It's rare that I defend the ICTY, but I feel compelled to do so here. As discussed in this blog post by Laurie Blank, a group of experts in military law have released a report attacking the Trial Chamber's judgment in Prosecutor v. Gotovina for allegedly misapplying basic IHL rules regarding targeting. Unfortunately, the report fundamentally misstates what the Trial...
I don't want to step on the Harvard symposium -- I've moved it back to the top -- but it's worth noting that, on the same day, (1) the Fourth Circuit threw out Jose Padilla's lawsuit seeking damages for his mistreatment while being detained and (2) the U.S. government arrested John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, for revealing critical aspects...
It's difficult to accuse these guys of being soft on Tehran, so it's hard to quibble with their conclusion: The intelligence assessment Israeli officials will present later this week to Dempsey indicates that Iran has not yet decided whether to make a nuclear bomb. The Israeli view is that while Iran continues to improve its nuclear capabilities, it has...
Gabor Rona posted a response to Jens Ohlin yesterday. Jens responded at LieberCode -- and now Gabor has responded to Jens's response (and John Dehn's comment on his OJ post). Here is what Jens wrote (reposted with permission): Many thanks to Gabor Rona for taking the time to continue this conversation. There’s a lot in Rona’s post, but I want to...
Here's an actual headline from Fox Nation, part of that fair and balanced news organization we all know and love: Sovereignty's a bitch, isn't it?...
Jens Ohlin has continued the conversation about IHL and IHRL at LieberCode. Here is a snippet, self-servingly chosen because I want to comment on it: It strikes me as curious that human rights activists are so quick to cabin CIL application of the IHL rules of IAC to NIAC. To my ear, it is one of the great advancements...
The following is a guest-post by Gabor Rona, the International Legal Director of Human Rights First. It is a response to a post at LieberCode by Jens Ohlin, a Professor at Cornell Law School, that argues international human rights law (IHRL) does not apply in armed conflict, because it is displaced by international humanitarian law (IHL). Prof. Ohlin’s conclusion that IHRL...
There has been much debate the past couple of days about whether the bomb attacks that have killed at least three Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010 qualify as terrorism. Glenn Greenwald and Kevin Drum on the left and Andrew Sullivan on the right say "yes"; many of their readers (see Greenwald here) and the editor of Technology Review say "no." ...
The media has been abuzz the past couple of days about a video that shows four U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban soldiers. The military's response to the blossoming controversy has been admirable. In addition to the Pentagon quickly confirming its authenticity, the Navy has stated that it is "deeply troubled by the video. Whoever it is, and whatever the...
I want to call readers' attention to a very useful new essay written by Emory's Laurie Blank, which is forthcoming in the William Mitchell Law Review. Here is the abstract: Targeted strikes – predominantly using drones – have become the operational counterterrorism tool of choice for the United States over the past few years. Targeted killing can...
My thanks to Marty and Steve for their fascinating and insightful posts (here and here) on the NDAA. I have many thoughts about the Act, but I want to focus here on the idea that U.S. courts can and should analogize to detention in international armed conflict in order to determine what it means for a person to have “substantially...
In case the government's actions haven't yet convinced you of the fundamental unfairness of the commissions (such as making up war crimes), perhaps its decision to treat the attorney-client privilege as optional will do the trick: The new commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison wants a team of government and law enforcement officials to be allowed to review all ...
