In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Foreign Relations Law

03 Mar

While Russia was stealing all the attention over the weekend, a small group of assailants wielding knives killed at least 33 people and injured over a hundred in the main railway station of Kunming, China.  China's government has called these "terrorist attacks," and has hinted it is linked with Uighur separatists in China's northwestern Xinjiang province.  But the failure of the U.S....

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02 Mar

Saturday began with reports that Russia had seemingly used private security contractors to take control of the airport in Simferopol, Crimea. Then reports (like this one from CNN) of President Putin requesting from Russia’s Parliament an authorization to use military force in Ukraine because of “threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern...

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27 Feb

I'm getting more and more nervous about events in Ukraine, and particularly in the Crimea.  Things are spinning (almost) out of control, and it is worth noting that international legal principles are not helping lead toward a resolution. Instead of working out a negotiated transition, the new leaders of Ukraine have adopted a maximalist position by seizing power and then seeking...

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24 Feb

Reprieve, the excellent British human-rights organisation, has submitted a communication to the ICC asking it to investigate NATO personnel involved in CIA drone strikes in Pakistan. Here is Reprieve's press release: Drone victims are today lodging a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing NATO member states of war crimes over their role in facilitating the US’s covert drone programme in Pakistan. It...

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21 Feb

The recent altercation between members of Pussy Riot and Cossack militia that was caught on video is a red flag signalling a broader issue in the Russian Federation: the resurgent power of the Cossacks and their relation to the Russian state, especially to keep politically-disfavored groups in check. But who are the Cossacks?  A paramilitary organization? A political party? An ethnic...

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07 Feb

It's an excellent post, well worth reading in its entirety. I just want to flag two particularly important points. The first concerns whether, in light of Šainović, Perišić can really be considered fundamentally flawed. Schabas compellingly argues no: But the Prosecutor is not claiming that any ‘new fact’ has been discovered. Rather, the Prosecutor is arguing that the law has changed as...

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03 Feb

President Obama has issued the following memorandum concerning US participation in the UN's Mali stabilisation mission: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and consistent with section 2005 of the American Servicemembers' Protection Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 7424), concerning the participation of members of the Armed Forces...

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22 Jan

[Farshad Ghodoosi is a JSD candidate at Yale Law School.] In continuation of the discussion about the New Iranian Deal started by Duncan Hollis, I decided to take a stab at clarifying the Iranian side of the story.  The new deal, the so-called Geneva Agreement (24 Nov. 2013) and the ensuing implementation agreement (that took effect on Jan 20th, 2014), between...

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14 Jan

Standard Digital News, the online platform of The Standard, one of Kenya's leading newspapers, published a long article yesterday entitled "Did State Parties Hoodwink Kenya, African Union on ICC Attendence?" Here are the opening paragraphs: KENYA: Did the Rome Statute Assembly of State Parties hoodwink Kenya that the country’s chief executives would be excused from physical presence at their trials? This...

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13 Jan

Well, it's not exactly a secret treaty in the sense that yesterday, the news wires were abuzz about the fact that the United States, Iran and five other world powers concluded an agreement to implement Iran's earlier November deal on its nuclear program.  But, what's being held back is the actual text of the deal.  There's not many details (the...

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06 Jan

Gidon Shaviv called it. The Muslim Brotherhood does indeed believe that it can accept the ICC's jurisdiction on an ad hoc basis because it is still the legitimate government of Egypt: Just how successful the ICC action will be is unclear. Egypt is one of the few countries that have not accepted the ICC’s jurisdiction. However, Mr. Dixon and other members of the legal team said the...

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