As I have discussed before, in March 2018 the Presidency curiously dissolved the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC III) that had been dealing with the Afghanistan situation for six months and assigned that situation to a new PTC. Judge Mindua remained part of the new PTC (PTC II), while Judges Chung and Pangalangan were replaced by two newly-elected judges, Akane and Aitala....
[Joseph Rikhof is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Common Law of the University of Ottawa where he teaches the course International Criminal Law. Until his retirement in early 2017 he was also a senior counsel at the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the federal Department of Justice. This post is cross-posted on the Philippe Kirsch...
Six United Nations Special Rapporteurs released a statement last week, urging the dropping of charges against an American aid worker for aiding migrants in the Arizona desert. A day later, I read an op-ed on the increased criminalization of humanitarian aid in the European context. While this issue seems to be the subject of increased scrutiny lately, there have been multiple...
[Rawan Arraf is an Australian lawyer and founder and director of the Australian Centre for International Justice. This post represents the personal view of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Centre for International Justice. ACIJ is not associated with the litigation mentioned in this post but volunteered to provide research assistance to the plaintiff’s...
As expected, the OTP has asked the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) to grant leave to appeal its refusal to authorise the Afghanistan investigation. I'm in Kiev and don't have as much time to write as I'd like, so I just want to offer a few quick thoughts on the OTP's motion, which seeks appeal on three interrelated issues. First, I think it's...
[Mohamed S. Helal is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Mortiz College of Law and an Affiliated Faculty with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. This is the second part of a two-part post; the first can be found here.] Second: Resisting Iranian Regional Policies and Responding to Indirect Iranian Aggression The U.S. National Defense Strategy states that “Iran is competing with its...
[Mohamed S. Helal is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Mortiz College of Law and an Affiliated Faculty with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies. This is the first part of a two-part post.] Over the past weeks, tensions have escalated in the Persian Gulf. On May 5, 2019, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced that “in response to a number of troubling and...
This summer we will host our fifth Emerging Voices symposium, where we invite doctoral students, early-career academics and practicing lawyers to tell Opinio Juris readers about a research project or other international law topic of interest. If you are a doctoral student or in the early stages of your career (e.g., post-docs, junior academics or early-career practitioners within the first five...
I had the pleasure on Wednesday of attending Keith Raynor's talk "International Criminal Justice: Where Does It Go from Here?" at Lincoln's Inn in London. I had never been to an Inn of Court before, and it was great fun. I still can't get over not being allowed to go the bathroom during dinner, and -- as someone who...
[Alexander Greenawalt is a Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] I am honored to provide this commentary on this terrific new book by Jonathan Hafetz. Let me begin by highlighting some of the things that make this publication a valuable contribution to the literature about International Criminal Law (“ICL”). ...
[Mark Kersten is a researcher based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the deputy director of the Wayamo Foundation and creator of the blog Justice in Conflict. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] Understanding selectivity is something of a holy grail among scholars of observers of international criminal justice....
[Gabor Rona is Visiting Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Armed Conflict Project at Cardozo Law School. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] If like me, you have always believed that the arc of the universe does, indeed, to paraphrase the 19th Century Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker, bend toward international justice, this may be a good...