[Matt Pollard is a Senior Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva, and Director of the ICJ Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Mathilde Laronche is an Associate Legal Adviser for the ICJ, with a specialization in human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law and Viviana Grande is an intern with the ICJ, a law...
[Matt Pollard is a Senior Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in Geneva, and Director of the ICJ Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers; Mathilde Laronche is an Associate Legal Adviser for the ICJ, with a specialization in human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law and Viviana Grande is an intern with the ICJ, a law...
[M. Vagias is a Senior Lecturer of Law with The Hague University of Applied Science] Introduction: Amnesties in the latest Gaddafi Admissibility proceedings The debate on the compatibility of amnesties with the duty to prosecute human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, is far from new in the realm of international criminal law. It has troubled first and foremost the Inter-American Court...
[Jennifer Trahan is a Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs.] On March 5, 2020, the International Criminal Court’s Appeals Chamber issued an extremely significant ruling authorizing the opening of the Afghanistan investigation. The decision is important in that it confirms the Prosecutor’s discretion in evaluating whether or not to proceed “in the interests of justice” under Article 53(1)(c) of the Rome Statute, thereby allowing the Afghanistan...
I wanted to wait a few days to write this post, because in almost every respect I wholeheartedly endorse the Appeals Chamber's recent decision in the Afghanistan situation. The AC corrected fundamental legal errors by the Pre-Trial Chamber concerning the scope of the authorized investigation and the required nexus for war crimes. And, of course, the AC reaffirmed in no...
On 3 March, news reports indicated that that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (High Commissioner) filed an intervention at the Supreme Court of India, linked to petitions challenging the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 (CAA). This legislation – along with a population and citizenship register – has been the focus of nationwide protests across India. In brief, the CAA seeks to ease a path...
[David Eichert is a PhD Candidate at the London School of Economics.] On 23 January 2020 the International Court of Justice made history when it issued provisional measures in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar, ordering Myanmar to halt its campaign of violence against the Rohingya. While the final outcome of the case remains very much unknown, the fact that...
[Siddharth S. Aatreya is an LLM Candidate in International Law at the University of Cambridge and a General Editor of the Cambridge International Law Journal.] The Canadian Supreme Court’s decision in Nevsun Resources v. Araya has shone new light on the debate around the horizontal application of international law, particularly international human rights norms. With a 5-4 majority, the court held that Nevsun, a Vancouver-based...
[Dr. Leonie Steinl, LL.M. is a post-doctoral researcher at Hamburg University, where she works in a DFG-project on "Strategic Litigation Networks and Accountability for Gross Violations of Human Rights". Dr. Wenke Brückner currently works as a lawyer in Berlin, specializing in German and international criminal law. Both authors have previously worked on different aspects of the case of Hanan v. Germany for...
[Ciara Laverty is a PhD candidate at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University. Dieneke de Vos received her PhD in international criminal law from the European University Institute, Florence and currently works in the humanitarian sector on the prevention of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse.] On 11 February 2020, Colombia’s Constitutional Court made public its full reasoning in the precedent-setting tutela action...
Last Thursday, Pre-Trial Chamber I issued its decision concerning which states, individuals ,and organizations will be permitted to submit observations on the OTP's request for a jurisdictional ruling in the Palestine situation. The PTC granted leave to 43 of the 45 potential amicus curiae. It denied one request (para. 52) because the individual who submitted it did so on behalf...
[Todd Carney is a student at Harvard Law School. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Communications. He has also worked in digital media in New York City and Washington D.C.] Last month, a dual American and Egyptian citizen named Moustafa Kassem, who had been arrested in Egypt, died in an Egyptian prison. Kassem’s death occurred despite the...