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Search: self-defense

27 Apr

...unclassified secret sources that he was shown during an intelligence briefing with several U.S. officials. In its reaction on the 26th of June to the Defense request to hear Stolworthy from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concerning the written statement, the PPS mentions that not all underlying sources could be seen anyways by the National Public Prosecutor for Counterterrorism, Intelligence and Security Services. For this reason, the PPS emphasizes that as a result of this deficiency in the evidence. “[the] court will have to take this into...
27.04.21 | |

23 Jul

...reference check (para 33). The report also explained that experience, by itself, was not the most important criterion; rather, it was competency. How, the Committee asked, did the candidates “demonstrate certain behaviours/skills” not merely by virtue of their resume, but “within the strategic context in which the ICC is situated” (para 37)?  As Ambassador Sabine Nolke, the committee’s chair, later put it, “The fact that you’ve done something in the past doesn’t mean you’re the right person to do it again.” At the same time, the report is also refreshingly...
23.07.20 | |

31 May

quite limited. There was little in the Siemens award itself to suggest that Argentina had much, if any, chance of convincing the committee to annul the award. Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are famously asymmetric. They grant investors rights but not obligations, while imposing upon states obligations unaccompanied by rights. Recent cases suggest, however, that BIT tribunals are poised to recognize a defense to state BIT liability that, in effect, imposes upon investors the obligation to avoid involvement in public corruption in the course of making a treaty-protected investment. In this...
31.05.12 | |

12 Aug

the Rwandan prosecutors regarding the link between the alleged genocide denial and Erlinder’s pleadings as a defense counsel in the Military I case. For example, according to one statement, “during the Military I Trial at the ICTR, Carl Peter Erlinder denied and downplayed genocide. He managed to prove that genocide had not been planned nor executed by the military officials he was representing.” The Court itself concluded that Erlinder should “answer for his acts at the ICTR.” To be clear, although it is unconscionable to persecute a defense attorney for...
12.08.10 | |

30 Jan

...fall within the scope of the NPM clause from the substantive protections of the BIT and thereby preclude liability. Professor Franck is correct to note that in most cases the affirmative defense of necessity in customary international law should be unnecessary where a BIT contains an NPM clause. More specifically, where a treaty contains an NPM clause of comprehensive scope, the narrow necessity defense under customary law will generally not become relevant. NPM clauses are generally drafted to provide states greater flexibility to respond to emergency situations than would have...
30.01.08 | |

19 Jan

As the NYT reports, the U.S. Justice Department has released a memo defending the legality of the controversial NSA spying program. The NYT (of course) barely describes the memo and then devotes half of the article to quotes by legal experts who say it is unpersuasive. Dean Robert Reinstein speaks of a scholarly consensus that the NSA program is illegal. Unbelievably, Marty Lederman of Balkinization has not weighed in yet (I spoke too soon, Marty is on the case here and Orin Kerr is on the case here),...
19.01.06 | |

03 Sep

...that Israel believed necessary to neutralize the Hezbollah threat. Eye-for-an-eye is an accurate description of the French/Kofi Annan interpretation of the proportionality doctrine, and of the Heller-HRW caricature of Israeli strategy, not of Israeli strategy itself. Is it proper for Israel to use that force necessary to neutralize the threat? I believe it is and that is the way all states engage in warfare and that France, Russia etc. misinterpret the doctrine of proportionality. Perhaps Heller-HRW believe otherwise; if they do, I would much prefer that they have the intellectual...
03.09.06 | |

27 Feb

...the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa too concurred with this approach, noting that allowing immunity to prevent arrest in such situations “would create an intolerable anomaly”. Highlighting the irony that Kenya’s government disregard of its international obligations in inviting al-Bashir to the inauguration of Kenya’s progressive Constitution, the Court also notes that the government’s actions violate a specific provision of the Kenyan Constitution itself. Article 143(4) of the Constitution reads “[t]he immunity of the President under this Article shall not extend to a crime for which the President...
27.02.18 | |

04 Sep

The Australian is reporting that Tanzanian police have arrested Callixte Gakwaya, a defence attorney at the ICTR, on suspicion of involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. “He was arrested yesterday. He is now in custody,” regional police commander Basilio Matei said. According to the arrest warrant, Gakwaya – who leads the defence team of a genocide suspect whose case comes up before the ICTR in January – supervised road blocks and massacred Tutsis as they tried to flee the Rwandan capital. “Several Tutsis were killed,” according to the warrant....
04.09.06 | |

17 May

...24,000 private security contractors (PSCs) hired by Defense and USAID in Afghanistan have not been vetted properly. Despite the increasing dependence on PSCS, Trent said that “neither USAID nor [DOS] systemically tracks information on PSC personnel,” a point that a Government Accountability Office Report last fall hammered home as well when it criticized State, Defense, and USAID for failures stemming from the Synchronized Predeployment Operational Tracker (SPOT Database): “SPOT does not provide a reliable means of obtaining information on orders and subawards.”(at 23) The SIGAR also emphasized that our government...
17.05.12 | |

06 Dec

...statement' with 'stonewall'. Seriously now, everyone is entitled to a personal opinion on how to deal with one's enemies (including advocacy of pre-enlightment techniques, as the anonymous poster above does). But when such individual is a college professor, even if its at the blog level, he should be much more careful with his choice of words when commenting on very serious allegations of very serious international law infringements. Diogenes My question is this: Does Julian desperately want to believe or is he participating in the charade himself? Condi's statements were...
06.12.05 | |

29 Jun

...detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. These detainees may be tried via laws of war or pursuant to the Department of Defense’s Military Commission Instruction Number Two. Section 305: Appellate Jurisdiction: Under this title the U.S. Courts of Military Appeals shall have exclusive jurisdiction over appeals from all final decisions of a classification tribunal board or military commission. These decisions are then subject to review by the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari. Section 306: Military Commission: Establishes the military commissions; consisting of three military officers,...
29.06.06 | |