Search: self-defense

...overriding African state interests through the legal regime of the UN and the Security Council overlooks the obvious reality that state self-interest and state priorities have long animated the Council [...] The view from below then is not that international law as shaped by the Council has transcended state self-interest, but that only the interests and priorities of some states are relevant." "critics of South Africa and the AU do not acknowledge the dangers of infecting the ICC with the Council’s legitimacy deficits. The reliance on the Security Council as...

...is already a viable “corruption defense,” and also that it might be useful to better specify the contours of the defense through explicitly corruption-related treaty language. Where we primarily differ is on the desirable contours of the defense. My scheme is self-consciously pro-state. It imposes serious consequences on the investor who engages in corruption. It is, as Professor Bjorklund accurately points out, supply-side in its focus, just as are the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and its non-U.S. equivalents. This supply-side focus bothers Professors Wong and Bjorklund. It seems unfair...

...military (violent) measures these social movements have resorted to as a result of the long-standing denial of the international legal right to collective self-determination possessed by Palestinians. For not only are such characterizations self-defeating, they serve to hide and distort more than reveal and inform. Patrick S. O'Donnell The last sentence should have read: "For whatever truth they contain and feebly express, such characterizations are, in the end, self-defeating, as they serve to hide and distort more than reveal and inform. David Bernstein leaders and members (e.g., Professor Bernstein’s telling...

...as sovereign nations, call upon the Canadian and United States governments to respect our decision to reject tar sands projects that impact our sacred sites and homelands; to call upon the Canadian and United States governments to immediately halt and deny approval for pending tar sands projects because they threaten the soil, water, air, sacred sites, and our ways of life; and, confirm that any such approval would violate our ancestral laws, rights and responsibilities. Article VII then goes on to establish a mutual defense commitment of sorts, wherein the...

...ad bellum issue does not arise, but there still might or might not be violations of the jus in bello. Syria certainly poses a jus ad bellum issue, but there the US justification might not be preemptive self-defense, but self-defense against an armed attack that was already committed by a non-state actor operating from Syrian territory, which Syria failed to prevent. In any case it is hard to say more about these events without knowing much, much more about the actual facts. Guneysu In addition to what Milan has written,...

A dispute is brewing between the Rwandan government and the ICTR over the fact that one of the Tribunal’s appointed defense attorneys is himself on Rwanda’s “most wanted” list of genocide suspects. The attorney, Callixte Gakwaya, is counsel for Yusuf Munyakazi, a former businessman who is accused of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Cyangugu and neighbouring Kibuye in 1994. The Rwandan government’s representative to the ICTR, Aloys Mutabingwa, claims ignorance of how Gakwaya’s ended up employed by the Tribunal: “We are surprised because the ICTR was aware that...

...case was met during my few days at the Austrian Human Rights Film Festival with either stony silence or (more commonly) open hostility. It hasn’t been a pleasant response — so why do I do it? There are many answers. The first is the one that defense attorneys always use, which is no less true for that fact: every defendant, even one accused of committing horrific international crimes, needs a good defense. Indeed, the more horrific the accusations, the greater that need. Everyone involved in the criminal justice system knows...

Two of the four men arrested on suspicion of witness tampering and manufacturing evidence in the Bemba case appeared before the Court today, along with Bemba himself. Not surprisingly, defence counsel for the defence counsel focused on the various ways in which the arrests will prejudice Bemba’s case: Meanwhile, defense lawyers for the accused stated that the new charges had harmed the defense case of Mr. Bemba, whose trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity started in November 2010. Xavier-Jean Keita, who represented Mr. Kilolo-Musamba, said the defense would...

...will be most contested? And why would it be a mistake to frame this case solely through the lens of countering terrorism?   Key Claims by the Defense Against Charges of Financing Terrorism in this Case The French Criminal code provides in article 421-2-2 “The act of financing a terrorist enterprise also constitutes an act of terrorism when it involves the provision, collection, or management of funds, assets, or any kind of property, or the offering of advice for such purposes, with the intention that these funds, assets, or property be...

Mohammad Al-Oraibi, the presiding judge at the Anfal trial, has ordered the arrest of one of the defense attorneys, Badie Arif Ezzat, for criminal contempt of court. The charges stem from Ezzat’s criticism of the Dujail trial on Iraqi television, which Judge Al-Oraibi apparently believed was directed at the Anfal trial. Ezzat could face seven years imprisonment if convicted. Interestingly, the U.S. seems to have openly taken Ezzat’s side in the dispute: The Sunday session of the trial of six Saddam Hussein officials accused of crimes against humanity was canceled...

Amos Guiora has an essay up on Jurist concerning the Israeli military operations in Gaza. He writes: The IDF launched Cast Lead after two significant developments: Hamas had fired 6,000 missiles from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel during the past three years after Israel had unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip and Hamas had unilaterally violated an Egyptian negotiated cease-fire. This is classic self-defense; to that extent, Operation Cast Lead is not different. From a legal perspective, however, there are three critical differences between Cast Lead and previous IDF...

...was quite different from what is now being reported in the press. I would argue that there were omissions of consequence.” At his briefing in the White House Situation Room, Daschle was forbidden to take notes, bring staff or speak with anyone about what he had been told. “You’re so disadvantaged,” Daschle says. “They know so much more than you do. You don’t even know what questions to ask.” Moreover, the secrecy defense presumes that the Bush administration kept the NSA program secret because it believed that was the only...