Search: crossing lines
09 Jun Guest Post: International Criminal Justice and Reconciliation: Beyond the Retributive vs. Restorative Divide (Part 2 of 2)
...closure of cases) require further structural attention. Holding local hearings (e.g., Ntaganda) may facilitate visibility and access to victims, and foster the perception that ‘justice is seen to be done’. But it is not in itself sufficient to facilitate a structural dialogue locally. (ii) Challenging‘friend/enemy’ clusters Many trials suffer from the reproduction of binaries, and are perceived as obstacles to reconciliation, if they remain entrenched in ‘friend/enemy’ clusters, or associate crime or victimhood across pre-configured collective identities (e.g., ethnic lines). International criminal justice may reduce these frictions, if it pays...
19 Feb A Commentary on the Arbitral Award of 3 October, 1899 (Guyana v. Venezuela) jurisdiction ruling: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
...application of Guyana to admit the case concerning the validity of the Arbitral Award of October 3rd, 1899 and the ensuing territorial dispute between itself and Venezuela over the Esequibo territory. How did the dispute arrive to the Court? This dispute dates back to the end of the 19th century when an arbitral tribunal decided that the demarcation between the British Guiana and Venezuela would be drawn along the lines of the Esequibo river. A few decades later, the personal correspondence of a diplomat who participated in the proceedings- as...06 Aug Emerging Voices: Together Again? Customary Law and Perpetration by Means
...20 of the concurring opinion of van den Wyngaert, J. The Prosecutor’s attempt to synthesize common principles from parallel lines of jurisprudence is therefore welcome; however, if it succeeds it will do so against the run of play. Nevertheless, such harmonization is arguably possible. The principles underlying perpetration by means were canvassed at the international level well before the ICC and ICTY existed, in the same body of sources that ground what is now termed JCE doctrine. Consider, for example, the first treaty provision on parties to offences, Article 6...
30 Oct Options for a Peace Settlement for Ukraine: Option Paper XVI – War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide
...require UN Security Council authorisation, although at a minimum it will require UN or EU collaboration. With regards to the ICC and ad hoc tribunals, a suggested relational and jurisdictional structure would be to provide the ICC/ad hoc tribunal with jurisdiction over high-ranking military commanders and civilian superiors, with domestic courts supported to try lower-ranking perpetrators, along the lines of the relationship between the ICTY and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian courts, or the ICTR and Gacaca courts in Rwanda. Proceedings in human rights bodies, such as the European Court of Human Rights or...17 Feb Guest Post Part I: The Chilcot Inquiry–The Publication Saga of an Official History
...of a court. Wood expresses a deep commitment to international law precisely because of its horizontal interpretive nature; it is for government legal advisers to demarcate the acceptable boundaries of policy versus international law, providing apparent ‘clear bright lines’ beyond which policy cannot traverse without incurring international illegality. Not so, according to the government, if instructing Independent Counsel. In a document declassified and released by the Attorney General’s Office dated 13 March 2003 (ie on the eve of formal invasion) the legal secretary to the Attorney General, David Brummell, considered...14 Apr Our Tax Dollars at Work
...order to drain the ink supply in company fax machines, inundating computers with e-mails causing them to crash, and tying up company phone lines to prevent legitimate calls. We can only pray that al-Qaida hasn’t obtained a copy of the Assessment. Should it ever decide to take a page from the eco-terrorists’ playbook — repurposing the cellphones it now knows we’re monitoring to prank call the Pentagon, for example — the damage to our national security could be incalculable. Keep up the good work, DHS! A weary nation thanks you...
17 Sep Transitional Justice Symposium: Transitional Justice 2.0–Rebooting Justice in the 21st Century
...transitional justice contexts have risen ( Bell and O’Rourke 2007 ; see for instance O’Rourke 2013 ; Bueno-Hansen 2017 , 2015 ). Oddly enough, these efforts, however much needed and welcomed, were already deeply grounded in Baldwin’s prose, which extrapolated on structural barriers in American society and disclosed racial fault lines and sexual taboos and challenges in the 1970s and earlier (See for in Baldwin 1972 ). The novelty of mainstreaming peripheral and marginalized perspectives lies in introducing these issues to the field of transitional justice and expanding also the...
16 Jul Symposium on PMSCs: AI Broke the Code – The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers and Emerging Technologies
...offensive and defensive roles in intelligence-gathering and information operations, sometimes with direct implications for the conduct of hostilities. The result is an expanding perimeter of corporate and commercial actors whose participation in armed conflict is indirect, but no less consequential. Consider Anduril again. Even if some of its business lines may be considered “operational and logistical support”—thus falling within the Code’s existing ambit—a substantial grey zone remains, particularly around dual-use technologies, databases, and services that transition seamlessly between commercial, law enforcement, and military contexts. The Code must therefore move beyond...25 Jul International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Introduction
...and the post-war years to the century’s end (1946-2000). Part V examines the leading post-2000 cases in light of historical practice. Although the dividing lines between historical periods are concededly somewhat artificial, the book is deliberately designed to devote substantial attention to the period from the Civil War to the end of World War II, which seems somewhat under-examined by prior scholarship as compared to the Founding era and the modern period. Within the chronological periods, the book further subdivides the Court’s treatment of international law into substantive categories: treaties,...