Search: crossing lines
23 Oct The Special Criminal Court Must Fill the Justice Gap Left by the ICC in Central African Republic
[Chuka Arinze-Onyia is a practicing criminal defense lawyer with an avid interest in international justice issues. He authored this article during a recent stint as an International Justice in Africa Fellow with Amnesty International.] On 16 December 2022, the ICC Prosecutor announced that his office had concluded the investigation phase of its work in Central African Republic (CAR) and would not pursue new lines of inquiry within the country. The immediate consequence of this decision is that until the ordinary national courts develop the capacity to dispense justice for crimes...
25 Jun Out of Place? Being Anti-Colonial in Law School
...Eurocentric legality, or at least European epistemology, a critique that cannot be subversive. Despite our anti-colonial credentials, we’ve practically essentialised international law, implying throughout our scholarship that even colouring within the lines is emancipatory. In those moments of doubt, I reorient myself to the subject of the critique. Mainstream international law itself is inchoate, but not in the same way as TWAIL. The critique has been around for a little over a generation, ignored for much of its early years and only now taking shape. I describe TWAIL as embryonic...25 Jul Are You Smart Enough to Be a German Citizen? I Am . . .
...have to allow into your home in Germany, if asked?” I thought the Germans might have some practice under which “the postman” would enjoy entry at will, rather than the (correct answer) your landlord. So it looks pretty much a sham along the lines of the US naturalization exam, except that this one is multiple choice and requires a lower percentage of correct responses (50% v. 66% in the US). Obviously, you can pass the test without being German in any real sense. But easy as it seems to us,...17 May More on Israel’s Support for Apartheid
...1979 for the top-secret test of a new missile system. During Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli army took South African Defense Force chief Constand Viljoen and his colleagues to the front lines, and Viljoen routinely flew visiting Israeli military advisors and embassy attachés to the battlefield in Angola where his troops were battling Angolan and Cuban forces. There was nuclear cooperation, too: South Africa provided Israel with yellowcake uranium while dozens of Israelis came to South Africa in 1984 with code names and cover stories to work on...
29 Oct Third Time Lucky? ICC Appeals Chamber Directs Prosecutor to Consider Mavi Marmara Incident for a Third Time
...time. This recent Appeals Chamber Judgment confirms that the Prosecutor must reconsider her decision on the Comoros’ referral, by 2 December 2019. These proceedings have exposed some troubling internal fault-lines within the ICC system, and tested the very rationale of the Rome-Statute as well as the limits of judicial over-reach.It is in this context that this post identifies three problematic aspects of the Appeal Chamber’s recent decision. 1. Internal Tug of War? Despite the questionable basis for enabling repeated re-litigation of the matter in light of the terms of the...28 Oct Does Japan’s Pledge to Shoot Down Chinese Drones Violate International Law?
...evidence of the drones’ threat to bolster any attack it makes. On the other hand, is China overreacting to call those Japanese threats an “act of war”? I suppose that is technically true if one accepts that China’s drones are flying over Chinese airspace. Still, it is hard to imagine that downing a drone (where no one is hurt or killed) could have the same significance as downing a manned plane. I think Japan is trying to test China, and draw lines on matters that wouldn’t necessarily escalate into armed...15 Dec Ban Ki-Moon Sworn in as UN Secretary-General
Here is the text of the speech by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. There are a few good lines from the speech, such as the following: Member States need a dynamic and courageous Secretariat, not one that is passive and risk-averse. The time has come for a new day in relations between the Secretariat and Member States. The dark night of distrust and disrespect has lasted far too long. We can begin by saying what we mean, and meaning what we say. We cannot change everything at once. But we...06 Feb Response to Roger Alford
...between these two pieces of the story is reasonably clear. The “Goldilocks” part of the story explains why England had a good head start on the race to world power. The clever strategy, the five point plan, shows how the British and then the Americans managed to turn this initial head start into a long term lead. But there is another question. It is one thing to say that having an open society – here, a society eager and able to develop along liberal capitalist lines – is the first...02 Apr What do we mean by the Transnationalization of Private Law?
...states the operation of different non-national sources of law operating side by side: fundamental principles, customs, treaties, general principles, and party autonomy. It is clear that in the legal order between states, we acknowledge immanent or informal law formation along these lines even if treaties may often be preferred and the other sources have suffered here also because of 19th Century exalted sovereignty ideas. But treaties are there foremost to clarify, be more specific or remedy as indeed bilateral investment treaties (BITs) for the protection of foreign investment normally do....23 Nov Criminal Prosecutions and Another Kind of Precedent
...here, which denies detainee’s Bivens claims for their mistreatment while in detention because no constitutional rights apply to aliens detained abroad, and because even if they did, qualified immunity would apply). My point in discussing these two potential lines of precedent is to recognize something of a catch-22 here and a common remedy. Although civil trials for Guantanamo detainees will go a long way to disestablishing the claim that “war on terror” detainee trials before Military Commissions are (always) necessary, they do so by continuing a trend that already includes...