Complementarity and a Potential Settlements Case: A Response to the OTP’s Report on its Preliminary Examination of the Situation in Palestine

[Steven Kay QC is Head of Chambers at 9 Bedford Row. He has appeared as leading counsel in many significant international criminal trials (Tadić, Milošević, Musema, Gotovina, Kenyatta) and Joshua Kern is a Barrister at 9 Bedford Row. He has defended clients at the ICC (Kenyatta), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) (Ieng Sary), and the International Criminal...

The Philippines' withdrawal from the ICC becomes effective this Saturday, March 17. There are domestic legal proceedings underway that have the potential to nullify the withdrawal. But if the withdrawal goes forward, we are faced with an important question: what happens to the OTP's preliminary examination? This is, of course, Burundi redux. In that case, the OTP preserved its ability to...

Jean-Pierre Bemba, recently finally acquitted by the Appeals Chamber, dropped quite the legal bombshell last night on the ICC: he is demanding nearly €70,000,000 from the Court -- €22,000,000 in compensation for the 10 years he spent in detention; €4,000,000 in legal fees; and €42,400,000 for the economic loss he has suffered as a result of the Court's mismanagement of property it...

Events The International Nuremberg Principles Academy is pleased to announce an international conference on "Paving the Path of Human Rights: Synergies between International Criminal Law and UN Agenda 2030" on 3-4 May 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany. More information on the conference, including registration, can be found here. Announcements The Codification Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs recently added...

[Srinivas Burra is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Legal Studies, South Asian University, New Delhi.]  Recent military strikes between India and Pakistan merit analysis to assess their legality under international law. As discussed (here and here), they have relevance to the discussions on the legality of the use of force, particularly in relation to the emerging debates on the...

[Alexandra Lily Kather is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. Anne Schroeter is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. This post represents the personal views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. This is Part II of a two-part post.] This change of course...

[Alexandra Lily Kather is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. Anne Schroeter is a Legal Advisor at ECCHR’s International Crimes and Accountability Program. This post represents the personal views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. This is Part I of a two-part post.] With ISIL’s territorial control...

Livio Zilli is a Senior Legal Adviser & UN Representative at the International Commission of Jurists. Background Abortion is a highly safe and reliable medical procedure when performed by skilled health care providers in sanitary conditions. In contrast, “illegal” abortions, performed without safeguards, are generally unsafe and lead to high rates of complications and to maternal deaths and morbidity. Some 47,000 women...

[Dhruv Sharma is an LLM Candidate and a Chevening Cambridge Trust Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He is an alumnus of the National Law University, Delhi. Utkarsh Srivastava is an Advocate practising in the Courts and Tribunals in India. He is an alumnus of the National Law University, Delhi.] Prologue On 14 February 2019, a dastardly terrorist attack was carried...

The FAO has asked me to post the following advertisement for five positions with the organization. Three are based at FAO headquarters in Rome; the other two are in Addis and Dakar. We are currently recruiting for five positions; the announcements are posted here. The posts are in: Development Law Branch, which undertakes normative work and supports Member States in developing their legislation...

Call for Papers The Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is pleased to announce a call for papers for a workshop on "International law’s invisible frames – social cognition and knowledge production in international legal processes." The workshop will address two closely related strands of analysis in recent international legal theory: social cognition and knowledge production. Applicants may employ...

I wanted to call readers attention to a particularly interesting ongoing case regarding recognition of governments in the context of Venezuela. The case (Rusoro Mining Ltd. v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) revolves around damages caused to Rusoro, a Canadian company, by Venezuela’s nationalisation of the gold mining sector. In 2016, an ICSID tribunal ordered Venezuela to pay approximately one billion...