Courts & Tribunals

[Susan M. Akram is Clinical Professor at Boston University and Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at the Law School. Gabor Rona is Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School and former International Legal Director of Human Rights First.] In his Executive Order 13928 (EO) issued on June 11, 2020, President Trump declared the investigation by the International Criminal Court...

[David J. Scheffer is Visiting Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and Tom A. Bernstein Genocide Prevention Fellow, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and was the first U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001). The author’s observations and views in this article are solely his own and do not reflect any institutional position.] How will the survival and legacies of tens of millions...

[Gunnar M. Ekelove-Slydal has been Deputy Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee since 1997. He is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southeast-Norway.] The process to elect the third Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has run into difficulties. The Election Committee’s shortlist of four candidates to the top job has been met by many States Parties and other stakeholders by...

[Nathaniel Berman is the Rahel Varnhagen Professor of International Affairs, Law, and Modern Culture at Brown University.] The Land between the River and the Sea, the land that cannot even be named without provoking heated controversy, has once again moved to the forefront of international debate. There are many possible explanations for this upsurge: perhaps the “Trump Plan,” perhaps Israeli threats...

The Gambia initiated legal proceedings in the United States a few months ago against Facebook, in order to compel the company to hand over information related to its ongoing case against Myanmar, relating to the Rohingya, before the International Court of Justice.  This legal strategy is in accordance with a provision of U.S. law - §1782 of the U.S. Code, a federal statute which permits the compelling of testimony,...

[Christian De Vos is a Senior Advocacy Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative. He engages in advocacy across the Justice Initiative’s areas of work, with a particular focus on international justice and accountability for grave crimes.] It has been a pleasure to read the six reflections shared over the course of this symposium. I am grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting the discussion and to the...

[Rod Rastan serves as Legal Advisor in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, where he deals with international law issues, in particular in relation to jurisdiction, admissibility and judicial assistance. The views expressed herein are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of the OTP or the ICC. ] It is fair to say that the...

[Alexandra Huneeus is Professor of Law at University of Wisconsin Law School, where she directs the Global Legal Studies Center and Chairs the Human Rights Program.] Of the many innovations being advanced by Colombia’s peace mechanism (the Special Jurisdiction for the Peace, or SJP), one is the way it delineates its investigations. While some of its cases are organized by type of criminal activity – such as recruitment...

[Judy Gitau is the Africa Region Coordinator for the global Women's Rights organization Equality Now, a lawyer, a published author in the fields of transitional justice and international criminal law and a member of Kenya's civil society.] In his book Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance: The International Criminal Court in Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Christian De Vos illustrates what was intended by the legal rules under the...

[Jacques B. Mbokani is a Professor of Law at the Université de Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Consultant to Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. A French version, provided by the author, appears below the English version of this post.] Introduction Christian De Vos's book on Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance takes a fresh look at the relationship between the...

[Pascal Kambale and Sharon Nakandha are human rights lawyers with the Open Society Africa Regional Office (OSF-AfRO) where they serve as Senior Advisor and Program Officer respectively. They lead AfRO’s work on justice and accountability.] The request to provide some thoughts on Christian De Vos’ book is timely as the ASP appointed group of independent experts continues it task of making “concrete, achievable, actionable recommendations aimed at...

[Liana Georgieva Minkova is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, UK, and a full-award holder of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Training Partnership.] In Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance, Christian De Vos sets himself the challenging task of providing new insight into one of the most discussed aspects of the work of the International Criminal...