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As Julian notes, earlier today the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I ordered Thomas Lubanga to stand trial on three charges relating to the FPLC's use of child soldiers. Here is the ICC's summary of the charges:The Chamber decided that there is sufficient evidence to establish substantial grounds to believe that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is criminally responsible as co-perpetrator for the...
I thought I would beat Roger to the punch and announce the newest innovation in the Second Life world: the virtual embassy.Sweden is opening an embassy in the internet fantasy world called Second Life - the first country to do so. The project is being run by the Swedish Institute - a promotional body which works alongside the foreign ministry. Institute director...
Justice Ginsburg gave a speech at Suffolk Law School last week and briefly addressed the interesting topic of the proliferation of law professor briefs. Here is what she said: As a judge now for some 26 years, I appreciate the importance of academic commentary. Our legal system gives judges considerable authority to shape the law through litigated cases. We entrust...
The American Branch of the International Law Association is having its biennial International Law Weekend West at Santa Clara Law School. Neal Katyal is the keynote speaker and the panels will address the usual topics: war in Iraq, enemy combatants, climate change, intellectual property abroad, etc. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, it is...
If you are in southern California, Jan Crawford Greenburg will be in Malibu at my home institution on Thursday, February 1 at 3:30 p.m. to present her new book, Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court. She will discuss her book with Jesse Choper of Boalt Hall, Jonathan Varat...
Pardon the U.S. football analogy, but this report from about the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda's scramble to finish trying its caseload before its 2008 deadline does have the feel of a team rushing to catch up before the clock runs out. The ICTR's main strategy for beating the clock is the transfer of many of its detainees to...
This shouldn't be news, but it might be worth noting that the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution today condemning denials of the Holocaust and calling such denials "tantamount to approval of genocide in all its forms." The resolution was adopted by consensus, which actually is kind of silly because one of the goals of the resolution is to...
To no one's surprise, the International Criminal Court's Pre-Trial Chamber has referred its very first case, The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to trial. Lubanga Dyilo has been charged with recruiting child soldiers to commit atrocities in a civil conflict within the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2002 to 2003 (see...
Father Robert Drinan, Catholic priest, former member of Congress, human rights activist, author, and law professor, died on Sunday from complications relating to pneumonia. He was 86. Father Drinan will be remembered for having been the first priest to be elected as a voting member to Congress (Michigan, then a territory, sent a priest as a non-voting delegate in the 1830’s)....
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank John Bellinger and our guest respondents for engaging our readers in such a serious way. While there has been much disagreement the past two weeks, there has been virtually unanimous expressions of sincere appreciation to Bellinger for his willingness to participate in this discussion. The blogosphere certainly took notice...
With his final wrap up post, John Bellinger's guest stint here has come to an end. On behalf of all of us here at Opinio Juris, I want to offer a sincere thank you to John for expending so much time and effort on providing significant, extensive and thoughtful posts and respsonses to comments over the past two weeks....
