Amidst all the faux outrage over a Muslim Congresswoman's (admittedly problematic) tweet -- much of it coming from evangelicals who think all Jews will burn in Hell after the rapture and right-wingers who say nothing about blatantly anti-Semitic attacks on George Soros or Israel's support for the deeply anti-Semitic Prime Minister of Hungary -- here is your daily reminder of the...
[Ralph Janik teaches international law at the University of Vienna, Faculty of Law and Webster Private University Vienna. He specializes in the interplay of international law and international relations. Twitter: @RalphJanik] The crisis in Venezuela could enter a new phase. Juan Guaidó recently flirted with the idea of a US intervention on his behalf when he refrained from ruling out to...
This week has seen news of potential use of amnesty laws in three countries – the Central African Republic, Guatemala, and Venezuela. Here, nuances are important to highlight. In CAR, with the peace agreement under wraps initially, early news reports indicated the push for a ‘blanket’ amnesty, i.e. exemption from international crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. Other reports...
Statelessness as a phenomenon has been in the news of late – from the impact of statelessness on the Rohingya, to the potential revocation of nationality of 4 million in India’s Assam state, and the grant of citizenship to some survivors of a dramatic rescue of a Thai football team. It is estimated that there are approximately 10 million individuals...
Once more into the breach, dear friends. Judge Ibañez Carranza has now responded to the Joint Declaration issued by Judge Eboe-Osuji as President of the Court and Judge Hofmański as the President of the Appeals Division. Short version: she's not happy about the Joint Declaration. Three specific points are worth mentioning. First (para. 2), Judge Ibañez Carranza argues that Judge Eboe-Osuji and Judge...
[Danielle Hites is the Staff Attorney at the Global Justice Center, an international human rights organization dedicated to advancing gender equality through the rule of law.] Despite the international community’s recognition that crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes, there is no codified crimes against humanity treaty. The International Law Commission has undertaken the task of drafting one. Currently crimes against...
Graffiti from the 36th Front of the FARC Dissidents in Briceño, Colombia, proclaims “We are Indestructible.” [Alex Diamond is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the community experience of Colombia’s post-peace agreement transition.] January 28th, 2019 marks the two-year anniversary of the first arrivals of guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of...
It's not yet available on the ICC website, but Judge Eboe-Osuji (the President of the Court) and Judge Hofmański (the President of the Appeals Division) have released a short Joint Declaration defending Judge Eboe-Osuji's appointment as the Presiding Judge in the Gbagbo No Case to Answer appeal. The Declaration does not explain his appointment, which seems to confirm Judge Ibañez Carranza's...
Another day, another slow-motion fiasco at the ICC. Today's episode: Judge Luz del Carmen Ibañez Carranza has dissented from a decision to assign a presiding judge to an appeal. The appeal in question involves the Gbagbo No Case to Answer decision, about which I blogged extensively yesterday. The President of the Appeals Division appointed Judge Eboe-Osuji, even though he is already the...
I highly recommend Paul Bradfield's erudite post yesterday, in which he suggests that "the Gbagbo Trial Chamber appears to have departed from the standard enunciated in Ruto" concerning the standard of proof applicable to No Case to Answer (NCA) motions. I do not completely agree -- and I want to offer a couple of thoughts on Paul's post, with the caveat that we...
[Tamás Hoffmann is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department for the Study of Domestic Implementation of International and European Law at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.] Kubo’s new monograph on internationalized armed conflicts is a truly remarkable book. It attempts to give a comprehensive yet concise analysis of the nagging legal issues inevitably arising during such conflicts when the line...
[Sergey Sayapin LLB, LLM, Dr. iur. is an Assistant Professor in International and Criminal Law at KIMEP University’s School of Law, Almaty, Kazakhstan, since 2014, and Director of the LLB in International Law Programme.] Introduction On 25 November 2018, Russia attacked and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, which were on their way from Odessa to Mariupol. Russia´s Federal Security Service...