Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI

Like many young, lefty international lawyers, one of my intellectual heroes is Philippe Sands. He is a remarkable scholar and an equally gifted advocate, and he puts both to good use no matter how unpopular the position or client — as his representation of the Libyan government in its challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi demonstrates. Above all, he has always struck me as a deeply principled person. So I am not surprised in the least that he has decided to quit the Liberal Democrats to...

...Office of Public Counsel for the Defense, has asked the court to report Libya to the U.N. Security Council over its failure to extradite Saif al-Islam Gaddafi to The Hague. ECOWAS has condemned what it called an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau after reports emerged of soldiers taking control of a central area of the country’s capital ahead of a planned runoff election, slated for April 29th. Mali’s new President has vowed total war against the Tuareg rebels in the north. At the Summit of Americas, taking place this weekend in...

...motivation, fearing that the US would use intervention in Syria to target them as well. Foreign Policy has a piece about the limits of acting in Syria for the US, citing limited options, limited interests and limited reasons for getting involved Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and spy chief Abdullah el-Senussi will stand trial in Libya beginning September 19th, according to the Prosecutor General. Two attacks by suspected Boko Haram fighters have killed 24 people in Nigeria’s northeast in the latest violence believed to be in revenge against vigilantes. Iran...

...three first impressions from a recent conference at the US Naval Academy on the Ethics of Military Cyber Operations. Further on novel military operations, Ken Anderson posted a summary of his recent article, co-authored with Matthew Waxman, on the Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers. Kevin Heller welcomed Communis Hostis Omnium, a blog on maritime piracy, to the blogosphere. He posted on Benjamin Netanyahu’s terrible week and analysed Libya’s challenge of the admissibility of the ICC cases against Gaddafi and Al-Senussi. He then addressed the question, raised in the comments...

In a post today at Commentary, Boot argues that Taylor’s arrest after going into exile makes it more likely that Gaddafi will fight to the death instead of negotiating a gracious exit from power: Once upon a time, an autocrat could step down and live out his days securely in the south of France or some other plush locale. That option still exists for some; for instance Tunisia’s deposed strongman, Ben Ali, is now in Saudi Arabia. Maybe he’s even taken over Idi Amin’s old villa. But Qaddafi is a...

While the world waits to learn the fate of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the trial of another former Mid East Leader, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, is currently underway. In terms of international interest, Mubarak may be no Gaddafi. But since the Mubarak trial concerns the former President of a strategicly important country charged with ordering the killing of unarmed protesters challenging his rule, it has the potential to rank with some of the most important world trials of all time — Goering, Eichmann, Ceausescu, Milosevic, Saddam. On the...

...tangible effects that the conflict has imparted upon international peace and security, the international community failed to adopt robust measures to bring an end to such atrocities. The Libyan conflict assumed a contrasting trajectory through NATO’s timely military intervention and the ousting of long-standing dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The end result, however, was – and remains – a state of anarchy, also characterised by the continued commission of mass atrocity crimes. These and other developments prompted a critical reflection of international legal norms pertaining to human protection vis-à-vis the ‘responsibility to...

Despite high rhetoric being flung across the Security Council yesterday, Russia and China’s vetoing of the European-drafted resolution condemning Syria’s brutal crackdown on civilians should come as no surprise. There are a number of political-tuned reasons to explain why this Resolution failed. The first relates to the disappointment and anger expressed by China and Russia at the intervention in Libya. Both have largely been shut out of any post-Gaddafi economic windfall and it is quite clear that they did not want to see a repeat performance. Second, unlike the case...

...Jennifer Trahan analysed the merits of a referral and expressed some concerns about its implementation. Kevin also weighed in with a few thoughts. Jennifer’s comment then led Kevin to develop his argument that the Security Council cannot implicitly amend the ICC Statute, which triggered further discussion in the comments. Continuing on the ICC, Kevin posted why Saif Gadhafi’s first court appearance in Libya undermines the state’s arguments in its complementarity challenge at the ICC. In another post, Kevin was very critical about the decision by Judge Pohl rejecting the argument...

...Director of Jurisdiction Complementarity and Cooperation Division (JCCD). One suspected candidate for sanctions, a mid-level official in the OTP who is a Canadian national, was not included.  One academic and policy analyst in international justice, Mark Kersten, pointed out to me that, ‘Canada communicated that its citizens at the ICC should not be subject to US sanctions.’ One cannot be surprised, then, that the targeting of the two black African lawyers from The Gambia and Lesotho and exclusion of a Canadian national has created the perception among some that the...

...legislation and/or the International Criminal Court Act. In addition to this, it would be necessary to establish a mechanism to allow victims to communicate with authorities in the pre-trial phase. This could be included in the mandate of Arraf’s proposed permanent mechanism for the investigation of international crimes. The third option is to do nothing. The ICC was unconvinced by arguments in The Prosecutor v Saifal-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al Senussi that the absence of guarantees for victim participation and reparations in the Libyan national system was a reason to...

...at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), established to try those allegedly responsible for the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in an explosion on 14 February 2005. I had the great honour of considering a John a good friend. I first got to know him during the Gaddafi case, when he and I regularly exchanged emails about Libya’s complementarity challenge. And then he encouraged me to join the Doughty Street team as an academic member. John was, quite simply, a wonderful person — warm, funny, supportive. I...