In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kevin Jon Heller

09 Aug

My friend Nancy Combs new book on international tribunals, Fact-Finding Without Facts: The Uncertain Evidentiary Foundations of International Criminal Convictions, has just been published by Cambridge University Press.  Here is the description: Fact-finding Without Facts explores international criminal fact-finding - empirically, conceptually, and normatively. After reviewing thousands of pages of transcripts from various international criminal tribunals, the author...

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08 Aug

El Universal -- along with other newspapers -- is reporting that one of President Uribe's final acts in office was to file a complaint with the ICC alleging that Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, is responsible for permitting FARC guerrillas to use Venezuela as a staging area for crimes committed in Colombia: Jaime Granados, the lawyer of Colombian outgoing president...

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04 Aug

I've argued for the past couple of years that the ICC should open a formal investigation into the situation in Colombia, because it is a non-African situation that satisfies most, if not all, of my criteria for situational gravity: (1) crimes committed with government involvement; (2) systematic criminality; (3) socially alarming crimes such as enforced disappearance and torture.  Here is...

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31 Jul

Not surprisingly, the AU has condemned the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant against Bashir for genocide.  Equally unsurprising, the new resolution seems to have been adopted with the same kind of back-room machinations that led to the AU's previous resolution condemning the ICC: Over the weekend, delegates from the AU countries reportedly fought a fierce battle that led...

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29 Jul

[The following is a guest-post written by Ifeoma Ajunwa, a human-rights attorney who is beginning a PhD at Columbia University in the fall.  Our thanks to her for contributing -- KJH] In April of 2007, as a representative for the NGO, Human Rights Advocates (HRA), I was privileged to attend the 4th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in...

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25 Jul

[The following is a guest-post by Lt. Col. Chris Jenks, the Chief of the International Law Branch in the Army's Office of the Judge Advocate General.  He is blogging in his personal capacity.] The day ICC supporters and detractors alike hoped would come, albeit for very different reasons, arrived on Wednesday, July 21st -- Sudanese President Omar Bashir publicly...

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24 Jul

Dave Hoffman has a post today at Concurring Opinions reporting the results of an empirical study of how often law reviews have cited various blogs.  According to the study, blogs have been cited 5460 times since 2006, with the following blogs representing the top-10 in terms of citations: FindLaw's Writ -- 618 citations Volokh Conspiracy -- 402 SCOTUSBlog -- 305 Balkinization -- 259 Patently-O --...

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20 Jul

Two items worth noting.  First, as Julian pointed out the other day, Moreno-Ocampo's refusal to comply with the Trial Chamber's order to disclose the identity of an intermediary to Lubanga's defense team has led the Trial Chamber to order Lubanga's release pending appeal.  (The OTP filed the appeal today). It is bad enough that the "independent statutory obligation" to protect...

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18 Jul

Greg McNeal has passed along the sad news that Charles Gittings, a long-time commenter on Opinio Juris, has passed away at an untimely 57.  Here is a snippet from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times: Though not a lawyer, Gittings had a life-long interest in military tactics and law that led him to become an invaluable resource to some...

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12 Jul

As I predicted, the Pre-Trial Chamber has approved genocide charges for Bashir: The International Criminal Court has issued a second arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir - this time for charges of genocide. He already faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he denies. The ICC first indicted him in March 2009 but he has not...

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