In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

10 Sep

Professors Bruce Ackerman and David Golove argue in this Atlantic essay that the next President cannot withdraw from the Iran agreement because it is a "congressionally authorized executive agreement." They argue that Senator Marco Rubio's pledge to terminate the Iran Deal on day one "would destroy the binding character of America’s commitments to the IMF, the World Bank, NAFTA, and the World...

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08 Sep

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Kenya plans to launch a military offensive against Islamist militants who have set up bases in a remote forest at the northern tip of its Indian Ocean coastline bordering Somalia, a police official said on Monday. Middle East and Northern Africa Iran's president has said his country is ready...

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04 Sep

[Jennifer Trahan is an Associate Clinical Professor, The Center for Global Affairs, NYU-SPS, and Chair, International Criminal Court Committee, American Branch of the International Law Association.] On July 28, 2015, a domestic court in Libya announced death sentences against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and Abdullah al Senussi, who served as intelligence chief. In total,...

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26 Aug

Benjamin Soloway at Foreign Policy magazine thrilled me last week when he called to set up an interview for this story on the worst treaties ever.  Simply put, I love treaties and I love lists.  After all, a few years back I started a discussion on the most important treaties ever.  But, having given a lot of thought to my top...

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25 Aug

13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council met yesterday to address LGBT issues for the first time in a closed session chaired by Chile and the US.     The focus was on persecution of gays in Syria and Iraq.    As an Arria-formula meeting, the discussion was confidential, however news reports after indicate the group discussed the Islamic State’s...

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24 Aug

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Suspected Boko Haram militants ambushed a convoy carrying Nigeria's chief of army staff on a tour of towns in troubled Borno state, the army said early on Sunday. Middle East and Northern Africa The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has blown up a 2,000-year-old temple...

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17 Aug

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has arrived in Addis Ababa for peace talks aimed at brokering an end to the country's civil war, reversing an earlier decision as international threats of possible sanctions mount. Fraught with logistic and security concerns journalists have struggled to report on Boko Haram's...

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10 Aug

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Somalia's Puntland region needs more help from the central government and the African Union to fight al Shabaab militants, especially equipment and ammunition, the president of the semi-autonomous region has said. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed four people on Sunday in a road ambush in Nigeria's restive northeastern...

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07 Aug

Today, the American Psychological Association formally voted to end their enrollment in national security interrogations. This would seem to finally put an end to the organization's involvement in post-9/11 torture against security detainees. The vote comes on the heels of the Hoffman Report, which was prepared by attorney David Hoffman of Sidley Austin LLP.  Hoffman was hired by the APA to...

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06 Aug

As others have already noted, D.C. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth held last week that because “fighting continues” between U.S., Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo may still be detained under the domestic statute (AUMF) authorizing their detention. I’ve written here and elsewhere about the propriety of the underlying legal theory in...

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03 Aug

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Obama has authorized U.S. military forces to use air power to defend  U.S.-trained Syrian rebels if those rebels are attacked by the Syrian government forces. President Barack Obama has authorized using air power to defend a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government forces or other groups,...

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03 Aug

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Nigeria's army says it has rescued 178 people held by the Boko Haram group in Nigeria's Borno state in raids that destroyed several camps in the country's northeast. At least one soldier with the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic was killed on Sunday during clashes with...

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