The Special Court for Sierra Leone gave its verdict today in the Charles Taylor case. The Court found Taylor criminally responsible for aiding and abetting on all 11 counts in the indictment. The Court found that the prosecution failed to prove individual criminal responsibility (no effective control over the RUF) and joint criminal enterprise. Sentencing is scheduled for May 30th. Our Kevin...
US authorities have arrested the first suspect in the BP oil spill case for allegedly destroying evidence linked to the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Pakistan has successfully tested a nuclear-capable intermediate range ballistic missile, approximately a week after India did the same. The International Criminal Court is closely monitoring the situation in Mali, following the surge in violence since January. While...
South Sudan has recognized a market bombing allegedly carried out by Sudan as an "act of war." Meanwhile, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir has ruled out peace talks that have been urged by the UN with its neigbor to the south, with plans to only recognize the language of "guns and bullets" instead. The ECHR Blog has a roundup of the outcomes from last weekend's Brighton Conference on...
Our own Peter Spiro has penned an op-ed in the NY Times about the upcoming arguments at the Supreme Court about Arizona's controversial immigration bill, SB-1070. Peter has posted on OJ about it here. Territorial disputes between China and Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei may escalate based on Chinese development firms jockeying for position in the disputed islands. Despite tensions, China has lauded...
Anti-government protests (which forced the cancellation of last year's event) occurred at the start of the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix. The US Congress has communicated its intent to repatriate Canadian Guantanamo detainee, Omar Khadr, according to the NY Times. Abu Qatada has appealed the European Court of Human Rights' decision to allow his deportation to Yemen, but the UK Government claims that...
An Italian kidnapped by al-Qaeda insurgents in Algeria and held for 14 months has been freed in northern Mali. Denmark has established a Commission of Inquiry into its role in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. EJIL has an in-depth post about it here. The Arab League has urged Syria to implement the ceasefire plan after being briefed by Kofi Annan. The definition of piracy...
The US-backed Korean-American Jim Yong Kim was named the next president of the World Bank, in a move that drew criticism about the purported dominance of the post by the United States. The Philippines will take its dispute with China in the South China Sea to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS). Meanwhile, Tokyo's governor wants to use public fund to purchase...
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the country's brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship "disappeared" leftist opponents and said babies were kidnapped from their parents. A team of six UN observers has gone to Syria, where despite both sides agreeing to a truce, violence is still raging. South Sudan has accused Sudan of indiscriminate bombing in a dispute...
This is our second installment of this new feature, last week's announcements can be found here. Calls for Papers McGill University, Faculty of Law, has issued a call for papers for its conference "Stateless Law? The Future of the Discipline" on September 27-28, 2012. Proposals are due on April 16, 2012. More information is here. The Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law...
China will begin delivering oil ships to Iran in May, two months ahead of a European ban on tankers carrying Iranian crude. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in an op-ed that Iran hopes for dialogue and trust from all sides going forward in nuclear talks and that it will be a process, not an event. The Guardian has an article...
Dioncounde Traore will be sworn in as Mali's interim president today and is tasked with pulling the nation in turmoil back on the right track. Syria has said it will comply with its truce deadlines today by halting military activity, but reserves its right to combat terrorist attacks. Kofi Annan says that Iran can be part of Syria's solution. In the wake...
A UN convoy carrying the head of the mission to Libya was targeted while traveling in Benghazi; no one was hurt but this incident raises questions about stability and security in the country. The General Counsel of the CIA, Stephen Preston, spoke yesterday at Harvard Law School about the agency the rule of law, including giving a hypothetical about the covert use...
