The following is a guest-post written by Orde Kittrie, a professor at ASU's law school, and Sandy Spector, the deputy director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. They very much want input from OJ's readership, so please post your thoughts. Our thanks to Orde and Sandy for contributing the post! Seven years after A.Q. Khan publicly confessed to...
Critics of the Security Council's decision to refer the situation in Libya to the ICC normally argue that the referral denies Gaddafi the option of going into exile instead of fighting to the death. That may or may not be true -- as I've noted previously, Max Boot's reliance on Charles Taylor's prosecution to make that argument fudges the actual...
I wanted to call readers' attention to an upcoming web seminar on Libya held by Harvard's Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. The Program's web seminars are always excellent, and this one -- which features Luis Moreno-Ocampo and Nicholas Burns -- shapes up to be superb. Here are the details: On Tuesday, April 5, 2011, the Program on Humanitarian...
My colleague Anne Orford has a fascinating contribution today to the official blog of the London Review of Books questioning the universality of the supposedly universal international law that underlies the Security Council's authorization of military action in Libya. Here is a taste: In 1954, Carl Schmitt bemoaned the destruction of European international law in the 20th century. According to...
In a post today at Commentary, Boot argues that Taylor's arrest after going into exile makes it more likely that Gaddafi will fight to the death instead of negotiating a gracious exit from power: Once upon a time, an autocrat could step down and live out his days securely in the south of France or some other plush locale. That...
The following is a guest post by Natalie Oman, an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada. As the Libyan rebels' requests for an internationally-enforced no-fly zone have multiplied and regional support has coalesced among the Arab League, the GCC and some members of the African Union, public hand-wringing over the lack of...
As of March 19, 220 academics have signed the letter. (You can read the full list here.) Well done, colleagues! Bruce Ackerman (Yale) and Yochai Benkler (Harvard) are circulating the following letter protesting the inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention and asking for law professor support. I have already signed, as have 103 other scholars. I encourage our academic readers to...
Our friends at Lawfare have been having a typically intelligent debate about the meaning of the Obama administration's recent declaration that “The U.S. Government will...
As Roger noted earlier, Bradley Manning has been formally charged with "aiding the enemy," a potentially capital offence. (The military has said that it will not seek the death penalty.) The strength of the charge, however, is difficult to determine. Here is the text of Article 104 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: 28. Article 104—Aiding the enemy a. Text of...
Just a quick update to point out that Pennumbra, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review's online companion, has published the fourth and final installment of my debate with John Dehn on the targeted killing of Al-Aulaqi. You can find the entire debate, including my just-published Closing Argument, here. My thanks to Pennumbra for inviting me to participate, and to John for...
Moreno-Ocampo said the following today: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says information of attacks on civilians by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi suggests they could constitute a crime against humanity. Luis Moreno Ocampo says he has assembled a team to collect more information and has been in contact with Libyan officials and army...
Milan notes in a comment to my previous post that he is "troubled that the Security Council seems not to be referring 'situations' as much as certain crimes committed by certain actors." He is referring to paragraphs 4 and 6 of the SC Resolution: 4. Decides to refer the situation in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya since...
