[Dr. Aaron Matta is a Senior Researcher at The Hague Institute for Global Justice, Rule of Law Program. Anca Iordache is an intern within the Rule of Law Program the Institute. With many thanks to Stephen Rapp, Danya Chaikel and Lyal S. Sunga for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this commentary. The views expressed here do not necessarily...
[Dr Melanie O’Brien, TC Beirne School of Law & Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, University of Queensland.] Since December, there have been multiple announcements of new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers, and criticism of the UN for the handling of these allegations. These allegations all relate to SEA committed by peacekeepers in the Central African...
[Dr. Joanna Nicholson is a Researcher at PluriCourts - Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order at the University of Oslo.] If you were to ask most International Humanitarian Law (IHL) experts whether the fact that a fighter is a child under the age of fifteen affects when they constitute a military target under IHL,...
Like many lawyers who study constitutional law, I was saddened when I heard last night of the unexpected death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The internet being what it is, commentators have already offered their quick takes on Scalia’s substantial and multifaceted jurisprudential legacy (indeed, I think we’ve already moved on to debating his replacement). Most of these...
According to a recent article in Agenda.ge, Russia has announced that it will not cooperate with the ICC's formal investigation into the situation in Georgia: Russia’s Ministry of Justice issued a statement confirming it would not cooperate with the investigation, reported Russian media today. Tbilisi was not surprised by Moscow’s decision. The Georgian side believed it would not be in Russia’s best...
As many of our readers may recall, the late Professor Michael Lewis was a great friend of this blog and an important voice in U.S. international law and national security scholarship. To honor his memory, the Federalist Society has recently launched the first annual Michael Lewis Memorial Teleforum in his honor. The podcast features Maj. Gen. Charles Dunlap (Professor of the Practice of Law Executive Director,...
So local TV news in the U.S. is hardly the most sophisticated part of the U.S. media. Still, I was taken aback by this passage from a news report from WACH Fox Channel 57 in South Carolina. COLUMBIA, SC (WACH) - A measure that would ban the use of Sharia Law in South Carolina court rooms is working its way through the...
There have been noises coming out Ukraine for years that its government was preparing an international legal action against Russia over Crimea. It looks like Ukraine has finally prepared to pull the trigger. According to this report, Ukraine is ready to charge Russia with violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the following ways. "First, the seizure of...
[Nader Diab is an Associate Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists. LL.M Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Twitter : @NaderiskDiab] In the GC the ACHPR reiterated its call for the abolition or imposition of a moratorium on the death penalty (for previous similar calls see two resolutions of the ACHPR on this issue here and here)....
[Valentina Azarova is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Law, Birzeit University. She has assisted and advised in the suits filed by Al-Haq against foreign corporations for involvement in abuses in occupied Palestinian territory and is a member of the legal committee, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)]. On 19 January 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Occupation, Inc.: How Settlement...
[Jonathan Horowitz is a Legal Officer on National Security and Counterterrorism in the Open Society Justice Initiative. This post is based on his recently published article in Emory International Law Review, “Reaffirming the Role of Human Rights in a Time of “Global” Armed Conflict,” and will also appear in a longer form and under a different title in a forthcoming book, Theoretical Boundaries...
The SEAL in question is Matthew Bissonnette, who published the bestselling No Easy Day under the pseudonym Mark Owen. According to the Intercept, the federal government is investigating Bissonnette for revealing classified information and using his position to make money while still on active duty: A former Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden and wrote a bestselling book about the raid is now...
