle the Muthaura hearings for the Office of the Prosecutor. Adeboyejo has worked at the International Criminal Court for Rwanda (ICTR) as a prosecutor and handled the case against Pauline Nyiramasukuko...
In addition to Brennan’s fascinating remarks on targeting, etc. last night, which Marty reprints below, he took occasion to address the legislation now pending in Congress that aims to guide (to use a word) U.S. terrorism detention operations. For those who lost track over the summer, when last we left off, both houses of Congress were considering bills that...
One of the most remarkable aspects of how conservative U.S. scholars approach international law is their absolute certainty that the American position on extraordinarily difficult issues is always correct. Consider, for example, Jack Goldsmith's articulation today of when the UN Charter permits the U.S. to use force in self-defense against non-state actors: If the president is authorized to use force against...
Something I learned about while I was in China is that China claims, as a matter of international law, that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the (oil-rich) South China Sea. This graphic illustrates the scope of China's sovereignty claims. China hasn't had a navy that could enforce this claim, until now. So Vietnam and the Philippines have been...
Peter Margulies (Roger Williams) responded to my blogging about criminal membership and al-Bahlul at Lawfare. I wrote a response, which Lawfare's Bobby Chesney was kind enough to post for me. Instead of reposting the lengthy exchange here, interested readers should check out the posts at Lawfare. You can find Peter's original post here, and my response here. Feel free to...
Next month, the University of Maryland School of Law will host a festshcrift honoring Professor Hungdah Chiu. Professor Chiu was a professor at U. Maryland and a well-known scholar of international law. He also was one of the first, and still one of the most important, scholars on the study of Chinese law (including both China and Taiwan) in the...
Like Julian, I can't find the text of a "report" per se, but I did find this on the Human Rights Council's website: GENEVA (13 September 2011) – Commenting on the report of the Panel of Inquiry on the flotilla incident of 31 May (Palmer Report), released this month, a group of United Nations independent experts* criticized its...
Ah, the U.N., such a complicated organization that almost never speaks with one voice. Hence, while the panel appointed by the Secretary-General found the Israeli blockade of Gaza legal, the panel appointed by the Human Rights Council has found the opposite. GENEVA (Reuters) - Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to...
Well, the Center for Constitutional Rights certainly thinks so Human rights lawyers and victims of clergy sexual abuse filed a complaint on Tuesday urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to investigate and prosecute Pope Benedict XVI and three top Vatican officials for crimes against humanity for what they described as abetting and covering up the rape and sexual assault...
I will delay any detailed response to Kevin’s typically insightful posts about the CMCR’s recent decision, particularly its conclusion of a “substantial showing” that conspiracy to violate the laws of war is “an offense against the law of armed conflict.” For now, I will note that I have some similar concerns to those Kevin expressed (e.g. on the relationship or...
As I noted in my previous post, the CMCR's opinion in al-Bahlul repeatedly cites the Nuremberg-era crime of criminal membership in defense of its belief that material support for terrorism and conspiracy qualify as war crimes. I continue to believe that the best counter-arguments to that idea are (1) that criminal membership was not a war crime at Nuremberg (the...
Even I thought the Court of Military Commission Review couldn't reach such an absurd conclusion. I was wrong: The Government has made a “substantial showing" that the conduct alleged, including appellant’s (an AUEC’s) agreement with bin Laden and others to commit the object offenses, with knowledge of and intent to further the unlawful purposes of that agreement, and commission of the...
