A few months ago, I mentioned in the comments to my now-infamous grape soda post that although I have no ethical qualms about advising Dr. Karadzic, I would not have defended Hitler if he had lived to see the inside of an Allied courtroom. That statement led to a number of pointed -- and understandable -- criticisms, such as this...
My apologies for the light posting lately. Getting settled in Melbourne -- and preparing to teach Australian criminal law -- has been very time consuming. My new email address is kheller@unimelb.edu.au. Feel free to write! I'll be back to posting regularly soon. In case you just can't wait that long -- hi, mom! -- here is a link to an hour-long...
In an effort to put its sordid past behind it -- Nisour Square was so 2007 -- Blackwater Worldwide has announced that it shall henceforth be referred to not as "Blackwater," but as "Xe" -- pronounced like the letter "Z." But why stop there? Why not go full Prince and replace the Blackwater name with a symbol that represents what the...
There is an interesting discussion going on at Alex De Waal's blog Making Sense of Darfur about the various theories of liability that might be used to hold Bashir responsible for genocide. The discussion as a whole is well worth checking out; what I want to discuss here is whether Bashir could be convicted of genocide via JCE III, so-called...
Because he says things like this: [The ICC] has not opened investigations with regard to Russia's alleged war crimes in Chechnya and Georgia, where thousands of innocent civilians were killed. Nor has it opened investigations with regard to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, the Congo and other places where civilians are routinely targeted as part of military and terrorist campaigns. That will...
John Louth at OUP has kindly alerted me to the existence of a new blog that will no doubt be of interest to our readers: the International Criminal Law Bureau. Members include well-known practitioners and scholars, including Steven Kay, QC, and Guénaël Mettraux (of whom I'm a big fan). The blog is part of a larger project by the same name. ...
I rarely like – if that is even the right word – movies about the Holocaust. Such movies almost invariably invite us to identify with a small number of Jews imprisoned in the concentration camps, turning the millions of others (unintentionally, to be sure) into a nameless, faceless backdrop of suffering that makes the fate of “our” Jews all the...
Every law professor has that one edited book to which they wish they had contributed. This one is mine. The contributors read like a Who's Who of international criminal law: A. Major Problems of International Criminal Justice Part I. How to Face International Crimes Collective Violence and International Crimes, A. Ceretti State Responsibility and Criminal Liability of Individuals, ...
Philippe Sands and Dahlia Lithwick have kindly responded to my post about CAT and the prosecution of torture suspects. Here is their response: We don't believe we are in disagreement on the approach to the obligation under CAT, under Articles 7(1) and (2). The obligation is to "submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution". What happens...
There is a lively debate going on in the blogosphere about the legal impact of Eric Holder's statement that waterboarding is torture and Susan Crawford's conclusion that Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured while in custody at Guantanamo Bay. Does Holder's statement and Crawford's conclusion require the US to prosecute the interrogators who used waterboarding and the Bush administration officials who approved...
In the comments to my post below on the BBC story, Mark C has kindly provided a link to the "formal request" allegedly submitted on behalf of "millions" of Sudanese who oppose arresting Bashir. (The request also opposes arrest warrants for the rebel leaders, although perfunctorily -- protecting Bashir is its primary objective.) I hope to address the request's numerous...
Regular readers no doubt know that I am obsessed with the media's seemingly congenital inability to grasp the law and politics of the ICC. My new favorite comes via the BBC, in an article about the impending arrest warrant for Bashir: Two Sudanese groups have formally requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to issue an arrest for President Omar al-Bashir. He...
