I got my first taste of international law some 25 years ago when I joined my high school's model UN team. So, what does it says that today's high school students have model cyberwar teams? The link's a bit short on details, but, I wonder whether they have a student playing the lawyer on each team? I'd imagine any cyberwar scenario must...
Bosco Ntaganda, the leader of the M23 rebel group in the DRC, turned himself into the US Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda yesterday. Ntaganda is wanted by the ICC for charges including recruiting and using child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery, and persecution. Counsel for Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta asked the ICC yesterday to drop charges against his client for a lack of...
States parties to the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to list five new commercially valuable shark species under Appendix II last week, notwithstanding an attempt to reopen the discussion in the final plenary by some dissenters. The international trade in oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrma lewini), great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran), smooth hammerhead shark...
Burma's President is visiting Australia where the government has pledged aid as well as increased defense co-operation. Lawyers for Kenya's President-Elect Uhuru Kenyatta will argue later today at the ICC that charges against their client should be dropped. Also later today, the UN Human Rights Council is slated to discuss the report of its fact-finding commission on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. India's Supreme Court has extended its...
Our main event this week was a book symposium on Curtis Bradley's new book "International Law in the US Legal System". On the first day, the symposium focused on treaties with comments by David Moore and Jean Galbraith. Attention turned to international delegations on day two. Julian welcomed the book's attention to questions of constitutional structure, but disagreed that accession to...
French President Hollande has joined the UK's David Cameron in calling on the EU to lift the arms embargo on Syria, to enable them to arm the rebels. Israel's military intelligence chief has warned against arming the rebels and has claimed that Iran is sponsoring a Hezbollah-run "people's army" of 50,000 to fight in Syria on the side of the government forces. The UK's Justice...
In testimony to Congress, US groups have complained about protectionist policies in India. The US has asked Ukraine not to renegotiate its WTO commitments, worrying that it might inspire other WTO members to do the same. President Obama has appointed Deborah Jones as the next US ambassador to Libya. India's Supreme Court has issued a notice to Italy's ambassador barring him from leaving India without its permission,...
The US Air Force has stopped releasing statistical data on drone strikes in Afghanistan and has erased previoiusly published statistics from its website. The UK warned Argentina that it would always be ready to defend its citizens on the Falkland Islands after they voted nearly unanimously to remain British. Iran plans to "sue Hollywood" about the Oscar-winning film Argo, which Iran claims...
OJ's own Duncan Hollis has been awarded the American Society of International Law's "Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars" for his edited volume The Oxford Guide to Treaties. (Other honorees this year are Jeremy Waldron and Petros C. Mavroidis.) From the citation: The Oxford Guide to Treaties brings clarity to a topic of central...
The ICC has dropped the charges against Francis Muthaura, Uhuru Kenyatta's co-accused, because of issues with procuring evidence and witness testimony. Twelve more bodies have been fished out of the river near Aleppo in Syria, bringing the total body count to well over 80, many with bullet wounds to the head. An African Union-brokered deal has re-opened the oil trade between Sudan and South...
Lex Specialis was a topic of much discussion during the ILC debates on the Responsibility of International Organizations. The central issue was this: how broad is the provision, and does it give IOs carte blanche to derogate from or contract around the residual rules of responsibility? I've just posted an article on SSRN here that gives my take. Here is the...
North Korea reacted with another threat of a nuclear attack after the US and South Korea performed joint military exercises. Residents of the Falklands Islands started voting on Sunday on a sovereignty referendum that has already been rejected by Argentina. Reuters has a piece on the Khmer Rouge trials at the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia alleging justice delayed may be...
