Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome Professor Kristen Boon, who will be guest blogging with us for the next week. Professor Boon teaches international law at Seton Hall University Law School, where her research focuses on post-conflict legal reform, international criminal law and the ICC. Her professional experience includes stints at the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, the...
I want to (belatedly) thank Eugene Kontorovich for his guest blogging stints (parts one and two). It was terrific having him join us. Stay tuned for more summer guest bloggers and a full slate for the new academic year. ...
Remember that Charles Taylor trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, hosted at the ICC in the Hague? Well, things aren't going so well, according to this NYT report. The trial itself is following the Milosevic model, which means that it is pretty much going nowhere. Various interesting tidbits: The ICC, which is hosting the trial, wanted to...
The European Union last week urged Texas to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. Here is the statement in full: The European Union notes with great regret the upcoming execution in the State of Texas which would be the 400th since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. Therefore, the European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry to...
One of the first countries to refer an investigation to the ICC may also be one of the first to seek a withdrawal. This week folks in Uganda are observing the first anniversary of a tentative cease-fire in the 20-year civil war in northern Uganda. As this interesting article from The Monitor reports, northern Uganda is more peaceful than...
Or so says a U.S. district court sitting in Miami in rejecting former Panamian leader Manuel Noriega's attempt to block his extradition to France. As Kevin noted back in January, Noriega has enjoyed POW status ever since he was captured by U.S. forces in Panama and he was scheduled to be released in September. But France has requested his...
President Bush really has managed to alienate a remarkable diversity of people in the last few years. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case that pits, essentially, President Bush against his own home state of Texas over the effect of an International Court of Justice judgment requiring procedural remedies to Mexican nationals sentenced to death in...
Ilya Somin and are I miles apart on the political spectrum, but I am in complete agreement with his critique of Posner and Vermeule's claim that "[t]he case for giving emergency power to the president rather than Congress rests on the simple point that a multi-member body cannot act quickly, decisively, and secretly." Here's a taste:It is true that...
Hiring season is upon us here in the U.S. legal academy. For many "on the market," information is a precious commodity. PrawfsBlawg already does a bang-up job getting appointment committee members to identify themselves so candidates have some idea to whom they should direct their inquiries. But, what if you're an aspiring interational law professor? How...
Since moving to Philadelphia last summer, I’ve been struck by the large number of African-American women here who wear head scarves and full burkas – the latter-dressed entirely in black, with face fully covered except for a thin opening around the eyes. Until this piece appeared a couple of weeks ago in the Philadelphia Inquirer (as much focused on...
According to Mingle 2 -- an online dating site (?) -- Opinio Juris earns the following movie rating: The rating is deserved, according to Mingle 2, because the blog contains the word "torture" 18 times, "death" 4 times, "kill" 2 times, and "gun" once. Don't let your minor children use this site without parental guidance! Hat-Tip: the inestimable Michael Froomkin at Discourse.net. ...
The judicial farce continues:An appeals court has upheld the 19-year prison sentence of a Rwandan human rights activist on genocide-related charges, failing to address the errors of a lower court judgment that violated Rwandan law and fair trial standards, Human Rights Watch said today. [snip] The law that established gacaca requires judges who have had a past conflict with an accused to...
