In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

16 Feb

My friend Jens Ohlin (Cornell) has just posted a very important article on SSRN entitled "Targeting and the Concept of Intent."  Here is the abstract: International law generally prohibits military forces from intentionally targeting civilians; this is the principle of distinction. In contrast, unintended collateral damage is permissible unless the anticipated civilian deaths outweigh the expected military advantage of the strike;...

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15 Feb

Okay, I admit it.  The ICC is a failure.  As Raj Kannappan insightfully notes at the Washington Times, its botched prosecution of Milosevic proves it: Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) was established with the promise of bringing to justice a host of international criminals, the Court has fallen short of delivering on that promise. Eleven years ago, on February 12, 2002, the...

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15 Feb

Last May, I offered some critical thoughts on Opinio Juris about Charles Taylor's 50-year sentence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.  I have just finished a short essay (8,000 words) on Taylor's sentence that will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice; you can find the essay on SSRN. Here is the introduction: On 30 May...

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14 Feb

The OTP has weighed in on Libya's ongoing challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif Gaddafi. In its view, although there are serious questions concerning whether Libya is investigating the same conduct as the OTP, Libya is currently willing and able to conduct a genuine prosecution. Unfortunately, its conclusion regarding ability rests on a very serious legal error....

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12 Feb

Apparently, the U.S. conservative policymaking world has made its peace with the ICC.  As long as the ICC doesn't bother the US, the US won't bother the ICC.  But the US has no plans to join either.  That is the bottom line from this report from Colum Lynch. Have U.S. conservatives really lost the war on the International Criminal Court? A decade...

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11 Feb

I know we normally announce call for papers in a group, but I want to highlight a particularly exciting new journal from Oxford University Press, the London Review of International Law.  As you'll see, the editors are both distinguished and innovative; I'm sure the journal will prove to be both, as well.  I hope readers will consider submitting to it. Call...

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08 Feb

Noam Lubell and Nathan Derejko, both at the University of Essex, have posted "A Global Battlefield? Drones and the Geographical Scope of Armed Conflict" on SSRN. The essay will appear in the same Journal of International Criminal Justice symposium as my essay on signature strikes. Their abstract is all of one sentence, so here are the first couple of paragraphs: Defining...

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05 Feb

According to the White Paper (p. 6), a US citizen "who is located outside the United States and is an operational leader continually planning attacks against US persons or interests" cannot lawfully be killed unless, inter alia, "an informed, high-level official of the US government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of attack against the United States." Early...

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04 Feb

Here's a gem from Libya's latest submission in its challenge to the admissibility of the case against al-Senussi (emphasis mine): The Libyan Government observes that there has been a recent increase in filings in this case, no doubt due to the retention of new counsel for Mr Al-Senussi. Libya of course understands that counsel for Mr Al-Senussi will rightly want to...

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03 Feb

We know what is stake at in Libya's admissibility challenge regarding Saif Gaddafi: either a fair trial at the ICC that will likely result in a lengthy prison sentence or an unfair trial in Libya that will almost certainly result in execution. Libya has done nothing to disguise the unfairness of its national proceedings, but it has generally pretended to...

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