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Search: self-defense

24 Aug

So says the headline of a WSJ news article today (Monday, August 24, 2009, B1, by August Cole), noting that unmanned aircraft – drones such as the Predator to us civilians, although the Pentagon seems to prefer UMV – are transforming not just the military, strategic as well as tactical considerations, but defense contracting. (PopSci ran a story a little while ago on the training of UMV pilots as well.) The WSJ article notes that the administration’s fiscal 2010 defense budget request “includes approximately $3.5 billion for unmanned aerial vehicles.”...
24.08.09 | |

17 Jun

...of claims under that Act.  However, this does not invariably hold true. In several instances, US courts have maintained the stance of immunity defense, notably in the lawsuit filed against Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Minister of Defense for Israel, in relation to the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ incident. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the action, citing that Barak was entitled to foreign official immunity. This decision was based on the grounds that his acts were performed in his official capacity, the sovereign government of Israel...
17.06.24 | |

04 Jan

...bar. Non liquet Oops, I didn't even notice that Scott Horton made that point already on his blog at Harper's yesterday! Just Dropping By I suspect, for example, Yoo will argue immunity and get a government-funded lawyer in his defense (although he may well spend some money to retain his own counsel and maybe those costs could add up). Actually, I suspect that even if the government doesn't provide a lawyer, Yoo won't have to pay a penny because many of the same people who paid Scooter Libby's defense bills...
04.01.08 | |

31 Jul

...by lack of payment, lack of healthcare, support for moving and transportation costs, and statements that there is no expectation on their part to be hired. Interns contribute essential work in all courts and tribunals, in all organs, including defense. Unpaid internships on defense teams raise equality of arms issues. Unpaid positions are fundamentally unfair to the people who undertake them, not only in terms of the lack of institutional support that they cannot negotiate away, but also in terms of obstacles to gainful employment within the institutions presented by...
31.07.20 | |

06 Sep

Taylor’s trial in May, Judge Sow started to speak and people seated in the public gallery heard a few words before the microphones went off. [snip] In their appeal document dated August 17, 2012, Taylor’s defense council said that there was a need to proffer other evidence in their appeal motion. “The defense intends to call as witness on appeal, former Special Court Justice El Hadji Malik Sow. He is expected to testify on his statement that there were “no deliberations” as is alleged in Ground of Appeal 36 of...
06.09.12 | |

09 Mar

...significance of the government interest bears an inverse relationship to the rigor of the narrowly tailored analysis. In this case, there can be no doubt that the City’s interest in providing security to a gathering of defense officials is of the highest order. We also cannot ignore the fact that the City’s chosen method of providing security was part of a security protocol that was created by Department of Defense officials, NATO personnel, and various international defense agencies. Courts have historically given special deference to other branches in matters relating...
09.03.07 | |

15 Dec

Ah, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act… has any defense spending bill had so much defense-related legal policy embedded in it? In addition to all the very important stuff about military detentions, it turns out the NDAA also authorizes the U.S. military to engage in offensive cyber-attacks (h/t Gary Schmitt). Congress affirms that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction by the President may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our Nation, allies and interests. The act further clarifies that such actions should be subject to...
15.12.11 | |

21 Mar

Kudos to Daniel Chow and Mike Koehler for a wonderful conference last week at Ohio State Law School addressing the FCPA at thirty-five. It’s always a risk to hold a conference that mingles hard-core practitioners with soft and fuzzy academics, but this one seemed to work. The defense and prosecution side of the FCPA bar battled it out with competing panels addressing the merits and demerits of FCPA prosecutions. Charles Duross, the DOJ attorney in charge of FCPA prosecutions, gave a spirited defense of the Obama Administration’s robust enforcement campaign,...
21.03.12 | |

15 Jun

...tribunals, Article 42 of the new Russian Criminal Code does not limit the defense of superior orders to orders that were not “manifestly unlawful” — orders whose illegality a reasonable soldier would have recognized. On the contrary, a soldier is entitled to the defense under Article 42 as long as he did not actually know that the order was unlawful, a much higher standard: 1. There shall not be deemed to be a crime the causing of harm to the interests protected by the criminal law by a person acting...
15.06.07 | |

10 Apr

...and have the other side drop useful evidence in your lap, as might happen in a criminal case. In the cited article, the exculpatory evidence was acquired by a defense attorney in a previous criminal case that was supposed to be presented to a Military Commission. That was a criminal case, and the government fulfilled its obligation to the defense. The judge may order the government to turn over to the petitioner information that might prove favorable to that side. That might be similar to Brady material, but it would...
10.04.09 | |

31 Dec

By Marty Lederman and Steve Vladeck* Editorial pages and blogs have been overrun in the past couple of weeks with analyses and speculation about the detainee provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act, which the President has just signed into law. One of the major disputes concerns whether and how the NDAA might alter the status quo. In this post, we’ll try to synthesize the competing views offered by David Cole and Raha Wala, who remain quite critical of the provisions because of the changes they possibly presage, with those...
31.12.11 | |

01 Aug

...acting under duress. Article 31 of the Rome Statute, Grounds for excluding criminal responsibility, para 1(c) stipulates that "The person acts reasonably to defend himself or herself or another person or, in the case of war crimes, property which is essential for the survival of the person or another person or property which is essential for accomplishing a military mission, against an imminent and unlawful use of force in a manner proportionate to the degree of danger to the person or the other person or property protected." Israel is infamous...
01.08.14 | |