As readers probably know by now, the ICC convicted Jean-Pierre Bemba yesterday of various war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape as both a war crime and crime against humanity. Commentators are praising the conviction as landmark with regard to sexual violence -- against both women and men. Here, for example, is Niamh Hayes: Today is a very good day...
AJIL Unbound has just published a fantastic symposium entitled "TWAIL Perspectives on ICL, IHL, and Intervention." The symposium includes an introduction by James Gathii (Loyola-Chicago) and essays by Asad Kiyani (Western), Parvathi Menon (Max Planck), Ntina Tzouvala (Durham), and Corri Zoli (Syracuse). All of the essays are excellent and worth a read, but I want to call special attention to Ntina's essay, which is...
In 1958, Air Force Chief of Staff Thomas D. White wrote: “For all practical purposes air and space merge, form a continuous and indivisible field of operations.” White later coined the term “aerospace” and used it in a Congressional hearing. Later it was used in policy papers to explain why the U.S. Air Force would also have the responsibility for...
In a recent post, I noted my puzzlement at Russia's recent announcement that it will not cooperate with the ICC's investigation in Georgia. Noting that "Russia has very little to fear" from the investigation, I asked why it would not "milk a little goodwill by at least pretending to cooperate with the ICC" -- especially as Russia could simply stop...
According to a recent article in Agenda.ge, Russia has announced that it will not cooperate with the ICC's formal investigation into the situation in Georgia: Russia’s Ministry of Justice issued a statement confirming it would not cooperate with the investigation, reported Russian media today. Tbilisi was not surprised by Moscow’s decision. The Georgian side believed it would not be in Russia’s best...
Sorry for the endless self-promotion, but I thought readers might be interested in the following episode of Al Jazeera's Inside Story, which includes a 30-minute panel on siege warfare in Syria that I participated in. It was quite a wide-ranging discussion, focusing less on international law than I expected. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM8PwT9hz3c&feature=youtu.be As always, comments welcome! I hope readers don't think I was too...
There have been noises coming out Ukraine for years that its government was preparing an international legal action against Russia over Crimea. It looks like Ukraine has finally prepared to pull the trigger. According to this report, Ukraine is ready to charge Russia with violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in the following ways. "First, the seizure of...
I had the pleasure of going on BBC World News a couple of days ago to discuss the opening of Laurent Gbagbo's trial at the ICC. The clip they sent me is very low quality; the sound isn't even synced correctly. But I'm posting it just in case anyone wants to hear what I had to say. It's about three...
The article is forthcoming in the Journal of International Criminal Justice. Here is the abstract: In March 2015, Simone Gbagbo, the former First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, was convicted of various crimes in an Ivorian court and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Despite her conviction and sentence, however, the Appeals Chamber has held that her case is admissible before the ICC....
[Dan Bodansky is the Foundation Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Law and Global Affairs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is in Paris for the climate change negotiations. This is the sixth in a series of updates both from the U.S. and from Paris. Professor Bodansky has consulted...
[Hari Osofsky is a law professor, faculty director of the Energy Transition Lab, and director of the Joint Degree Program in Law, Science & Technology at the University of Minnesota. She is serving as chair of the American Society of International Law’s observer delegation at the 2015 Paris climate change negotiations. Any views expressed are those of the author and...
Here is Moreno-Ocampo's latest doozy, concerning the possibility of Israelis being prosecuted for war crimes related to Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank: Where the Israeli High Court of Justice has approved specific settlements as legal, this could provide a complete defense to any allegations that they are war crimes, former International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the Jerusalem...
