In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

01 Jul

The persecution continues:Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Monday the government would press ahead with plans to fingerprint ethnic Roma, including children - a move branded as discriminatory by European Union officials. Frattini - the EU's top justice official before he joined Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet - was commenting on remarks made Sunday by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, who...

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29 Jun

I recently blogged about Trial Chamber I's stunning decision to stay Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's trial because of the Prosecutor's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense. The Court held a hearing on the 24th to determine whether, in light of its decision, Lubanga should be released. It has yet to reach a conclusion — but if the...

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27 Jun

The BBC reports that the New Zealand government and seven Maori tribes have entered into an historic agreement concerning Maori ownership of a number of forests in the North Island, where I live:The NZ$420m ($319m) agreement transfers ownership of nine forests - covering 435,000 acres (176,000 hectares) of land - in the central North Island. Hundreds of Maori, some in traditional...

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25 Jun

WorldPublicOpinion.org has released an interesting survey of world attitudes toward torture. Here is the summary of their findings:A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 19 nations finds that in 14 of them most people favor an unequivocal rule against torture, even in the case of terrorists who have information that could save innocent lives. Four nations lean toward favoring an exception in...

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24 Jun

No, Virginia, being unanimously acquitted by an international tribunal's trial and appeals chambers doesn't mean very much:Belgium has confirmed that it was investigating Emmanuel Bagambiki, former Governor of Cyangugu during the 1994 genocide, who was acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and who is sought by Rwanda, reports Hirondelle Agency . "The federal prosecutor is looking at the...

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23 Jun

Courtesy of Toast.com, the quiz consists of 30 questions -- 20 drawn from the U.S. citizenship test and 10 harder "curveballs." 24 is considered the minimum passing score; I scored, much to my delight, a 26. Can you do better? Hat-Tip: Americablog. ...

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17 Jun

I see that my alma mater, Stanford, is set to formally eliminate letter grades. Beginning perhaps as early as fall, students will receive one of four marks for their work: honors, pass, restricted credit, and no credit. Stanford will be the third major law school to eliminate grades, joining Berkeley and Yale. I have nothing against the change, notwithstanding...

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16 Jun

In what can only be described as a stunning development, Trial Chamber I has stayed Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's trial because of the Prosecutor's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense. Indeed, the decision seems to indicate that unless the Prosecutor reverses course and agrees to disclose the evidence, the Trial Chamber is prepared to dismiss the charges and...

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16 Jun

A confession: except for the basketball, I don't watch the Summer Olympics. In part, that's because I'm not particularly interested in the medal sports. The more significant reason, though, is that I simply can't stomach the rampant jingoism that inevitably accompanies the Games. Case in point — the reaction to Becky Hammon's decision to play basketball for...

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12 Jun

As our Boumediene instant symposium gets underway, I thought it might be interesting to note that the Israeli Supreme Court has just upheld the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits the indefinite detention of a person who does not qualify for POW status and "who has participated either directly or indirectly in hostile acts against the State of Israel...

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11 Jun

Very encouraging news out of Serbia -- Stojan Zupljanin, the commander of the Bosnian police during the war, has been arrested and will be handed over to the ICTY for prosecution:Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Their arrest and...

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