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...
[Robert Charles Clarke is a Research Associate at the Supreme Court of Western Australia] It could as well be said that Darré, for example, is guilty of murder of numerous people in the occupied portion of Russia, because, as Minister of Food, he had charge of the Food Estate and supplied the food that maintained the Einsatzgruppen in that territory; that it was...
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...
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...
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...
[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...
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...
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....
Yikes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZzNL898oW4...
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...
[David Benger is a student of Political Science at Brandeis University and International law at the Grotius Center for International Legal Studies at the University of Leiden. David can be reached at dabenger@gmail.com] One of the central debates surrounding the International Criminal Court has been the battle between the rights of the accused and the interests of justice. This discussion has been...
After much agonizing,I have reluctantly decided to discontinue my weekly analysis of Crossing Lines. Sadly, the last two episodes of the show have almost scrupulously avoided the ICC; mentions were limited to throwaway dialogue ("I'm with the ICC") or logos on computer screens. Even worse, the most recent episode featured a brief but completely accurate discussion of the Rwandan genocide...
