Events The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security is sponsoring an event at the Newseum in Washington DC, on June 25 at 4pm, on NSA Surveillance Leaks: Facts and Fiction. There will also be a live webcast on the Newseum website if you can't attend. The McCoubrey Centre for International Law at the University of Hull (UK) is...
This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin flagged three problems with the PTC's decision on Libya's obligation to surrender al-Senussi to the ICC. He also discussed Libya's admissibility challenge: he criticized the defence's response to the challenge for adopting the due process thesis and he argued why the President's refusal to excuse one of the Appeals Chamber judges is erroneous. Kevin also turned his...
After a over a week of negotiations, Mali has reached a ceasefire agreement with the Tuareg rebels who have occupied the northern city of Kidal. The UK Supreme Court has held that sanctions imposed on the Iranian Bank Mellat are invalid because they were imposed through a secret court. The US Treasure Department has strongly criticized the decision. Britain's attempt to include...
President Obama is in Berlin today where he will give a speech arguing for sharp reductions in nuclear warheads and more cooperation on other important challenges such as climate change and democracy. The US will start negotiations with the Taleban in Qatar later this week. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's President Karzai has suspended negotiations with the US on a security pact, accusing the...
Brazil is experiencing its biggest wave of protests in decades over a wide variety of grievances, ahead of a range of high-profile international events in the next few years. Russia and Iran have warned against intervention in Syria and oppose the arming of Syrian rebels. Syrian President Assad has warned Europe that it will pay the price for arming the rebels in...
The members of the G8 are meeting in Northern Ireland this week. The meeting takes place amidst revelations that US and UK intelligence agencies spied on their allies during G20 meetings in London in 2009. The latest round of climate change talks concluded in Bonn on Friday. Earth Negotiations Bulletin has a detailed summary here. The Armed Groups and International Law Blog...
Calls for Papers The Antonio Cassese Initiative for Justice, Peace and Humanity is inviting students and young professionals born after July 1, 1983 to hand in an abstract on a subject dealing with new perspectives in international criminal law. The abstract should be submitted by July 1, 2013 and should be limited to 400 words. Five abstracts will be selected, setting...
This week on Opinio Juris, there was a lot of news to cover with NSA leak and the US administration's decision to arm Syrian rebels. On the first, Julian thought Hong Kong was a dumb choice of refuge for the NSA leaker. Chris dug deeper into domestic data-mining with earlier stories about the NSA's activities. Peter addressed the position of expat...
In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Edward Snowden has revealed that the US has engaged in hacking activities against Hong Kong and China. In a report released yesterday to mark World Day Against Child Labor, the ILO estimated that around 10 million children worldwide are working in domestic labour. Turkey's crackdown in Taksim Square may not be without consequences...
The Pre-Trial Chamber I has rejected Laurent Gbagbo's challenge to the admissibility of the case against him, due to insufficient evidence that he is being actively prosecuted in Côte d'Ivoire. EU officials have sent a "please explain" to the US over the private information of European citizens collected under the PRISM program. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have asked the US government...
The United States may decide early this week to provide armed assistance to Syrian rebels. Israel's PM Netanyahu has made clear that Israel refuses to get involved in this discussion. Turkish riot police have moved into Taksim Square to remove anti-government protesters. A Kenyan court has imposed prison sentences of five years on nine Somali nationals accused of piracy in the Gulf...
During their talks over the weekend, President Xi Jinping and President Obama reached agreement on North Korea and on curbing HFC emissions, but didn't reach agreement on industrial cyber-espionage. Israel has accused Iran and its Palestinian and Lebanese allies of wide-scale cyber attacks on vital national infrastructure. Ed Snowden, the NSA/PRISM whistleblower has revealed his identity in an interview with The Guardian,...
