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This week’s clip is a piece of the so-called Pinky Show on the basic question of “What is a Crime Against Humanity?”. In this clip, the interviewer (Pinky) calls up international law expert Peter Weiss (board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights) and asks him what a Crime Against Humanity is, how a crime against [...]
Filed under: Blogroll, Clip of the Week | Leave a Comment »
It is well-known that the issue of enforcement remains the Achilles heel of international law in general and international environmental law in particular. Given the rate with which natural resources are depleted and the number of species facing extinction is increasing the issue of enforcement warrants attention. Perhaps that is why Stephen Hockman QC, current [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, Public International Law | 3 Comments »
Today the Senate of the Czech Parliament approves the Treaty on deployment of missile defence radar and the complementary SOFA treaty (Status of Forces Agreement) on the conditions of the presence of the U.S. military troops on the Czech territory (we reported earlier). Forty nine of 81 senators voted for both treaties. The Government favouring [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, the UN Security Council agreed for the first time on Kosovo since the country’s independence proclamation in February this year and gave green light for further reconfiguration of the international civil presence in Kosovo with EULEX as the main future actor. As the Council was briefed on the implementation of its resolutions on Kosovo, most respectively Resolution 1244 (1999), it [...]
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The last two days the Czech Constitutional Court has been reviewing the Lisbon Treaty. The Court’s aim was to assess whether the Treaty is consistent with the Czech constitutional order. As it is commonly known the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty has encountered serious delay in the Czech Republic. While the Chamber of Deputies (the [...]
Filed under: EU/EC Law | 1 Comment »
Today the Czech Constitutional Court rendered its much awaited decision on the relationship between the Czech constitution and the Lisbon Treaty. The Court decided that “[t]he Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and Treaty on establishing the European Community and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union are not in conflict with the constitutional [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU Reform, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | 2 Comments »
Final results of yesterday’s referendum in Greenland show that 75.54 per cent of voters voted for home rule and greater autonomy, whereas 23.57 per cent voted against. This result paves the way for Greenland’s eventual independence from Denmark and reaffirms its sovereign rights to manage its own natural resources. Home rule will come into force on [...]
Filed under: Law of the sea, Public International Law, United Nations | Tagged: Greenland, self-determination | Leave a Comment »
Law professors Goldsmith and Posner have an excellent and very relevant op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on Europe’s sentiments toward international law. Goldsmith and Posner argue, as they do in their book The Limitations of International Law, that international law is predominantly based on state interests. This is as much the case in Europe [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law | 4 Comments »
All those looking for challenging jobs in the area of international law should take a look at the collection of job vacancies assembled over at the Hague Justice Portal. The Portal also has some other interesting contents such as commentary of decisions coming from the courts in The Hague and a section with news from [...]
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While a number of European governments are preparing the EU’s mission against rampant pirate activities around the shore of Somalia, officials increasingly pose the question of what should be done with the pirates once they have been caught. This question has recently caused practical problems for a number of countries. It is reported that the [...]
Filed under: International Courts, International Criminal Law, Law of the sea, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
On 18 November 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for an immediate end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza. “By function of this blockade, 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children have been forcibly deprived of their most basic human rights for months. This is in direct contravention of [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, the Swedish parliament voted to approve the Lisbon Treaty (see press release here). After almost 9 hours of debate in the Riksdag, 243 MP voted in favour, 39 against, 13 abstentions (while 54 MP were not present). Apparently large parts of the debate in the parliament centered around issues that are of relevance from [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | 3 Comments »
It has taken many years of negotiations, but on next Wednesday, 25 November 2008, the people of Greenland will finally get the opportunity to decide in a referendum whether the current system of self-administration under the Kingdom of Denmark, should extend to autonomy also in determining economic and foreign policy, and gradually in complete independence [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law, United Nations | Tagged: decolonization, Greenland, self-determination | Leave a Comment »
The list of cases pending before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) continues to grow. Yesterday (17 November 2008) a new case was added to the docket when the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) instituted proceedings against Greece. The case revolves around Greece’s objection to FYRM joining NATO which, according to FYRM, is in [...]
Filed under: ICJ, International Courts, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
Today the International Criminal Court announced, that the Trial Chamber I lifted the stay of proceedings in the case “The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo” (we reported earlier). AP has the story; press release of the ICC is available here. Today, Trial Chamber I decided to lift the stay of proceedings in the case of [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Criminal Law, Public International Law | 4 Comments »
The Winograd Commission published a lengthy report in the Hebrew language dealing with its assessment of the factual findings that came out of the investigation of the violations of international law during the War in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 (Israel has refused to refer to the conflict as a war and has consistently [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
The recent conclusions to the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly has recalled a rather unsettling situation, where a UN Special Rapporteur has been refused entry on sensitive ideological/political grounds having made supportable submissions on the factual situations in the region. On March 26, 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
The Office of the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has received a lot of critcism from diffrent sections of the world with regards Mr Moreno Ocampo’s application for a warrant of arrest against one the most ruthless dictators Africa has ever seen, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan who is being accused of perpetrating war [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law | 3 Comments »
There appears to be confusion as to the legal principles relevant to allegations that a trial judge was not always fully conscious of the trial proceedings. A number of such allegations have been made in the cases before International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In this way, the Court offered some guidance how to [...]
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Last week, the General Assembly and the Security Council elected five new members of the International Court of Justice (see press release). The elected judges are: Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan) and Ronny Abraham (France) who were both re-elected. Messrs. Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil), Christopher Greenwood (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), [...]
Filed under: ICJ, International Courts, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
This week’s “Clip of the Week” is the first part of three of a documentary that takes a critical look (to say the least) at the International Criminal Court: “Injustice for all: The International Criminal Court”. The documentary is made from the perspective of the United States, and although most of us have already heard [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Criminal Law, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
If the picture of who started (not to say targeted what populations) August’s armed conflict between Russia and Georgia was not murky enough already, today’s NY Times has a report that will add even further uncertainty to the question. It is reported that a group of observers from the OSCE observed severe and what would [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | 1 Comment »
A military jury at the American Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has found Ali Hamza al-Bahlul guilty on charges of conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder and providing material support to terrorism. He is the second detainee to be found guilty at Gitmo following the trial of Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden’s driver, who [...]
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On October 30, the President of the International Court of Justice, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, and the President of the International Criminal Court, Judge Philippe Kirsch, addressed the United Nations General Assembly and presented the annual report for their respective courts. Judge Higgins was able to report that the past year was the most productive year [...]
Filed under: ICC, ICJ, International Courts | Leave a Comment »
