Author: Jessica Dorsey

Africa African leaders meeting in Tanzania on Sunday to discuss a political crisis in Burundi triggered by the president's plan to run for a third term called for the postponement of elections by at least a month and a half. The United Nations human rights chief on Saturday urged several countries to intensify their investigations of alleged sexual abuse of young children...

Events ALMA - Association for the Promotion of International Humanitarian Law and the Radzyner Law School of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) would like to invite you to the next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum. The session will be held on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, 18:30, in room C110 (Arazi-Ofer Building, 2nd floor), at the IDC, Herzliya. In this session we will discuss: Immunity of UN Facilities and Operation Protective Edge: The...

Over the last two weeks at Opinio Juris, we've seen several contributions. Our regular bloggers covered a number of recent developments such as Deborah's recent post, cross-posted on Just Security, on the D.C. district court's considering the habeas petition of Guantanamo detainee Mukhtar Yahia Naji al Warafi, and the concept of "active hostilities." On a related note, Jens covered the nature and scope...

Africa Fighting in south Somalia between al Shabaab militants and government forces killed at least 24 people, while a rebel attack in the capital killed three Transport Ministry workers and a lawmaker, officials and the group said on Saturday. An unidentified gunman on Wednesday shot at United Nations vehicles in Mali's capital Bamako and targeted a house where U.N. staff were staying,...

Events The University of Essex is hosting the Spring Conference of the International Law Association (British Branch) on 29th – 30th May 2015, on the theme of ‘International Law as a Mechanism for Justice’. The keynote speakers will be Howard Morrison CBE QC, Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Professor Francesco Francioni, European University Institute. The programme and information...

Events Today and tomorrow, at the Cardozo School of Law, New York, New York, the conference, Constitutional Conflicts and the Judicial Role in Comparative Perspective will be held. This conference, which marks the launch of the Israeli Supreme Court Project at Cardozo Law, will explore the Court’s jurisprudence on complex and challenging questions facing open and multi-cultural societies everywhere. Because these issues are salient...

This week on Opinio Juris, Duncan posted his thoughts on the fog of technology and international law with respect to drone strikes and Kevin defended (!) Jeb Bush for his somewhat botched answer to Fox News' Megyn Kelly about the Iraq war. We had three great guest posts. The first, garnering a large amount of discussion, was from Eugene Kontorovich on Iran's...

This summer we will host our Third Annual Emerging Voices symposium, where we invite doctoral students and early-career academics or practicing attorneys to tell Opinio Juris readers about a research project or other international law topic of interest. If you are a doctoral student or in the early stages of your career (e.g., post-docs, junior academics or early career practitioners within...

Africa Since Nigeria's army began clearing large areas of the country's northeast from Boko Haram, some of the 1.5 million internally displaced people have started returning home. But thousands could now face severe food shortages as reconstruction lags behind. Rival armed groups in Central African Republic agreed on Sunday to a peace accord requiring them to disarm and potentially face justice for...

Events On May 14, 2014, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law is hosting: Interpretation in International Law: The Object, the Players, the Rules, and the Strategies. Interpretation in international law is usually referred to as an art or a science. These perspectives imply that interpretation is a static exercise, tied to the rules in the Vienna Convention on the Law...

The blog saw quite some discussion over the last two weeks. As Julian was avoiding grading exams, he posted about Helmerich & Payne v. Venezuela, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that "domestic takings" can violate international law. He also covered the Sea Shepherd petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court and how Russia, in lecturing the EU...

Africa Nigeria's military is confident it has Boko Haram cornered, but a final push to clear the Islamist militants from their forest hideouts is being hampered by landmines, it said on Saturday. Congo-Brazzaville has banned Muslim women from wearing the full face-veil in public, citing security reasons, an Islamic association said. Middle East and Northern Africa Nearly 5,800 migrants have been rescued from boats...