I wanted to call readers' attention to an upcoming web seminar on Libya held by Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. The Program's web seminars are always excellent, and this one -- which features Luis Moreno-Ocampo and Nicholas Burns -- shapes up to be superb. Here are the details: On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, the Program on Humanitarian...
My colleague Anne Orford has a fascinating contribution today to the official blog of the London Review of Books questioning the universality of the supposedly universal international law that underlies the Security Council's authorization of military action in Libya. Here is a taste: In 1954, Carl Schmitt bemoaned the destruction of European international law in the 20th century. According to...
In a post today at Commentary, Boot argues that Taylor's arrest after going into exile makes it more likely that Gaddafi will fight to the death instead of negotiating a gracious exit from power: Once upon a time, an autocrat could step down and live out his days securely in the south of France or some other plush locale. That...
A class action complaint filed this week by Guatemalans has all the ingredients for a blockbuster case not unlike the syphilis experiments of Tuskegee, Alabama. Regardless of the outcome of the case, it is a public relations nightmare for the United States. As the complaint alleges, "It has been revealed that despite ...
With all the attention being paid to the situations in Libya and Kenya, the situation in Darfur has receded into the background. (Par for the course, unfortunately, with Darfur.) So it's worth noting that the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I has confirmed charges against two Darfuri rebels alleged to have orchestrated a September 2007 attack that killed 12 African Union peacekeepers: On...
On March 7, a federal court in New York issued an anti-suit injunction order enjoining Ecuador plaintiffs from enforcing the $9 billion Ecuador judgment against Chevron. The injunction applies to all Ecuador plaintiffs and their counsel, including "directly or indirectly funding, commencing, prosecuting, advancing in any way, or receiving benefit from any action or proceeding, outside the Republic of...
So, you're a state senator in the deep South. You love freedom, which is why you're a Republican. You know that Shariah (aka Shari'ah) is the enemy of freedom. You also know that, although Shariah currently plays no role in the law of your state, it will eventually supplant the Constitution (sometime in the next four decades, you estimate) unless...
Just a quick update to point out that Pennumbra, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review's online companion, has published the fourth and final installment of my debate with John Dehn on the targeted killing of Al-Aulaqi. You can find the entire debate, including my just-published Closing Argument, here. My thanks to Pennumbra for inviting me to participate, and to John for...
Moreno-Ocampo said the following today: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says information of attacks on civilians by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suggests they could constitute a crime against humanity. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he has assembled a team to collect more information and has been in contact with Libyan officials and army...
Milan notes in a comment to my previous post that he is "troubled that the Security Council seems not to be referring 'situations' as much as certain crimes committed by certain actors." He is referring to paragraphs 4 and 6 of the SC Resolution: 4. Decides to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since...
The referral is part of a larger set of sanctions against Libya. From the UN News Centre: The Security Council today voted unanimously to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders, while referring the ongoing violent repression of civilian demonstrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In its Resolution...
Here's something you don't see every day: A disciplinary hearing for the chief defence lawyer for former Liberian President Charles Taylor was adjourned indefinitely Friday after just seven minutes because one judge refused to attend. The hearing by the Special Court for Sierra Leone was to weigh possible punishment for British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths after he stormed out...
