You have heard the news and know what might happen. Your President may pardon a war criminal. You, certainly, disapprove. You believe in international justice and you are convinced war criminals need to be punished for their crimes. You want to do something about it, but you have read the blog posts and newspapers. Judging by recent experience, the ICC will likely not help. Yours...
A few days ago, the New York Times broke an explosive story on Colombia. The journal claimed Major General Nicacio Martínez, the head of the Colombian Army, had issued new and worrisome targeting orders for his troops. Soldiers were requested “not to demand perfection” and to “do anything to boost their results”. According to the article, the order asks commanders to “launch operations with 60...
I had the pleasure on Wednesday of attending Keith Raynor's talk "International Criminal Justice: Where Does It Go from Here?" at Lincoln's Inn in London. I had never been to an Inn of Court before, and it was great fun. I still can't get over not being allowed to go the bathroom during dinner, and -- as someone who...
[Alexander Greenawalt is a Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] I am honored to provide this commentary on this terrific new book by Jonathan Hafetz. Let me begin by highlighting some of the things that make this publication a valuable contribution to the literature about International Criminal Law (“ICL”). ...
[Mark Kersten is a researcher based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the deputy director of the Wayamo Foundation and creator of the blog Justice in Conflict. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] Understanding selectivity is something of a holy grail among scholars of observers of international criminal justice....
[Gabor Rona is Visiting Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Armed Conflict Project at Cardozo Law School. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] If like me, you have always believed that the arc of the universe does, indeed, to paraphrase the 19th Century Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker, bend toward international justice, this may be a good...
[Jonathan Hafetz is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Center for Democracy at the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] The central purpose of Punishing Atrocities through a Fair Trial is to unpack and examine the enduring tension in international criminal law between principles of fairness, on one hand,...
I wanted to draw readers’ attention to an important case decided this Wednesday by Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace, the tribunal set up to spearhead its transitional justice process. The case involves the extradition request of Seuxis Pauxias Hernández Solarte, better known as “Jesús Santrich”, a demobilized FARC commander accused of narco-trafficking by the US. As a demobilized FARC member, Santrich is covered by the Colombian Peace...
I am delighted to announce that Angela is the newest permanent member of Opinio Juris! We have thoroughly enjoyed her blogging this past month and look forward to hearing much more from her in the future. As a reminder, Angela is a Zimbabwean international lawyer who currently works for the Wayamo Foundation. She focuses on enhancing the domestic capacity of African prosecutors...
Call for Papers The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at The University of Texas at Austin, School of Law invites submissions for an interdisciplinary conference on the theme of "Prison Abolition, Human Rights, and Penal Reform: From the Local to the Global," which will be held from the 26-28 September 2019 in Austin, Texas. Mass incarceration and overcriminalization...
Call for Papers The National Research University Higher School of Economics and PluriCourts are pleased to announce a call for papers for their conference on "Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property: Emergence of New International Customary Law Rules – by Whom?" on 3-4 October 2019 in Moscow, Russia. Paper proposals should be submitted via e-mail to Prof. Geir Ulfstein (geir [dot]...
On 17 May 2017, Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut gave a talk at Peking Law School about the role of victims at the ICC. The talk, which was recorded and then transcribed, included a number of shocking comments, such as describing "the Africans" as "a group of 54 countries who provide the suspects and the accused" to the Court. Judge...