Search: crossing lines
15 Oct Kavanaugh Appointment Foreshadows Looming Crisis for the Rule of Law
...Bar Association, which had previously rated Justice Kavanaugh “well qualified” felt it necessary to re-open its evaluation in light of the issues of “temperament” raised by the Senate hearing; the Senate did not wait for the outcome of this re-evaluation before moving to a final vote. This most recent spectacle illustrates a longer trend through which votes on Supreme Court appointments have over the years generally tended to become more and more divided on party lines (see: here and here.) In some cases, this has been due to party politics...09 Apr White America Fights for Democracy
As I write these lines, the United States is fighting for the very soul of its democracy. Under dispute is whether their government can forcibly transfer a lawful resident – in this case a Latino with a tattoo – to a forced labour camp in El Salvador without any due process. For now, the US Supreme Court’s answer seems to be “no”, provided the Latino with a tattoo in question files a Habeas Corpus petition before deportation. The debate is raging on as US commentators decry just how limited this...21 Oct Borderline History at Borderline Jurisprudence: Some Thoughts on Anne Orford’s International Law & the Politics of History (Part II)
as I said before, solve the Orford-Skinner or the Orford-Hunter Debate. Like all Great Debates, we may end up reading and re-reading them for many years to come. But I do hope that in these lines I may offer a different perspective on how to approach them: not as the expression of a necessary methodological incompatibility between our disciplines, but as a pool of wisdom from which to extract valuable lessons in the construction of our interdisciplinary common future – one where historians see law as language and where lawyers...
08 Aug The Trial Judgment in Yekatom and Ngaïssona: A Judgment of Many Firsts Built on Case Management (Part 1)
...been a team effort (including legal officers) along the lines of the Guidelines for ICC Judgment Drafting (Annex to the Chambers Practice Manual, see especially paras. 25 et seq.). A second example is the decision of the TC to “render any potential decision on sentencing pursuant to Article 76 of the Statute simultaneously with its judgment under Article 74 of the Statute” (Decision on Sentencing Procedure, para. 2). It has been the preferred option at the ICC so far to hold a separate sentencing hearing, which prolonged the proceedings (for...14 Feb Justice Scalia’s Rule of Law Efforts
Justice Scalia’s passing comes as a shock and is generating tributes across ideological lines. Indeed, whether you agreed with his opinions or not (and I was not a fan of his thinking on cases like Sosa or Bond), Justice Scalia’s opinions deserved to be read. Lines like “never-say-never jurisprudence” and “oh-so-close-to-relevant cases” are some of my personal favorites. Readers should feel free to add their own in the comment section. In the meantime, I wanted to pay tribute to a side of Justice Scalia that has garnered relatively little attention...
05 Dec Russia’s Attack on Kafr Nabl Surgical Hospital and the Role of Open Source Information in Building a Case for Legal Accountability
...as: the aircraft or munitions used, unique characteristics regarding how the attack was conducted, or – ideally – official Russian claims of responsibility. The Berlin meeting resulted in a shortlist of incidents involving attacks on hospitals, and some promising lines of inquiry regarding attribution to Russia. Preserving Potential Evidence Syrian Archive, meanwhile, was rapidly preserving online documentation of attacks impacting medical facilities in Syria before it could be taken offline and possibly lost. As of March 2021, Syrian Archive had preserved online, open source videos documenting 410 separate, verified attacks...
11 Jul Death by Omnibus? The European Commission’s Proposal and the Fate of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (Part II)
...two multi-stakeholder organizations), 40 Dutch companies, over 400 chief sustainability officers of French companies, and 10,000 German companies. State of Play in EU Institutions and Politics The Omnibus proposal has exposed significant rifts along familiar lines: The European Parliament’s center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and Green parties want to preserve the CSDDD’s original purpose and scope, while the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which formerly supported the CSDDD, now argues that deregulation will lower costs and shore up European competitiveness. In Parliament, rapporteur Jörgen Warborn (EPP and chief negotiator of...