Compare the following. First, Reed Stevenson for Reuters: Yugoslavia tribunal judges ordered legal counsel for former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and adjourned his trial until March 2010 to give the new defence lawyers time to prepare. Karadzic has been acting as his own attorney and has been boycotting the trial which charges him with some of Europe's worst atrocities since World...
As most readers probably know by now, the Trial Chamber has decided to adjourn Dr. Karadzic's trial until 1 March 2010 and appoint stand-by counsel who will step in if, at that time, Dr. Karadzic continues to boycott the trial. Here are the relevant paragraphs from the decision: 19. On the issue of continuing the trial in the absence of the...
My favorite line of today's hearing in the Karadzic trial, courtesy of one of the prosecutors: "If necessary, force can be used to secure his presence in the courtroom," Uertz-Retzlaff said. Because nothing says "fair trial" quite like a defendant in restraints....
Niamh Hayes, a PhD candidate the Irish Centre for Human Rights and an intern on the Karadzic case, has a very useful guest post at the International Law Bureau about how the Trial Chamber might respond to Dr. Karadzic's boycott. The entire post is well worth a read, but I was particularly struck by Niamh's suggestion that Dr. Karadzic's actions...
Having been pilloried from all sides about my insistence that Dr. Karadzic should be given more time to prepare for trial, it's important to note that I am not the only one who thinks that. Bogdan Ivanisevic, who works for the International Center for Transitional Justice -- a group that can hardly be accused of being soft on Dr. Karadzic...
Just when you thought the global financial crisis was subsiding, with returns to growth in most leading economies, including the US, Europe, China, etc., we have a counter-indicator. The Financial Times reports today that McDonald's is closing its three outlets in Iceland, citing the difficult economic environment: Iceland edged further towards the margins of the global economy on Monday whenMcDonald’s announced...
As has been widely reported, Dr. Karadzic intends to boycott the start of his trial to protest the Tribunal's refusal to give him the time he needs to adequately prepare for trial. I don't know when the letter he submitted to the Tribunal will appear on the ICTY website, so I have made it available here: karadzic-submission-of-21-oct-20091 Dr. Karadzic's decision is deeply...
Martin Holterman and Marko Milanovic have been kind enough to respond to my post on the ICTY's attack on Dr. Karadzic's right of self-representation, so it's only fair that I respond to their responses. To begin with, Martin writes that "[g]iven the precedent of the Milosevic case, and undoubtedly many others with which I am less familiar, I think we can...
While I agree with Julian that the interplay of law and politics on questions of statehood can lead to difficult questions, I think his declaration that “we still don’t know when a state is a state,” does more to obscure the issues than actually give a clear picture as to how law and politics affect each other. First of all,...
Well, I don't know that for sure yet -- I only just got in from the airport an hour ago. But it sure is beautiful this time of year. I am here for what looks to be a great conference -- the first academic forum (i.e., workshop) jointly organized by the American Society of International Law and the European Society...
Seemingly more interested in placating victims groups than the judges who will determine Dr. Karadzic's guilt or innocence, prosecutors have refused to trim their monstrous and completely unworkable indictment: In written submissions released by the tribunal Tuesday, prosecutors say further cutting down their 11-count indictment against Karadzic to squeeze it into a year would prevent them presenting evidence encompassing all his...
As part of the backlash against the Goldstone Commission's recommendation that the Security Council refer the situation in Gaza to the ICC if Israel and Hamas do not conduct credible investigations of their crimes, the far-right Jerusalem Post published an editorial today entitled "Strange Justice: The ICC, Europe, and the World." The editorial was ostensibly written by a Researcher at...
