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As readers of this blog are well aware, the trial of Thomas Lubanga Diylo is the first trial at the ICC, what you may not know is that it is also the first time that video has played an integral role in bringing a warlord to the court. Though there is debate about whether the [...]
Filed under: Guest Blogging, Human Rights, ICC, international justice, Non Governmental Organizations | Tagged: child soldiers, DRC, ICC, international justice, Lubanga, video, WITNESS | Leave a Comment »
In our effort to cover the developments in international criminal law – and those taking place under the umbrella of the Rome Statute in particular – International Law Observer has the pleasure of welcoming a guest post from Matisse Bustos Hawkes from the international non-profit organization WITNESS. In his guest post, Matisse will talk about [...]
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Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions was adopted in 1977 to ‘remedy shortcomings‘ in the original conventions of 1949. It contains a more detailed set of standards in all areas of international armed conflict, and expands the definition of ‘international armed conflict’ to include wars of national liberation (Art. 1.4.). (Non-international armed conflicts are [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Law of Treaties, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 7 Comments »
The lead defence counsel Catherine Mabille noted on day 2 that: ‘there has been a wholesale abuse of the rules by the office of the prosecutor,’ and ‘the (situation) is prejudicial and detrimental to the defence.’ She further noted: ‘there has been a wholesale abuse of the rules by the office of the prosecutor. The [...]
Filed under: Public International Law | 1 Comment »
After a battle of several year the Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (“PMOI”) has succeeded in getting its name off the EU’s black list of terrorist organisations. As EUobserver reported on Tuesday, the EU Foreign Ministers agreed to remove the name of the organization from the list due to a lack of evidence [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, International terrorism, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
We are glad to welcome David McGrogan as a new author here on International Law Observer. David is a PhD candidate at the University of Liverpool Law School and is mainly active in the field of international human rights law and cultural diversity, mostly in the context of East Asia. He also brings a broad understanding [...]
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For more information on the ongoing trial of Thomas Lubanga at the ICC, you may want to visit the newly created website lubangatrial.org, an initiative from the Open Society Justice Initiative. The website promises daily updates on the trial from the courtroom, as well as “regular legal analysis and commentary on the Lubanga case”.
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law | 1 Comment »
Over on Jurist, Mary Ellen O’Connell has an interesting piece on the role that President Obama might have in restoring US faith in international law. O’Connell argues that the decline in US respect for international law is primarily attributable to Hans Morgenthau, his realist approach to international relations, and the impact that his students have [...]
Filed under: History of International Law, Human Rights, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
Today the trial of Thomas Lubanga at the International Criminal Court (ICC) will (finally) begin. After much confusion and delay inter alia regarding the issue of disclosure of evidence from the prosecutor to the defence/judges of the court (we reported earlier here, here and here), the first trial will start after almost three years of preparation with [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Criminal Law, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
The news is just out that President Obama has signed an executive order facilitating the closure of the US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A draft version of the Order is available here and news links here and here. Section 3 of the Order reads: Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantánamo. The detention facilities [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International terrorism | 1 Comment »
It seems that the disputed military attacks led on Gaza by Israel in the past weeks have caused first tangible consequences for its external economic relations. Last week, it was reported that EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner froze the plans to upgrade its economic relations with Israel (for further information, see the following article in [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law, Human Rights, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
At the seventh session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which opened on 19th January at the UN Headquarters in New York, six members of the ICC were elected (see press release). 1. SHAHABUDDEEN, Mohamed (Guyana) 2. SAIGA, Fumiko (Japan) 3. TARFUSSER, Cuno (Italy) 4. MONAGENG, [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law | 1 Comment »
The website of the WTO has opened the doors to a new database on regional trade agreements. The database, which can be searched by country, region, legal provision, date of notification or entry into force of the regional trade agreement, contains all the notifications, links to the content of the relevant agreements, legal provisions and [...]
Filed under: Web contents, World Trade Organization | Leave a Comment »
Human Rights Watch’s 2009 report is out. See report here, press release here and introduction by Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, here. Although there is every reason to exercise caution before relying too much on NGO information in general, the Report has some very good points. Alongside the usual and very valid condemnation of authoritarian regimes [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, Human Rights, human rights and business, Non Governmental Organizations, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
While the German government has received some criticism for dragging its feet when it comes to facilitating stimulus packages aimed at kick-starting its ailing economy, the changes proposed earlier this week by Chancellor Merkel are interesting. The governing “grand coalition” has proposed to change the German constitution to secure that future German governments do not [...]
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Vlad Perju of Boston College of Law has just posted his recent paper “Reason and Authority in the European Court of Justice on SSRN (the paper is also available via the website of Virginia Journal of International Law, where the paper was recently published). The paper is very interesting and makes the, to many critics [...]
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On 12 January 2009, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the human rights situation in the Gaza strip. The Resolution is entitled “The Grave Violations of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory particularly due to the recent Israeli military attacks against the occupied Gaza Strip”. As the title indicates, the Resolution contains [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | 1 Comment »
The New Republic has an interesting piece on proportionality, which was/is one of the central legal issues in the ongoing conflict in Gaza (we reported earlier here and here). The article is not so much based on the applicable legal norms of international law but rather highlights in more general terms what the problems are [...]
Filed under: International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
The hearing on confirmation of charges in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo is scheduled to commence on next Monday (12 January 2009) before the Pretrial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court. The case derives from the situation in the Central African Republic. Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba was arrested in the [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Criminal Law | Leave a Comment »
Professor Philippe Sands of UCL gives an interesting interview on NPR’s Fresh Air on the chances of officials from the Bush administration facing “international” investigations given their alleged role in the use of torture in, for instance, the Abu Graibh prison in Iraq. Sands argues that new evidence has recently emerged showing that the abuse which [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Criminal Law, International terrorism, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
As a follow-up to Michael Passman’s recent guest contribution on What to do with Captured Pirates, you can now access his full article on the subject, which was originally published in volume 33 of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal 2008 (cit. 33 TUL.MAR. L.J. 1 (2008)). You can find the article here. Many thanks to both [...]
Filed under: Guest Blogging, Law of the sea, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
Well, if you were at Gitmo, certainly not the US. As more evidence emerges of the horrific abuses committed as part of the global “war on terror”, this seems to be the approach taken by the US government according to this article by Jane Perlez, Raymond Bonne and Salman Masood in today’s NY Times, describing [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International terrorism | Leave a Comment »
