In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Regions

04 Mar

Two different but interesting views of Australia's threat to bring Japan to the ICJ over whaling. Over at The Jurist, Don Rothwell of Australian National University provides some background and legal context for Australia's lawsuit. As I understand it, Australia could claim that Japan is actually violating Australia's 200 mile exclusive economic zone (assuming certain Australian Antarctic claims were accepted).  But...

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28 Feb

At least according to Dominic Hughes, a BBC reporter who obviously can't be bothered to know what he's talking about: Perhaps not surprisingly Radovan Karadzic has been a reluctant participant in this trial. The former leader of the Bosnian Serbs has appeared just a few times, regularly boycotting the process. Apparently, "once" now qualifies as "regularly."  Good job, BBC! ADDENDUM: Hughes also claims that...

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28 Feb

My new Weekly Standard essay - although “polemic” is probably closer to it.  And thanks, Julian, for the plug below! Well, regular readers have been hearing about this piece for a while, and I have posted various arguments from it (concerning targeted killing and Predator drones and the CIA and armed conflict and self-defense, and my general concern that the...

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27 Feb

The BBC reports: The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be considered Israeli. This means goods made by Israelis or Jews in the West Bank cannot benefit from a trade deal giving Israel preferential access to EU markets. At first glance, this seems like the correct result, especially given the...

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25 Feb

I've heard that the docket for the European Court of Human Rights is out of control, but a backlog of 120,000* cases is a little ridiculous. There is no doubt about the seriousness of the situation in Strasbourg. Jean-Paul Costa, president of the European Court of Human Rights, has referred to it as extremely disturbing. The parliamentary assembly of the Council of...

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23 Feb

That's the question, sort of, raised in Totes-Isotoner v. United States, the most interesting tariff classification case you will ever read. Under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, men's glove have a tariff rate of 14 percent whereas gloves "for other persons" have a rate of 12.6 percent. An importer of gloves, Totes-Isotoner, argues that these duties unconstitutionally discriminate on...

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22 Feb

I am sitting in the Indianapolis airport as I write this, heading home from a conference on the Milosevic trial.  The conference was easily the most enjoyable I've ever attended -- I vastly prefer small, specialized conferences to mega-events like the AALS or ASIL.  The attendees were a superb mix of academics, former OTP investigators and analysts, and defence attorneys. ...

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21 Feb

The release of the final report on the Yoo/Bybee "torture memos" reminds us of how government lawyering can intersect with the interpretation of international law.  And so just in time, the Yale Journal of International Law will be hosting a conference next Friday, February 26, on "Government Lawyering and International Law." Harold Koh, John Bellinger, and lots of other less...

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19 Feb

I had almost forgotten about this ongoing dispute between Australia and Japan over whaling, which has been going on for years (and which I first noted on this blog way back in 2005).  The Australian Prime Minister warned Japan yesterday that if whaling doesn't stop by November, Australia will take Japan to court, either the ICJ or the International Tribunal...

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19 Feb

Alan Dershowitz has a very short but persuasive assessment of the legal issues arising out of the alleged Israeli assassinations of a Hamas leader in Dubai. So if the Israeli Air Force had killed Mabhouh while he was in Gaza, there would be absolutely no doubt that their action would be lawful. It does not violate international law to kill a...

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16 Feb

What a shock: the Appeals Chamber has upheld Richard Harvey's appointment as stand-by counsel.  I would engage in a detailed account of its reasoning, but the short decision -- 16 pages, only five of which are analysis -- provides none.  Here, for example, is the AC's response to the heart of Dr. Karadzic's challenge, the irrationality of the procedures the...

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13 Feb

Dapo Akande, who seems to know more about head of state immunity than anyone else, has an interesting post on the recent ICC Appeals Chamber non-decision decision in the case against Sudan's President Bashir.  He points out that the Appeals Chamber failed to even mention the question of head of state immunity, which is important in this case because as...

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