The Iraqi government has released a draft of legislation that would revoke the immunity of private-security companies operating in Iraq. Here is the operative language:Article 1: Non-Iraqi security companies and its non-Iraqi employees and contractors shall be subject to the Iraqi legislations and the jurisdiction of the Iraqi judiciary in all civil and criminal cases. All immunities granted to...
As widely anticipated, Ban Ki-moon has named Serge Brammertz, a deputy prosecutor at the ICC and the head of the UN commission investigating the murder of Lebanase Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, to succeed Carla del Ponte as the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY. Brammertz will take over the position on January 1, 2008. As I discussed in September, the ICTY's...
The Leiden Journal of International Law has asked me to post the following call for papers:Special Issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (2008) The Risks of International Law Abstracts due 1 December 2007; Complete articles by 1 April 2008 The Leiden Journal of International Law (LJIL) is now soliciting articles for a special issue of the LJIL to be dedicated to...
According to the Blog Readability Test, you need a postgraduate education to understand Opinio Juris. ...
I will be giving a public lecture next Tuesday, November 13th, at the London School of Economics. The lecture, which is sponsored by LSE's International Humanitarian Law Project and the Law Society Charity, will ask whether the Iraqi High Tribunal should serve as a model for what scholars have called "internationalized domestic tribunals": domestic courts that directly apply international...
It's bad enough that the Mafia's criminal activity accounts for 7% of Italy's gross domestic product. Even worse is that at least one major Mafia clan has discovered a new product to traffic — nuclear material:Authorities in Italy are investigating a mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium. The 'Ndrangheta mafia, which gained notoriety in...
I know next to nothing about UNCLOS, but I will still amused by one the reasons the Wall Street Journal invokes today against ratifying it — customary international law:The best arguments for the treaty come from the U.S. Navy, which likes how it creates a legal framework for navigational rights. The oil and gas industry approves of provisions that create...
Readers who are interested in international affairs — "at the highest level of generality," according to the title — would do well to check out The Grand Strategy Blog. Here is the blog's self-description:TGSB is a collaborative and non-partisan site dedicated to the study of international relations. The goal of this enterprise is to improve our understanding of major...
This is a wonderful story:For the first time, Yad Vashem will inaugurate an exhibition this week on Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The exhibition, which opens on Thursday, focuses on more than a dozen of the scores of Muslim Albanians previously recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" - the Holocaust center's highest honor - for risking their lives to...
I was shocked — to say the least — when I read Roger's post on the extremely important Khulumani case. With due respect to the Second Circuit, Judge Katzman's analysis of the mens rea of aiding and abetting under customary international law is completely incorrect. Although I can see how a judge who is not familiar with international...
The government of Iraq has decided to formally revoke CPA Order 17, a move that would open the door to prosecuting Blackwater employees in Iraqi courts for killing 17 civilians last month:"The cabinet held a meeting yesterday and decided to scrap the article pertaining to security companies operating in Iraq that was issued by the CPA (Coalition Provision Authority) in...
As has been widely reported, a second Congolese warlord has been transferred to the ICC to stand trial:Germain Katanga, who led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance (FRPI) in Ituri, was flown from the capital, Kinshasa. Prosecutors say Mr Katanga - known as Simba - led the FRPI in Ituri in north-eastern DR Congo in 2003. He was arrested two years ago. He...
