Legal philosopher and renowned scholar Ronald Dworkin passed away yesterday in London at the age of 81. Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta asked the ICC to postpone his trial. A city court in Oslo, Norway convicted a Rwandan man for involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide and sentenced him to 21 years in prison. Amid peace talks, seven troops and an unidentified number...
Is there a private right of action under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction? The Fourth Circuit said no in 2006, the Second Circuit now says yes, in an opinion released on Monday (the case is Ozaltin v. Ozaltin; Reuters recap here). Sounds like SCOTUS will have to take the question. Attention student note writers! This may be...
With the publication by the Journal of Legal Education’s recent “Fiction Issue,” and the London Review of International Law announcing that they will include poetry with the goal of expanding and enriching the international legal conversation, I thought this poem was particularly timely. It is written by an anonymous friend for those who have suffered from human trafficking...
Self-immolations in Tibet, in protest against Chinese rule, have reached the grim milestone of 100. Japan's defense chief claims that Japan could have pre-emptive strike abilities in the future, speaking with respect to the third nuclear test by North Korea. In a phone call to PM Abe following North Korea's nuclear test, President Obama has confirmed the US' commitment to Japanese defense. Iran and the IAEA...
From the closing of last night's State of the Union: We may do different jobs, and wear different uniforms, and hold different views than the person beside us. But as Americans, we all share the same proud title: We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what...
The UN has urged Sudan to strengthen human rights efforts with respect to two recently detained political opposition figures. Rebels have captured Syria's biggest hydro-electric dam and battled army tank units near the center of Damascus. Libya has claimed it is competent to try ex-spy chief under Gaddafi’s regime, Abdullah al-Senussi, though the ICC has called for his extradition to The Hague. The lower house of...
North Korea carried out its third-ever successful nuclear test, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, among others, condemned the act as a violation of several Security Council resolutions. The Sudanese government signed a Qatar-sponsored ceasefire with a splinter Darfur rebel group, in an attempt to revive a stalled peace process to end a decade-long conflict. Rebels have captured Syria's biggest hydro-electric dam and...
Andrew Sullivan raises the stakes on the legal effect of the Pope's retirement decision. As the Pope emeritus, can he now be sued in connection with his role in the sex abuses cases against the Catholic Church? I can already see a lot of problems such a suit would present, and I am writing on the go today, but what...
Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib has said he is willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end the conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people. The UN reports that up to 5,000 people are fleeing Syria per day. The British government intensified its campaign to stop Scotland from leaving the United Kingdom, publishing a...
This week on Opinio Juris, Duncan started us off by discussing privileges and immunities for diplomats and posed the question of what the public should know in cases like DWIs. His next post offered a discussion of the Native American mutual defense treaty involving the Tar Sands Projects. Kevin weighed in this week on affairs at the ICC, including this post...
Syrian troops are battling rebels around Damascus, trying to halt their advance on the capital. The ICC has demanded the extradition of Libya’s Abdullah al-Senussi to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity under Gaddafi’s regime. A UN survey has found that more than $3.9 billion was paid out in bribes in Afghanistan in 2012, amounting to more than double...
