In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

24 Jun

Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) held in U.S. v. Hamdan that material support for terrorism is a war crime and thus within the jurisdiction of the military commissions.  The decision represents the apotheosis of the US's utterly self-referential approach to international law, because the CMCR managed to reach that conclusion without citing a single non-American...

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21 Jun

Apologies for the light blogging the past couple of weeks -- although the upside is that I am now officially Dr. Heller, having successfully defended my dissertation at Leiden University in the Netherlands a few days ago.  It was an amazing (and amazingly formal) experience, and I'll blog about it once I get the official photos from the university. I've been...

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07 Jun

This according to the Washington Post's Jackson Diehl, in Screed Number 1345 about how the evil ICC is preventing peace on earth and goodwill toward men: Libyans are stuck in a civil war in large part because of Gaddafi’s international prosecution. Diehl, of course, offers precisely zero evidence in defence of this ridiculously stupid thesis.  Even better, his own column refutes the...

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03 Jun

I have just posted a new essay -- my first since finishing the NMT book! -- on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: Scholars have long debated to what extent the Rome Statute’s principle of complementarity permits states to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide as ordinary crimes such as rape and murder instead...

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31 May

In honor of the US government's decision to charge Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men responsible for 9/11 with the non-existent war crime of conspiracy, I want to call readers' attention to an excellent new article by Samuel Morison about the equally non-existent war crime of material support for terrorism.  Morison vivisects the government's attempt to justify material support...

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31 May

I'm traveling in Europe for the next few weeks, so posting will be a bit light.  As always, I'm happy to meet up with Opinio Juris readers in the places I'm visiting.  Here's my schedule: June 4-7, Helsinki; June 7-9, Tallinn; June 9-13, Berlin; June 13-15, Leuven; June 15-18, Amsterdam; June 18-20, London.  On June 6, I'm giving a talk...

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26 May

In Serbia, not surprisingly: Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of overseeing the worst massacre in Europe since the end of World War II, has been arrested, Serbian authorities said Thursday. Mladic is Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect for his alleged role in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the enclave of Srebrenica,...

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25 May

Readers will be delighted to know that Jacob has restarted International Law Reporter, your one-stop-shopping center for all new international-law scholarship.  And I'm delighted to learn that Jacob's new essay, entitled "The Regulatory Turn in International Law," is now forthcoming in the Harvard International Law Journal, which has recently partnered with our blog.  The essay looks fascinating; check it out...

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24 May

According to TPM Muckraker, the DOJ has authorized prosecutors to indict John Edwards.  So in case you were wondering about the Obama administration's priorities, here they are: violating election laws to cover up an affair, not acceptable.  Ordering torture, no problem. Glad we cleared that up....

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24 May

This according to the New York Times: The charges — brought by prosecutors Mr. Mubarak had appointed — included hints that former subordinates might testify against him, as onetime allies and government insiders turn on one another. A Cairo criminal court is expected to set a trial date within days, and the Egyptian people could soon see the leader...

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