Search: kony 2012
17 Nov The Legality of Pardons in Latin America (Part II)
...part of international criminal law as retribution, and it will likely constitute another crossroads for the Court in the near future. In 2012, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (E/2012/51) explored “whether the continued incarceration of older persons is a disproportionately severe punishment”, stating that “[c]onsidering the purposes of punishment –retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation- there may be little justification for many older persons’ continued incarceration in the prison system in certain instances” and that “alternative forms of punishment may be preferable based on the financial, practical, and...28 Jun ILO Tribunal Finds Against ICC in the Libya Detention Debacle
This is a major development, one that I hope does not get lost in the welter of commentary on the Bemba acquittal. If you recall, in June 2012 the Libyan government detained four ICC officials who were in Zintan on official Court business: Melinda Taylor from the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence (OPCD), who had been provisionally appointed Saif Gaddafi’s defence counsel; two officials from the Registry; and a translator, Helene Assaf. Libya charged all four with various criminal offences and ultimately detained them for 27 days. About...25 Jan Guest Post: A Response to Kevin Jon Heller
[Nimrod Karin is a J.S.D. candidate at New York University School of Law. From 2006 to 2012 he served as a legal adviser to the Israel Defense Forces at the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General’s Corps’ HQ, and from 2012 to 2013 he was the Deputy Legal Adviser to Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.] Thanks so much for the kind words, Kevin, and even more so for the interesting push-back. I confess that a reader of an early draft of my post cautioned me against...16 Dec Guest Post: General Court of the European Union annuls the EU-Morocco Free Trade Agreement on Human Rights Grounds but Forgets Self-Determination
...blog posts by David Hart here and Geraldo Vidigal here. The claim was brought by Frente Polisario (the internationally recognised interlocutor of the Saharawi people) against Council Decision 2012/497/UE of 8 March 2012. The original Council decision concerned an agreement between the EU and Morocco over reciprocal liberalisation measures on agricultural products, processed agricultural products, fish and fishery products. The judgement is important for two main reasons. First, the Court found the case admissible, taking a stance on the issue of the legal personality of Frente Polisario. Second, on the...
03 Dec Women in International Law: A Vanishing Act?
...the vice-presidency currently held by Judge Xue Hanqin of China. Judges Hanqin and Donoghue were elected in 2010, and Judge Sebutinde in 2012. Of the one hundred and eight ICJ judges past and present, there have been only four women, including Dame Rosalyn Higgins, who was on the bench from 1995 till 2006. At the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), of the twenty-one members currently, three are women. Of the forty-six members since 1996, the number of women remains static: Judge Elsa Kelly of Argentina (from...15 May The Fog of Technology and International Law
...– Giovanni Lo Porto. As President Obama himself announced, the United States inadvertently killed Lo Porto and Warren Weinstein, a USAID contractor, as part of a January drone strike targeting an al Qaeda compound in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Both aid workers were Al Qaeda hostages; Lo Porto had been kidnapped in 2012, while Weinstein was abducted in 2011. The story made global headlines for Obama’s apology that the United States had not realized these hostages were hidden on-site, and thus their deaths were a tragic mistake: As President and...19 Dec Zero Dark Thirty
Today marked the limited release in the United States of the already much heralded new film on the United States’ hunt for Osama bin Laden. I have not yet seen the film and won’t comment on it until I do. But I do want to at least pass along this remarkable open letter issued today by 1 Republican and 2 Democratic Senators regarding the film’s depiction of torture. December 19, 2012 Mr. Michael Lynton Chairman and CEO Sony Pictures Entertainment 10202 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232-3195 Dear Mr....07 Mar Ukraine Insta-Symposium: Russia’s Rule-breaking as Power Politics
[Alexander Cooley is Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York and author of Great Games, Local Rules: the New Great Power Contest for Central Asia (Oxford 2012).] Among the many political layers of the crisis in Ukraine, I am especially interested in how these unfolding events are part of a broader attempt by Russia to confront the West’s broadly “liberal world order.” By the term I mean not only its most visible organizations such as NATO or the EU, but also the broader system of...