Search: crossing lines
20 Jan No Case to Answer? Show Me the (Standard of) Proof!
...Presiding Judge Tarfusser stated: “For all these reasons, the Chamber, by majority, hereby: Decides that the Prosecutor has failed to satisfy the burden of proof to the requisite standard as foreseen in Article 66 of the Rome Statute.” (Acquittal ruling, p. 4, lines 14-16) This statement is curious, as the burden of proof contained in article 66 concerns the threshold relevant to proving guilt, not whether the accused has a “case to answer.” Article 66 reads: 2. The onus is on the Prosecutor to prove the guilt of the accused....
16 May COVID-19 devastates an educational system already in crisis
...(ii) adequate school infrastructure, facilities and environment; (iii) a well-qualified teaching force; (iv) a school that is open to the participation of all”. Along the same lines, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR Committee), the supervisory body for the ICESCR, has underlined that acceptability of education includes curricula and teaching methods that are “relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality”. Concerning infrastructure, the ICESCR Committee has stressed that States Parties must take measures to ensure the availability of education, including by ensuring availability of “buildings or...
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...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...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...19 Jun Berman Book Discussion: Notes From a Fellow Traveler
This post is part of our symposium on Dean Schiff Berman’s book Global Legal Pluralism. Other posts can be found in Related Posts below. This is a great book, and I am almost completely on board with the orientation here. Paul is right on the money in navigating between the territorial sovereigntists on the one hand and the cosmopolitan universalists on the other. The critique of the universalists is especially key insofar as it persuasively rebuts a standard sovereigntist fallacy (along the lines of, the sovereign state may be imperfect,...25 Jul Emerging Voices: The Old Woe of Contemporaneity and Cartographic Evidence in a New Bottle
[Arpita Goswami currently serves as an Assistant Editor to China Oceans Law Review, and is a Graduate Assistant at the South China Sea Institute, Xiamen University, P.R. China. The views expressed here are her own and have no connection whatsoever to the above mentioned organizations.] The recently concluded Bay of Bengal Maritime Arbitration Case between India and Bangladesh offers interesting insights into the application of the judicial pronouncements to the factual situation contemporaneous with it for determining the boundary lines and the usage of cartographic evidence in the same. This...
09 Jul Symposium on Art, Aesthetics and International Justice: Honouring the Samians? Aesthetic Strategies of International Legitimacy in Three Athenian Decrees (IG II2 1)
...as translated by Lambert and Rhodes. As a norm endorsed by the Athenian people, its main purpose was to “decide that the Samians shall be Athenians living under whatever constitution they wish” (Σαμίος Ἀθηναίος ἐ͂ναι, / πολιτευομένος ὅπως ἂν αὐτοὶ βόλωνται, lines 12-13), letting them “use their own laws, being autonomous” in accordance with previous agreements. It is clear that the inscription ultimately translates a unilateral decision, favouring Athens and its interests. The Samians are only allowed to perform their rights and duties as the result of an act of...08 Mar Dr. Hugo Storey Responds to John Tobin
...ducks the bigger issues of how in such cases is the decision-maker—in order to decide whether the case is one of persecution—to draw lines in sexual orientation or religious orientation or political orientation cases in which the factual scenario presupposes that on return the individual concerned will conceal or avoid or abstain from manifesting such orientation more publicly? Tobin rightly seeks to address such issues more squarely than H and P do, particularly in the context of discussing same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption. On these two issues, he appears concerned...15 Apr Questioning Political Commitments
...things along the lines of perceived credibility, which was supposed to be the dependent variable. With respect to “substance,” I thought two quite different concepts (normativity and precision) were crammed together, and that a two axis chart might have been better were they forced to share the space. As to “organization,” I found the ordering contestable: why commitments to future negotiations should be scaled higher than one-time commitments lost me at first, and tended to make sense only if it was shown varying with substance. As to “autonomy,” this was...