In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Criminal Law

29 Mar

A quip that is often heard at gatherings international lawyers is "If I were [insert name of some prominent Bush Administration official], I wouldn't plan on any more vacations in Europe."  Well, after all the talk of possible European prosecutions of one or more officials from the previous administration, the possibility has now taken a step closer towards becoming reality....

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26 Mar

In response to my previous posts on the correct interpretation of Article 58, Alex de Waal asked three lawyers to answer the following two questions: 1. Did the Pre-Trial Chamber misinterpret Article 58's "reasonable grounds" standard? 2. If so, does the Prosecution Application establish reasonable grounds to believe Bashir is responsible for genocide? It's an interesting survey.  Two of the three lawyers agreed...

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26 Mar

It's called The Reckoning, and although I have not had a chance to see it yet -- like New Zealand, Australia lags embarrassingly behind the Northern Hemisphere in getting movies, especially documentaries -- I've heard nothing but good things.  It even made Sundance, a tremendous accomplishment for any documentary.  Here is the synopsis: Late in the 20th century, in response to...

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25 Mar

I knew I wasn't alone in arguing that Bashir deserves to be punished for his crimes: Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Zawahiri urged the people of Sudan to prepare for guerrilla war and for President Omar al-Beshir to "repent," in an Internet video message released on Tuesday. Zawahiri said Beshir's regime is "reaping what it sowed," in reference to the International Criminal Court...

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24 Mar

At their most recent meeting, the judges of the ICC rearranged the composition of the Court's three Divisions.  The new composition is as follows: The judges assigned to the Pre-Trial Division are: Judge Hans-Peter Kaul (Germany), Second Vice-President of the Court; Judge Sylvia Steiner (Brazil); Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova (Bulgaria); Judge Fumiko Saiga (Japan); Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng (Botswana); and Judge Cuno...

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23 Mar

In its application for the arrest warrant, the Prosecution argued that the Sudanese government's genocidal intent could be inferred from, inter alia, the slow-death conditions in the IDP camps.  As part of that claim, the Prosecution pointed out the numerous ways in which Bashir's regime had hindered international efforts to provide the Darfuris in the IDP camps with humanitarian assistance. One...

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22 Mar

That is the conclusion of the most comprehensive study of the issue to date, "Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars' Initiative," conducted by Purdue University.  From the New York Times, which held follow-up interviews with some of the sources cited in the study: Charles W. Ingrao, the study’s co-editor, said that three senior State Department officials, one of them retired, and...

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18 Mar

The following is a guest post written by Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub, the brains behind the must-read blog wronging rights.  My thanks to them for contributing it. Two weeks ago, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.  (We’re sure you all remember; it was kind of a...

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14 Mar

In public, Sudanese government officials have uniformly defended Bashir against the supposed depredations of the ICC.  According to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, however, they tell a different story in private: A minister with the president’s National Congress Party, NCP, said that members were left reeling by the announcement of an arrest warrant issued against Bashir by ICC judges...

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13 Mar

I am happy to report -- though some readers will no doubt be unhappy to hear -- that the OTP has requested leave to appeal the Pre-Trial Chamber's decision on the genocide charges.  The appeal cites my recent post on the majority's misunderstanding of the "reasonable grounds" standard, which is both a tremendous honor and a testament to the ever-increasing...

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