Today, on the opening of the GA, and in his final such speech as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon indicated that a compensation package for victims of Cholera is forthcoming. Speaking in French (original here), he expressed regret over the recent peacekeeper sexual abuse scandals and the Cholera epidemic in Haiti, and promised a package of assistance and support for...
International Law Weekend, the annual conference of the American Branch of the International Law Association is fast approaching. See the following notice from ABILA: International Law Weekend 2016 Registration is now open for International Law Weekend 2016. International Law Weekend 2016 - the premiere international law event of the Fall season - will be held October 27-29, 2016, in New York City. The...
The headline is almost a generic one, applicable to dozens of Israeli actions. I'm using it now specifically in connection with Israel denying entrance to my SOAS colleague Dr. Adam Hanieh, who was scheduled to give a series of lectures at Birzeit University: Dr. Hanieh, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African...
After months (or even years) of threats, Ukraine finally filed an arbitration claim against Russia under Annex VII of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. According to this statement from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign of Affairs, the claim will focus on Russia's actions in the maritime zones bordering Crimea. Since the Russian Federation’s illegal acts of aggression in...
I love the Guardian. It's generally a great paper. But its unwillingness to correct even the most basic mistakes constantly amazes me. In an otherwise interesting article about the ICC and environmental crimes, John Vidal and Owen Bowcott -- the Guardian's environment editor and legal affairs correspondent, respectively -- say this (emphasis mine): The ICC can take action if the crime happens...
I have posted the essay on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The question “what is an international crime?” has two aspects. First, it asks us to identify which acts qualify as international crimes. Second, and more fundamentally, it asks us to identify what is distinctive about an international crime – what makes an international crime different from a transnational crime or...
In case you haven't seen it, The High Commissioner for Human Rights' recent speech addressed to "populists, demagogues and political fantasists" is well worth reading. The speech can be viewed here, and a link to the video here. As Prince Zeid says: "The proposition of recovering a supposedly perfect past is fiction; its merchants are cheats. Clever cheats." ...
PassBlue published a very disturbing article yesterday about nominations for five vacant UN Special Rapporteur positions. According to the article, although the President of the Human Rights Council, South Korea's Choi Kyonglim, has endorsed four of the selection committee's five first choices, he has refused to endorse its first choice for Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Karim...
I have admired Mark Tushnet's work since I was a law student, so I was very disappointed to read his critique of the now-notorious letter the University of Chicago sent to first-year students about "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings." Here is the bit that got Tushnet so riled up: Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Nigeria would let Boko Haram choose a non-profit organization as an intermediary in any talks on the release of about 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern village of Chibok in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday. A landmine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram...
Buzzfeed's Chris Hamby is out today with the first installment of a promised four-part investigative report into the system of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Like all such reports, it needs a spectacular headline and summary to draw clicks, and this one's a doozy: The Court That Rules the World A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone...
Defense One points to a news story in the Baghdad Post that the Iraqi Security Forces may be preparing to deploy a ground-combat robot: Loosely dubbed Alrobot — Arabic for robot — it has four cameras, an automatic machine gun, and a launcher for Russian-made Katyusha rockets, and can be operated by laptop and radio link from a kilometer away, the...
