There is much to say about the DoJ White Paper on the targeted killing of US citizens, which reflects the US's idiosyncratic interpretation of international law. In this post I want to focus on the White Paper's primary -- and in my view fatal -- flaw: its complete failure to address the relationship between the organized armed groups that it...
Michael Isikoff has obtained the 16-page memo. It is available here. Analysis later! H/T -- Lawfare....
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...
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...
Last week, a Ceremonial Grand Council was held on Ihanktonwan homelands (located within the boundaries of the U.S. State of South Dakota) which concluded and negotiated the "International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects". I can't find a specific list of participants, but news reports suggest signatories included representatives from an array of U.S native American Tribes...
Libya has filed a lengthy response to a series of Pre-Trial Chamber questions about the domestic proceedings against Saif. There is much of interest in the motion, but what particularly caught my eye is Libya's open admission that it has repeatedly interrogated Saif and confronted him with witnesses in the absence of defence counsel. Here are the relevant paragraphs (emphasis...
Nothing in the Human Right's Council's report is particularly novel; it's long been obvious that both the settlements and the transfer of Israeli civilians into the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Nevertheless, it's worth noting the report's most important conclusions: 100. The facts brought to the attention of the Mission indicate that the State of Israel has had full control of...
[Jonathan Hafetz is an Associate Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School] A recent Washington Post story posits that the rendition of terrorism suspects has continued under the Obama administration. While the story fails to describe how renditions have changed since the Bush administration, it highlights several areas of concern. The story focuses on the prosecution of three European men with...
McClatchy reports that Israel now believes Iran will not be able to produce a nuclear weapon until 2015 or 2016. That is progress of a sort; Netanyahu had previously been claiming that Iran would have the bomb no later than late summer 2013 -- around six months from now. But Israel is still insisting that Iran is only two or...
David Bosco has an important post at The Multilateralist today reminding people that Palestine does not have to ratify the Rome Statute for the ICC to be able to investigate the situation in the West Bank and Gaza. As David notes, because Palestine has filed a declaration under Article 12(3) accepting the Court's jurisdiction on an ad hoc basis, the...
Pathetic: Ambassador Susan Rice objected Wednesday to the Palestinians' latest bid to capitalize on their upgraded UN status when their foreign minister spoke at Security Council while seated behind a nameplate that read "State of Palestine." It was the first Palestinian address to the Security Council since the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on November 29 to upgrade the Palestinians from UN...
The indefatigable Glenn Greenwald has unearthed an even more appalling appropriation of Dr. King by the military -- a Department of Defense news article entitled "King Might Understand Today's Wars, Pentagon Lawyer Says." The lawyer in question is none other than Jeh Johnson, former DoD General Counsel. Here is what he says: In the final year of his life, King became...
