In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Courts & Tribunals

24 Aug

Expect to hear more of this in the next few days from the anti-Obama progressive left. NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be “held accountable” to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday. “NATO’s top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt...

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23 Aug

Let's assume that the Libyan rebels do prevail and that they end up capturing Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.  Does the new Libyan government have a legal obligation to turn him over to the ICC, even if they seek to try him in Libyan courts? Libya is not a member of the ICC Rome Statute, so its only obligation flows from the...

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19 Aug

After 200 years of quiescence, Piracy has re-emerged as a major problem for world shipping.  A recent report has documented that Piracy has resulted in more than $12 billion in losses in the past twelve months alone.  According to an August 11, 2011 article in the Guardian, Piracy is also significantly hampering food aid to drought-stricken Somalia, resulting in thousands of deaths.  Somali...

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21 Jul

Bloomberg BusinessWeek offers what is slowly becoming conventional wisdom on the ICTY, at least, if not international criminal justice in general. Credit [] is due to the court, which focused on individual responsibility rather than collective guilt. This helped foster reconciliation among Serbs, Croats and Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. But beyond the Balkans, it would be a mistake to exaggerate the...

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20 Jul

Nicaragua may vote on a referendum on whether to seek damages from the U.S. arising out of the 1980s civil war.  I have grave doubts about Nicaragua's ability to win such a claim (as well as its method of calculating  damages), but it might be an interesting case. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has proposed a referendum on whether to demand $17bn...

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19 Jul

Having just returned from Asia, which is awash in disputes over territorial sea rights and exclusive economic zones,  the U.S. domestic debate over ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention seems almost quaint.  Unlike pretty much every country in East Asia, the U.S. does not have any serious boundary or other kind of dispute that is likely to be...

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18 Jul

The International Court of Justice issued a "provisional measures" order today in a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over a World Heritage temple located near or on the boundary between the two nations.  The request for provisional measures was brought by Cambodia, which sought the withdrawal of Thai troops from around the temple.  The ICJ granted this request, but went...

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18 Jul

Toby Landau, one of the leading arbitrators in the world, gave the keynote address at the recent ITA Workshop in Dallas and, as always, he was entertaining and provocative. One of the central themes of his discussion was how arbitration counsel fail to present a case in a manner sensitive to the needs of the arbitration panel. “Inequality...

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04 Apr

Assume that a U.S. agency modifies its interpretation of a federal statute to respond to an adverse WTO decision. In so doing, consistent with the Charming Betsy doctrine, its interpretation is brought into conformity with WTO jurisprudence with respect to one stage--the investigation stage--of the administrative proceeding. But the agency does not alter its interpretation of the federal...

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14 Feb

Today an Ecuador court fined Chevron $8.6 billion for environmental damage. According to the Wall Street Journal, $5.4 billion of that is to restore polluted soil, $1.4 billion to create a health system for the community, $800 million to treat individuals injured by the pollution, $600 million to restore polluted waters, $200 million to restore native species, $150 million...

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