Search: kony 2012

[Gabriele Chlevickaite is Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam, a Board Member at the Center for International Criminal Justice and a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR).] Tensions between academic independence and practical relevance are long-standing, and increasingly subject to debate, with little guidance to those on either side of the equation. However, the academia-practitioner relationship is no simple matter, especially for freshly-baked academics transitioning from practice. What is the ‘right’ distance from former employers and colleagues? To what extent...

...the Von Hannover case of 2012. In this case the Strasbourg Court is embracing this careful approach to its relationship with Constitutional and Supreme Courts, and going through special pains to signal that it wants to work with strong Supreme Courts rather than compete with them. Admittedly, for weak international judicial review to be in place the domestic court 1) has to be a strong rule of law court, and 2) must take international human rights protections seriously. The development of the standard of weak international judicial review in the...

...Rights allows direct access by individuals to the ECHR (resulting, for example, in a total of 128,100 pending cases at the end of 2012), only the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights may decide to present a case before the IACHR (in 2012, the IACHR received 12 new cases and issued 21 judgments). In this context, it is easy to understand why the ECHR is willing to afford national authorities some margin of appreciation – as it is much more likely that it will later be able to review such decision....

...tragic as this latest attack is, I also feel like I am in a time-warp that has sent me back to 2012-13 when similar chemical weapons attacks led to similar global outrage which led to an American debate about whether to launch military attacks on Syria. President Obama famously decided to launch such strikes (without Congress or the UN) and then changed his mind and sought congressional consent. He never got that, but he did work out an agreement with Russia and the Assad government to remove Syria’s chemical weapons...

I had the good fortune yesterday to spend the afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. To my great surprise, I experienced my first encounter with treaties as art. A special exhibit on display through March 26, 2012 of the work of Sanja Iveković entitled Sweet Violence focuses on the plight of women in post-Communist political systems of Eastern Europe. As a feminist artist, most of Iveković’s work challenges the status quo, and that includes countries that refuse to adopt the Convention on the Elimination of All...

...a subpoena for information related to your Google account in a case entitled Chevron Corp. v. Steven Donziger, et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of California, 11 Civ. 0691 (LAK) (Internal Ref. No. 257121). To comply with the law, unless you provide us with a copy of a motion to quash the subpoena (or other formal objection filed in court) via email at [Google email address] by 5pm Pacific Time on October 7, 2012, Google may provide responsive documents on this date. For more information about...

This statement, coming from the Acting Director of the CIA, is perhaps even more remarkable than the Senators’. The press release is posted on the CIA website and is reprinted below. Statement to Employees from Acting Director Michael Morell: “Zero Dark Thirty” December 21, 2012 ________________________________________ I would not normally comment on a Hollywood film, but I think it important to put Zero Dark Thirty, which deals with one of the most significant achievements in our history, into some context. The film, which premiered this week, addresses the successful hunt...

...Taylor’s trial in May, Judge Sow started to speak and people seated in the public gallery heard a few words before the microphones went off. [snip] In their appeal document dated August 17, 2012, Taylor’s defense council said that there was a need to proffer other evidence in their appeal motion. “The defense intends to call as witness on appeal, former Special Court Justice El Hadji Malik Sow. He is expected to testify on his statement that there were “no deliberations” as is alleged in Ground of Appeal 36 of...

...lines as borders, and implicitly and incorrectly insist not only that the EU does not recognize potential Israeli claims to sovereignty in the disputed territories but that Israel is not entitled to assert those claims. ” The lack of clear-cut borders, however, cannot be considered a valid objection. Neither Israel nor Palestine have agreed boundaries in the context of a peace agreement. Based on the same reasoning as presented by some Israeli leaders, Palestine, recognized as a non-member State by the UNGA on 29 November 2012, could theoretically start building...

...over 14,300 civilians have been killed in the conflict in Afghanistan in the period between January 2007 and June 2013. Members of anti-government armed groups were responsible for at least 9,778 civilian deaths, while the pro-government forces were responsible for at least 3,210 civilian deaths. A number of reported killings remain unattributed. 24. According to UNAMA, more civilians were killed by members of anti- government armed groups in the first half of 2013 than in 2012. Members of the Taliban and affiliated armed groups are allegedly responsible for deliberately killing...

Over at Lawfare, I’ve flagged a fine new article in the Military Law Review, “The Case of the Murdering Wives: Reid v. Covert and the Complicated Question of Civilians and Courts-Martial,” by Captain Brittany Warren (Vol. 212. 2012, p. 133; link goes to jagcnet.army.mil.) The article goes into fascinating detail about the actual facts and circumstances of Reid v. Covert, as well as a discussion of historical practices dating back to 17th century Britain and the application of the Articles of War to “camp followers.” It then comes back to...

The Obama Administration appears to have shifted its views on the nature of the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that resulted in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Rather than blaming the attack on a “spontaneous” reaction to the offensive US film (which U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice seemed to argue on Sunday), the U.S. government is now calling this a “terrorist attack“. Other news reports suggest the U.S. had intelligence warnings of an attack and the Libyan government...