In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

27 Aug

My friend and former colleague at Auckland, Mohsen Al Attar, has posted two new articles about TWAIL on SSRN.  The first, co-written with Rosalie Moore, is entitled "TWAIL Revisited - The Bolivarian Reconstruction of International Law."  The second, co-written with Vernon Ivan Tava, is entitled "TWAIL Pedagogy - Legal Education for Emancipation." The abstracts are after the jump.  I highly recommend...

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26 Aug

One of my favorite ICL scholars, Guenael Mettraux, recommends precisely that in a recent New York Times op-ed.  Here is the core of his pitch: The Guantánamo detainees pose a similar conundrum today. Trying these men stateside would necessarily require the compromise of long-cherished principles of American law. Yet continuing to hold them without the prospect of a fair trial or...

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20 Aug

I want to offer a few thoughts on Dean Edley's email, which I appreciate Deb posting.  I am much less impressed by his reasoning than Deb appears to be.  (And please, Deb, correct me if I am wrong about that.) At the outset, it is important to note that I think Dean Edley's conclusion -- that Yoo cannot be fired, at...

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18 Aug

The Journal of International Law and International Relations, published by the University of Toronto, is actively seeking submissions.  Here is their call for papers: Call for Submissions Volume 6, Issue 1 (Fall 2009) Deadline for Submissions: September 21, 2009 The Journal of International Law and International Relations (JILIR) invites submissions from scholars of both International Law and International Relations for its Fall 2009 issue....

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11 Aug

I have been meaning to post about Melbourne Law School, my new academic home.  I imagine many of our readers will be familiar with our remarkable contingent of international law faculty: James Hathaway (our Dean), Gerry Simpson, Anne Orford, Diane Otto, Tim McCormack, and more than a dozen others.  What readers might not know is that Melbourne is in the...

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10 Aug

There has been a very interesting -- and potentially very troubling -- development in the Lubanga trial.  In response to a submission by representatives for the victims and over a strong dissent by Judge Fulford, the majority of Trial Chamber I has given notice to the parties and participants in the trial "that the legal characterisation of the facts may...

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04 Aug

Deleuze once commented in a discussion with Foucault that "[a] theory is exactly like a box of tools. It has nothing to do with the signifier. It must be useful. It must function. And not for itself. If no one uses it, beginning with the theoretician himself (who then ceases to be a theoretician), then the theory is worthless or...

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01 Aug

As part of his latest attack on Human Rights Watch, David Bernstein insists -- again -- that HRW "absolutely refuses to apologize or retract" when it is "wrong about Israel."  He also claims that, "[t]hough challenged," I have "yet to come up with another, legitimate example of HRW officially responded to legitimate criticisms from pro-Israel sources the way it responded...

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30 Jul

Ken is going to be so jealous that I blogged about this story first!  Apparently, there is concern that a new robot capable of ingesting and extracting biomass from the environment will become some kind of robot zombie feasting on (yummy?) human flesh.  The companies behind the robot, however, want us to know that nothing could be further from the...

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30 Jul

Excellent news -- and a major blow to the AU's promise of impunity for Bashir, given the symbolic and practical importance of South Africa for the continent generally: SOUTH Africa will arrest Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir if he visits the country, despite an African Union decision to ignore a war crimes warrant against him, the foreign ministry said yesterday. Civil society...

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