In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

08 Aug

Tensions are escalating at the India-Pakistan border region of Kashmir, with India for the first time directly accusing Pakistan's army of involvement in an ambush that killed five Indian soldiers, and Pakistan's military accusing Indian forces of wounding a Pakistani civilian after opening fire.  In other escalating-tensions news, four Chinese ships spent more than 24 hours in what Japan sees as its territorial waters, prompting...

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07 Aug

[Aqsa Mahmud graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and currently practices as a government attorney in Washington, DC] The international community’s application (or nonapplication) of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to the recent Arab conflicts highlights notable limits to R2P. R2P is a relatively new doctrine that holds States responsible for protecting their populations and, where the sovereign fails, allows...

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07 Aug

Two Pakistani soldiers were wounded in an exchange of fire with Indian troops along the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir in the latest flare-up of tensions. The Leiden Law Blog has published an analysis on the Guatemalan genocide case against former president José Efraín Ríos Montt. The recent closures of US and UK embassies around the Middle East and Africa were allegedly prompted by...

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06 Aug

Sierra Leone deported Ibrahim Bah, an associate of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, sparing him a trial for crimes committed during the 1991-2002 civil war due to begin on Monday, to the dismay of human rights campaigners. Human Rights Watch has more on Bah here. Five Indian soldiers were killed in an attack on their post along the disputed border with...

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06 Aug

On July 10, counsel for Al-Senussi filed a motion with the Pre-Trial Chamber complaining that Libya had announced it would begin Al-Senussi's trial no later than the end of Ramdan -- August 7 -- despite the fact that Libya's admissibility challenge was still pending before the ICC. On August 5, Libya filed its response, arguing that it has no obligation...

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06 Aug

Following-up on Kevin's post that illustrated the increasing temperature anomalies of the world's climate, I want to point out a recent study pointing to evidence of a link between increasing global temperatures and a rise in violent crime and larger-scale conflicts, such as wars. Smithsonian.com reports: Now, in the most comprehensive analysis of the work on climate change and armed  conflict...

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05 Aug

[Dr. Gilad Noam teaches international criminal law at the Hebrew University and is also a practicing attorney at Israel's Ministry of Justice] What is the underlying nature of a dispute between a State and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on issues of complementarity?  Are the proceedings in which a State challenges the admissibility of a situation or a...

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05 Aug

Saudi Arabia denied permission for a plane carrying Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir to cross its airspace for the swearing-in of the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, but it is unclear as to why. After the swearing in of the new Iranian president, Iran and the United States signaled a fresh will on Sunday to seek to end the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program...

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04 Aug

Events A conference to mark the 70th anniversary of the War Crimes Commission is being held September 10-11, 2013 at SOAS in London entitled: Reinforcing Human Rights Standards: Lessons from the United Nations War Crimes Commission. You can register here. The Moot Court Association of Government Law College in association with the D.M. Harish foundation is pleased to announce the 15th D.M....

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03 Aug

This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin continued his discussion of the al-Bahlul amicus brief started last week. He pointed out how the Prosecution had disclaimed JCE before the trial and the military commission was asked not to consider this mode of liability, making its invocation in the amicus brief unacceptable in his opinion. Kevin pointed out that JCE was also rejected...

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