In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

17 Dec

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm  at the worsening violence in Syria, including the reported mass killing of Alawites and alleged firing of long-range missiles on Syrian territory. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea celebrated its 30-year anniversary. France reported that officials from the Afghan government, the Taliban rebel movement and other factions would meet this week near Paris to...

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16 Dec

Calls for Papers The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University College of Law; the Intellectual Property Law Center, Drake University Law School; the Center for International and Comparative Law, Duke University Law School; the Institute for Information Law and Policy, New York Law School; and the Committee on International Intellectual Property,...

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15 Dec

[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle.] On December 15, 2012, one phase of the dispute between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Ghana over the “seizure” of the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad while in a Ghanaian port came to an end, when the International Tribunal for the Law of...

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15 Dec

This week on Opinio Juris, a guest post by Daniel Bethlehem, following up on a post by Julian Ku last week, offered three more legal bases for the legality of an intervention in Syria. Also continuing on some of last week's themes, Kevin Jon Heller wrote how a recent decision by the ICC's Appeals Chamber confirms his argument on retroactive ad hoc jurisdiction, and Deborah Pearlstein couldn't resist taking...

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14 Dec

A big item on the Security Council’s agenda this month is reconsideration of the mandate of the Ombudsperson and Monitoring Regime for Al Qaida Sanctions, pursuant to Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1989.  Of particular interest are measures proposed by Like Minded States this year (including, amongst others, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Costa Rica, and Germany) which suggest a variety...

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14 Dec

The United Kingdom has paid $3.5 million to settle a rendition case brought by Libyan dissident Sami al Saadi. The European Court of Human Rights released its decision (.pdf) in the Al Masri v. The Republic of Macedonia case finding he was a victim of CIA rendition. The ICC Appeals Chamber dismissed a challenge from ex-Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo that the...

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13 Dec

Syrian troops have been accused of using Scud missiles in populated areas, according to a US official and Human Rights Watch. The United Kingdom has announced its intent to legalize same-sex marriage in the coming year. Trial Chamber II of the ICTY convicted Bosnian Serb commander Zdravko Tolimir for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentenced him to life in...

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13 Dec

I had an interesting -- and respectful -- disagreement with André de Hoogh last week concerning the right of non-states parties to retroactively accept the jurisdiction of the Court pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute.  I argued in my post that Palestine could accept the Court's jurisdiction retroactive to whenever it became a state under international law.  Andre challenged...

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12 Dec

As loathe as I am to call any attention to Eric Posner’s latest over on Slate, his piece engaging the Jeh Johnson speech (about the notion that the Al Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11 might someday be defeated) is such a blast from the past it’s hard to resist. Turns out the President has really been detaining everyone under...

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12 Dec

Following the EU's example yesterday, the US has recognized Syria's opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and many more world powers are poised to do the same at the “Friends of the Syrian People” conference opens today in Morocco. Human Rights Watch has a report of the Syrian government using incendiary bombs on at least four occasions since mid-November in...

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