In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

25 Apr

That question is raised by the ICC's investigation of the post-election violence in Kenya, which included a number of forcible circumcisions of Luo men.  According to IRIN Africa, although the OPT originally alleged that the forcible circumcision qualified as the crime against humanity "other form of sexual violence" under Article 7(1)(g) of the Rome Statute, the Pre-Trial Chamber reclassified the...

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17 Apr

Publicly, Israel has been nothing but critical of the Goldstone Report.  Netanyahu responded to Goldstone's recent partial retraction, for example, by calling for the "twisted and nonfactual" Report to be thrown "into the dustbin of history." Behind the scenes, however, Israel has taken a different approach.  According to the Jewish Press, the Report has led the IDF to adopt some very...

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16 Apr

According to the Prosecutor, he needs 421 days to review 12,900 pages of documents that the Pre-Trial Chamber recently ordered him to disclose to the Ocampo Six so they can prepare for their confirmation hearings: International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has told the court he needs 421 days to review the evidence to comply with orders given last...

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15 Apr

My school is once again advertising for new faculty at all levels, from Lecturer to Professor.  Note the short deadline: applications must be in by April 27.  Here is the job description: Melbourne Law School, Australia's first all-graduate law faculty, invites applications for continuing appointments from creative legal scholars committed to educational innovation. We continue to seek new colleagues at...

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10 Apr

As readers will recall, I wrote a short response to Gabriella Blum's wonderful essay on IHL and common-but-differentiated responsibilities for our inaugural Opinio Juris-Harvard International Law Journal symposium.  HILJ has now published my much longer formal response.  Here is an overview, from my introduction: Blum’s normative analysis of the desirability of CDRs in IHL is exceptionally...

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09 Apr

Luis Moreno-Ocampo wants to formally investigate crimes against humanity in Cote D'Ivoire.  Cote D'Ivoire consented to the ICC's jurisdiction over crimes committed there eight years ago.  So what's Moreno-Ocampo waiting for?  Apparently, a state referral: "We are concerned about the recent information on massive atrocities committed in the western part of Cote d'Ivoire," he said. "We are trying to...

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06 Apr

This time concerning the Goldstone Report and whether Israel intentionally targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead as a matter of policy.  You know a post is in trouble when it's entitled "Human Rights Watch Lies re: Goldstone Retraction," but then states, three paragraphs later, "Well, maybe lying isn’t quite right. Roth chose his words carefully, and I suppose...

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04 Apr

The Kenyan government has filed a 30-page motion with the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber II arguing that recent improvements to the Kenyan criminal-justice system render the cases against the Ocampo Six inadmissible.  Here are the highlights of the reforms, from the motion's introduction (para. 2): 2. The Government's Application must be determined with a full understanding of the fundamental and far-reaching constitutional...

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04 Apr

It's amazing what not working for the government can do for one's ability to tell the truth.  As readers likely know, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was forced to resign last month for the sin of accurately describing Bradley Manning's abusive conditions of confinement as "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."  (For his part, the ever-credulous Obama dismissed the abuse allegations...

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04 Apr

The following is a guest-post written by Orde Kittrie, a professor at ASU's law school, and Sandy Spector, the deputy director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.  They very much want input from OJ's readership, so please post your thoughts.  Our thanks to Orde and Sandy for contributing the post! Seven years after A.Q. Khan publicly confessed to...

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