In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: self-defense

24 Apr

[Sari Bashi is Executive Director at Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.] This is the second post of our Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation. Earlier posts can be found in the Related Links at the end of this post. I am grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting this symposium in its best tradition of fostering robust debate on cutting-edge issues in international law and to Aeyal Gross for providing the theoretical framework for understanding Israel’s obligations in Gaza. As the director...
24.04.12 | |

15 May

...up my guitar and play Just like yesterday No, no! I'll move myself and my family aside If we happen to be left half alive I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky For I know that the hypnotized never lie Do ya? YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! There's nothing in the street Looks any different to me And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye And the parting on the left Is now the parting on the right And the beards have all grown longer overnight I'll tip my hat to the new...
15.05.09 | |

22 Sep

Chapman lawprof John Hall has a curious op-ed in the WSJ (subscription required) attacking the Cambodia hybrid war crimes court. He calls it “another U.N. corruption scandal in the making.” But this is really unfair to the U.N. (and when was the last time I wrote that sentence, maybe never?) Professor Hall is really arguing that the problem with Cambodian court is too much control and participation by local Cambodian lawyers and judges who are controlled by the current governing regime. Fair enough. But this isn’t really, or...
22.09.07 | |

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 | |

10 Feb

...in Japanese Corporate Law and Corporate Governance: Current Changes in Historical Perspective, 49 Am. J. Comp. L. 653). The U.K. system maintains a good balance by putting strong regulations on both buyers and sellers—that is, requiring buyers to make mandatory bids for all shares and prohibiting incumbents from any defense. The U.S. system maintains another good balance by putting weak regulations on both buyers and sellers—that is, not requiring buyers to make mandatory all-share bids but allowing boards to implement defenses. Japan’s system takes the U.K.-like takeover rule and the...
10.02.11 | |

21 Sep

...militants were killed when Turkish warplanes hit Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camps in northern Iraq overnight, security sources said on Saturday, as Ankara shows no sign of easing up strikes on insurgents ahead of a Nov. 1 election. Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his U.S. counterpart on Friday that Moscow’s military activities in Syria were “defensive in nature,” a senior U.S. defense official said after the 50-minute phone call. Asia Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed the establishment of an airbase in neighboring Belarus, the latest move by Moscow...
21.09.15 | |

20 Nov

...defense, much to their concern: Saddam’s defense team complained on Wednesday that despite “repeated requests” it had not received a copy of the verdict so that it could begin work on an appeal and lodge it with the court within the 30-day deadline after the November 5 verdict. Chief counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi accused the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court that tried Saddam and seven others for crimes against humanity, of “pursuing its continued efforts to obstruct the efforts of the defense to submit a legal … appeal against the unjust...
20.11.06 | |

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 | |

27 Jul

...Trial Chamber and Registry to address defense concerns in the lead-up to the trial may have encouraged smoother proceedings. Taylor’s first defense team left the case due to concerns over inadequate resources and time to prepare, leading to the appointment of a second team and a hiatus in proceedings. These challenges underscore the value of previous complex criminal trial experience among judges who adjudicate these cases. The three judges of Trial Chamber II, while experienced jurists, did not generally join the Special Court with such extensive experience. Finally, the provision...
27.07.12 | |

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 | |

19 Apr

[Jennifer Trahan is Associate Clinical Professor, at The Center for Global Affairs, NYU-SPS, and Chair of the American Branch of the International Law Association’s International Criminal Court Committee. The views expressed are those of the author.] Postings on Opinio Juris seem fairly squarely against the legality of the U.S. missile strike last week into Syria. Let me join Jens David Ohlin (blogging on Opinio Juris) and Harold Koh (blogging on Just Security) in making the contrary case. When NATO intervened in Kosovo in 1999, member states did not...
19.04.17 | |

13 May

of your book appears to be a little “determinist” to me. You are saying certain trends are inevitable and there is nothing that we can do about it. This sounds like a negation of free will and democratic self-government. You appear to be saying that there is nothing that a free people (who would be upset) by the decline in the meaning of citizenship can do about reversing this negative trend. We are not free, we can not exercise democratic self-government appears to be the message. This is the opposite...
13.05.08 | |