Here's something you don't see every day: A disciplinary hearing for the chief defence lawyer for former Liberian President Charles Taylor was adjourned indefinitely Friday after just seven minutes because one judge refused to attend. The hearing by the Special Court for Sierra Leone was to weigh possible punishment for British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths after he stormed out...
David Bernstein and NGO Monitor have worked themselves into a lather about Human Rights Watch's decision to appoint Shawan Jabarin, the head of Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human-rights group, to its Mideast Advisory Board. In support of their ire, they cite decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court that have concluded that Jabarin is also an official in the Popular Front...
Max du Plessis and Christopher Gevers, ICC experts who teach at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have launched a new blog, War and Law. The blog focuses on international criminal justice from an African perspective, making it a must-read for anyone interested in international criminal law. Recent posts discuss Kenya's attempts to amend Article 16 of the Rome...
Yes, after nearly nine years of detention in Guantanamo, Noor Uthan Muhammed has pleaded guilty to two non-existent war crimes. As the ACLU notes in its post on the plea, although the court reporter faithfully translated each time he said "yes" to whether he understood what he was doing, the reporter did not translate the only full sentence Muhammed uttered:...
According to the Jerusalem Post, five purchasers of Jimmy Carter's new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid have filed a $5 million lawsuit in federal court in New York against Carter and Simon & Schuster, the book's publisher. The lawsuit alleges that the book violates New York consumer-protection laws by claiming to be a work of non-fiction (my emphasis): The five...
Even when Moreno-Ocampo wins, he loses. Pre-Trial Chamber II recently rejected a request by Mohammed Hussein Ali, one of the six Kenyans for whom the OTP has sought summonses, to submit "observations" on the investigation That was an easy call; nothing in the Rome Statute permits a suspect to participate in the investigative process so early. The Pre-Trial Chamber nevertheless...
Pennumbra, the on-line companion to the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, is hosting the debate. John's opening statement and my reply -- which is something of a misnomer, because the reply doesn't directly address John's arguments -- are currently available. Both focus on Judge Bates' opinion dismissing the ACLU/CCR lawsuit; I argue that, contrary to the Judge's claim, his opinion...
It's been a while since I checked in on the WikiLeaks kerfuffle, so now that the HILJ symposium is over -- and I thought it was great -- I wanted to flag this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the government has found no evidence that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange solicited or conspired with Bradley Manning...
This must be that vibrant democracy Richard Cohen recently extolled in defense of denying democracy to Egyptians: The Knesset House Committee on Wednesday approved the composition of two parliamentary panels to investigate the funding sources of human rights organizations. Most of the opposition parties have decided to boycott the committees. The motion passed at the House Committee by a...
I realize that Fox has long since given up any pretense of engaging in journalism, but I'm still shocked that it continues to let someone who is so clearly mentally disturbed poison political discourse (and put lives in danger) in the U.S. Here's his latest gem: BECK: I believe that I can make a case in the end that there are...
As Bobby Chesney noted at Lawfare a few days ago, the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) has issued the following order in al-Bahlul: Upon consideration of the record of trial and pleadings of the parties and amicus curiae, the following issues are specified and oral argument is ordered: I. Assuming that Charges I, II, and III allege underlying ...
I blogged a year ago about the ridiculous criminal-libel suit that an academic named Karin Calvo-Goller filed against NYU's Joseph Weiler. Today Weiler blogs (no permanent link for some reason) about the trial at EJIL: Talk!. It's a remarkable account that should be read in full. But here's a taste: Three months later I was summoned to appear before an...
