In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

12 Jul

This according to Newsweek: Holder, 58, may be on the verge of asserting his independence in a profound way. Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an announcement could come in...

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11 Jul

PBS will be airing an important documentary about the ICC, The Reckoning, on July 14.  Here is PBS's description of the film, which is directed by Pamela Yates, who received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008: Over 120 countries have united to form the International Criminal Court (ICC) — the first permanent court created to prosecute perpetrators, no matter how powerful, of...

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10 Jul

Thanks, Eugene, for the thoughtful reply.  I look forward to your subsequent posts and will leave a more substantive reply until then.  For now, I just wanted to offer a few thoughts. 1. I don't think anyone should feel "better" if removing the settlers qualified "only" as a crime against humanity, instead of as genocide.  Both are incredibly grave crimes, and...

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09 Jul

First of all, welcome back!  I always enjoy your contributions to OJ (and your scholarship generally), even when I disagree with you.  So I hope you won't think me too ungracious a host if I raise some (pointed) questions about your most recent post.  I would be genuinely curious to hear your responses. I am, as I have pointed out ad...

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09 Jul

The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the act of Parliament ratifying the Rome Statute, thus completing the Czech Republic's accession to the ICC.  All of the members of the EU have now joined the Court. Congrats, Czech Republic!...

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06 Jul

For those of you who aren't F1 racing fans -- which I hope is all of you -- you might have missed the charming comments about Hitler that were recently offered by Bernie Ecclestone, the head of the league: In an interview with London's The Times newspaper, Ecclestone expressed a preference for "strong leaders," citing former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher...

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05 Jul

Botswana has refused to go along with the AU resolution that -- in theory -- guarantees Bashir safe travel around Africa: Botswana says it will not abide by an African Union (AU) decision to ignore an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudan's President Omar Al-Bashir. Countries signed up to the ICC have a duty to help arrest...

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02 Jul

That's the question underlying my new essay, The Rise of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences, in the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 20, No. 2, June 2009).  And I'm very curious as to whether anyone else shares my general feeling that the very success, on important metrics, of international criminal law is tending to swallow, as it...

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02 Jul

I expect sloppy reporting from the traditional media, but not from the normally excellent FP Passport. So I was surprised to read the following in a post by Michael Wilkerson implying that the ICC has accomplished almost nothing: But with so much scorn and a suspect arrested for only one of its outstanding warrants -- former Congo rebel commander Jean-Pierre...

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02 Jul

Robert Petit, the International Co-Prosecutor, is resigning effective September 1: In a statement, Robert Petit said he would be stepping down as of 1 September for personal and family reasons. “It has been the greatest privilege of my career to have the opportunity to bring some justice to the victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge,” he said. “I remain convinced...

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01 Jul

Apparently, that bastion of freedom and human rights didn't get the memo that Holmes' infamous comment in Buck v. Bell -- that "three generations of imbeciles are enough" -- isn't exactly viewed as a shining moment in US constitutional jurisprudence: Rwanda is being urged to drop a draft law which would forcibly sterilise people who are mentally disabled. US-based campaign group Human...

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