Search: Complementarity SAIF GADDAFI
05 Oct No Surprise: Why Libya but not Syria
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...23 Mar Max Boot’s Curious Understanding of the Taylor Trial
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...05 May Weekend Roundup: April 28 – May 4, 2012
...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...
14 Apr Not All Aggression is Equal: Why Force for Regime Change is the Graver Breach
...by any honest account, regime change. NATO air power was employed not to protect civilians in Benghazi but to provide decisive military support for armed opposition forces seeking to overthrow the Gaddafi government, a government that, whatever its character, remained the internationally recognized governing authority of Libya. When Gaddafi was captured and killed, and the government was dismantled, the Security Council mandate had long since been exceeded. The Libya case demonstrates that regime-change aggression can be disguised, legally laundered, as humanitarian intervention when the authorization is broad enough, and the...19 Jan Weekend Roundup: January 12-18, 2013
...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...
17 Apr Strategies for Appealing the Afghanistan Decision
...of Kenya against the ‘Decision on the Request for Assistance Submitted on Behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kenya Pursuant to Article 93(10) of the Statute and Rule 194 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence'”, ICC-01/09-78, 10 August 2011, paras. 15-16; Prosecutor v. Gaddafi and Al-Senussi, ICC A. Ch., Decision on the admissibility of the “Appeal Against Decision on Application Under Rule 103” of Ms Mishana Hosseinioun of 7 February 2012, ICC-01/11-01/11-74, 9 March 2012, para. 10). That said, I think it might be worthwhile for the...
22 Apr ICC Sanctions Symposium: Implications of Trump Administration’s Sanctions on International Criminal Court Officials
...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...
30 Jun Australia, the Rome Statute and the War Crimes Proceedings: Where are the Victims?
...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...20 Apr Rest in Peace, John Jones QC
...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...
17 Aug States of Justice Symposium: Interrogating States of Justice–The Politics of the International Criminal Court
...the Court and its principals, who have sought to locate it as an apolitical institution; anchored solely in a legal world driven by the exercise of judicial and prosecutorial discretion, as appropriate. Contrastingly, Ba confronts this imagined narrative of political sterility over seven chapters by interrogating four key issues – strategic use of referrals by states, challenge of complementarity, limits to compliance and the ICC’s impact on local politics. Notably, some of Ba’s assertions support developing narratives around the ICC and its States of Justice, as well as the state...