In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Peggy McGuinness

24 Feb

Out here at the University of Missouri-Columbia we are hosting a symposium this weekend (Feb. 25-26), "Reflections on Judging: A Discussion Following the Release of the Blackmun Papers." The line-up of speakers includes judges (Duane Benton, 8th Circuit, Colleen McMahon, SDNY), scholars (Suzanna Sherry, Dan Farber, Ellen Deason, Ted Ruger, Greg Sisk, Larry Wrightsman, Joseph Kobylka, Chris Wells, Martha Dragich,...

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21 Feb

Julian asks the intriguing question, if the interim Iraqi government has joined the ICC, will that expose US troops to potential investigation and/or prosecution for past and future conduct? The short answer is probably not. There are several reasons. First, under the ICC statute, if Iraq is a state party (and it's not clear from the brief statement reported in...

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21 Feb

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers resigned his post over the weekend, after the London Independent (sub. req'd) last week released details of an internal UN investigation into allegations made by a senior female UN official that Lubbers had sexually harassed her. Lubbers continues to deny the allegations, but Kofi Annan appears to have accepted Lubbers' resignation after conferring...

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21 Feb

77% of Spanish voters approved the EU Constitution in a referendum yesterday, in the first of at several national referenda to be held across the continent to approve the new charter. The Constitution must be ratified by all 25 EU member states by November 2006 in order to go into effect. TransAtlantic Assembly has this post linking to domestic debates...

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17 Feb

Not surprisingly, some environmentalists are unhappy with Gregg Easterbrook's op-ed piece in yesterday's NY Times about the Bush administration's so-called "Clear Skies" initiative. (Julian posted earlier on Easterbrook's discussion of Methane-to-Markets in the TNR here, which Easterbrook views as complementary to Kyoto in terms of reducing greenhouse gases.) While we try to remain focused on international law here at Opinio...

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17 Feb

I saw Hotel Rwanda the other day with students from my Human Rights class. (Yes, it finally has been released in the Midwest.) If you haven't yet seen it, go. And take your students. Talk about it in class. It is rare when a Hollywood film addresses issues central to international law and human rights; rarer still when it goes...

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15 Feb

In a brief essay on Slate, David Luban argues that the OLC lawyers who drafted the infamous "torture memos" (discussed in earlier posts, here, here and here) have something in common with Lynne Stewart, who was convicted last week of material support for her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian cleric serving a life sentence for his role in...

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11 Feb

Julian admits that he may be inferring too much when he criticizes the LA Times op-ed written by the NRDC in opposition to the Bush administration's decision to remain outside the Kyoto Protocol as a wrong-headed rejection of US national interest in favor of internationalism. I agree that Julian inferred too much. I am no expert on global warming, but...

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10 Feb

Over at Slate, Peter Brooks (who holds a joint appointment in Law and English at UVA) has this post on the August 2002 Bybee torture memo . Brooks sees Bybee's failure to follow the "plain meaning" statutory interpretation guidelines reaffirmed by Chief Justice Rehnquist in LEOCAL v. Ashcroft, in which the Court noted that we construe statutory language "in its...

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08 Feb

Kofi Annan announced yesterday that he has suspended the two senior UN diplomats at the center of the Volcker Commission's Report on misconduct in the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program. The suspension appears to be the first step toward lifting diplomatic immunity, which Annan said he would do if facts support the bringing of criminal charges. Apart from the importance this investigation...

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