Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
12 Jun Boumediene “Insta-Symposium”
The Supreme Court has just rendered its decision in Boumediene v. Bush, announcing that the DTA procedures are not an adequate and effective substitute for habeas corpus and that the MCA operates as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ. Opinio Juris is very pleased to announce an “insta-symposium” to discuss the decision. We have an amazing line-up of guests, including Geoff Corn (South Texas), Eric Freedman (Hofstra), Paul Halliday (Virginia), Chimène Keitner (Hastings), Andrew Kent (Fordham), Jenny Martinez (Stanford), Julian Davis Mortenson (Fordham), Michael Newton (Vanderbilt), Deborah Pearlstein (Princeton), Patrick...
09 Sep ISIS as a Joint Criminal Enterprise Part I: Reinvigorating JCE for the Prosecution of Foreign Fighters
citizens as well as material support for terrorism in Syria. It is a promising development, but falls short of addressing a much larger problem. Despite repeated calls for repatriation, thousands of ISIS fighters and affiliates continue to be held in Northeast Syria. Some have been sent to Iraq, where they are sentenced to death or long prison terms after 15-minutes trials. A relatively small number were repatriated or voluntarily returned to their home countries for prosecution when ISIS lost its territory in Iraq and Syria. However, thousands of ISIS affiliates...26 Apr So Was Congress Thinking of Authorizing Force in Syria?
As members of Congress begin calling more insistently for some unspecified form of U.S. military intervention against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, I admit to suffering the same doubt as Julian. What exactly is the legal theory here – under domestic and international law – that would authorize the United States to use force in Syria? There was, once upon a time, this idea in the Constitution that only Congress had the authority to declare war. While declarations of war per se have long since fallen out of...14 Jan Fifty-Seven Countries Call for Referral of the Syria Situation to the ICC: analysis of the merits of the referral and concerns as to its implementation
for investigation and prosecution. The UN Security Council should make the referral; in fact, it should have done so already months ago. Because Syria is not a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, the Court would not have jurisdiction over the crimes in Syria absent the referral. Mass crimes With an estimated 60,000 fatalities, and reason to suspect both war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred, referral is clearly warranted. Underlying crimes according to the UN’s independent international Commission of Inquiry on Syria include “patterns of summary execution, arbitrary...06 May Chemical Weapons Used in Syria — By the Rebels…
This according to the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which has considerable investigative ability. Reuters: (Reuters) – U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday. The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte. “Our investigators have been in neighboring...28 Sep That “Broad Consensus” for Unwilling/Unable Just Got Less Broad
...1847. For the record, during his presentation, Corten cites six states as insisting that there is no right of self-defence against ISIS in Syria without Syria's consent (Syria itself, Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Iran, and Cuba) and six that insist action against ISIS has to take place with the peaceful cooperation of Syria (China, Chad, Belarus, Brazil, South Africa, and India). Note that Russia is on the first list, indicating that the recent Facebook statement does, in fact, reflect Russia's position. Jessica Dorsey If you'll permit me a bit of self-promotion...18 Jan Parsing the Syrian-Russian Agreement Concerning Russia’s Deployment
Kremlin has made an open-ended time commitment to its military deployment in Syria, and either side can terminate it with a year’s notice. The “Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Syrian Arab Republic on deployment of an aviation group of the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic” is similar in purpose to status of forces agreements (SOFAs) that the U.S. signs with countries in which it has military bases. (For an overview of US SOFA practice, see this State Department document (.pdf). ) The...
20 Apr Book Symposium: The Responsibility to Protect in Libya and Syria
This week, we have the honor of hosting a symposium on Yasmine Nahlawi’s recent book, The Responsibility to Protect in Libya and Syria: Mass Atrocities, Human Protection, and International Law. From the publisher: This book offers a novel and contemporary examination of the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) doctrine from an international legal perspective and analyses how the doctrine was applied within the Libyan and Syrian conflicts as two recent and highly significant R2P cases. The book dissects each of R2P’s three component pillars to examine their international legal underpinnings, drawing...
25 Oct International Law and Popular Culture Symposium: Introduction
Opinio Juris, in collaboration with Rachel Jones, who some of you will recognize as the person behind NYU’s Institute for International Law and Justice Twitter handle (@nyuiilj), is happy to host what we believe to be the first symposium on “International Law & Pop Culture” in the IL blogosphere. Fittingly, this symposium would not have been possible without the existence of social media and Twitter, where the initial idea was hatched, half joking, half serious, several months ago. Upon Rachel’s initiative, and believing in the potential of the topic, we...
08 Oct Symposium on Gender Representation: Time to Double our Efforts – New Report Creates an Exceptional Opportunity to Break the Glass Ceiling for Women in International Justice
...representation in the coming years. As the contributors to this symposium explored, the groundbreaking report adopted by the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council (the “AC Report”) in June 2021 has extensively reviewed the historical and current data of several organs and human rights mechanisms, confirming the underrepresentation of women and suggesting multi-level and multi-actor paths forward. The AC Report underscores the importance of balanced representation on these public-facing bodies of the United Nations, and highlights strong legal and policy arguments for committing to parity and equality. It includes...