I am currently in Durban, South Africa, co-teaching a fantastic ICL course with my friend (and War and Law blogger) Chris Gevers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Durban is a very nice city, with amazing coffee -- high praise from someone who lives in Melbourne. I will be spending three days in Cape Town next week, then two days in Johannesburg....
A couple of months ago, the ICTY Appeals Chamber acquitted Momčilo Perišić, the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, of aiding and abetting various international crimes committed by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the war in the Balkans. According to the Appeals Chamber, when a defendant is accused of aiding and abetting crimes committed by an organization,...
By any standard, the Pre-Trial Chamber's rejection of Libya's admissibility challenge is a crushing defeat for the Libyan government. Libya's challenge failed for two basic reasons: (1) Libya is not investigating the same case as the OTP; and (2) Libya is currently unable to genuinely prosecute Saif. I will address the first ground, which I think is legally correct but...
The Pre-Trial Chamber has held that Libya cannot try Saif and must surrender him immediately to the Court -- which, of course, it will not do. Analysis when I have time to read the lengthy judgment, which can be found here....
Bloomberg reports very disturbing statements made by a spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army: Communities inhabited by Shiite Muslims and President Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite minority will be “wiped off the map” if the strategic city of Al-Qusair in central Syria falls to government troops, rebel forces said. “We don’t want this to happen, but it will be a reality imposed on everyone,”...
A number of people have responded to my drone posts (see here and here) by arguing that the "near certainty" standard Obama endorsed regarding the possibility of civilian casualties represents a break from the past -- a new targeting standard, not an old one. If that's the case, someone needs to tell the Secretary of State. Here is what John Kerry...
In previous posts (here and here), I discussed the reasons why Obama will never actually enforce the "near certainty" standard regarding civilian casualties and noted that the standard is vastly more restrictive than IHL's principle of proportionality. In this post, I want to explain why the new targeting standards for the use of lethal force "outside the United States and...
A couple of people have suggested to me that I should be celebrating Obama's adoption of the "near certainty" standard, because it is more protective of civilians than the principle of proportionality. I will not celebrate the standard, for two very simple reasons. First, I don't believe for a moment that Obama will actually enforce it, no matter how pure...
There is a classic jury instruction that reads, "[a] witness who is willfully false in one material part of his or her testimony is to be distrusted in others. You may reject the whole testimony of a witness who willfully has testified falsely as to a material point, unless, from all the evidence, you believe the probability of truth favors his...
I want to call readers' attention to a new -- and very original -- article written by one of my best Melbourne students, Ilana Singer, which has just been published in Criminal Law Forum. Here is the abstract of the article, which is rather wordily entitled "Reductio Ad Absurdum: The Kapo Trial Judgements' Contribution to International Criminal Law Jurisprudence and Customary International...
I want to call readers' attention to a remarkable new report on international criminal justice authored by Daniel McLaughlin, a former legal officer at the ECCC, for Fordham's Leitner Center for International Law & Justice. As the introduction states, the report is an attempt -- a very successful one -- to visualize information about the criminal tribunals: There is wide awareness,...
As Bill Schabas noted in his recent post, the Comoros referral raises interesting questions concerning the Pre-Trial Chamber's power to review a decision by the OTP not to open a full investigation into a situation. Most people who don't keep a copy of the Rome Statute in their back pocket probably believe that the OTP has complete discretion concerning such...
