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Yesterday the government of Chile deposited its instrument of ratification to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Statute will enter into force for Chile on 1 September 2009, bringing the total number of States Parties to the Rome Statute to 109. The government of Chile had proposed constitutional reforms as a prerequisite to [...]
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I just today stumbled across this month-old article reporting on the Dutch foreign minister’s demand for a UN backed tribunal for the trial of pirates in the East African countries. We have reported earlier on the apparent desire among certain (European) States to establish such an international court (inter alia to avoid any pirates being [...]
Filed under: International Courts, Law of the sea | 3 Comments »
The existence and development of humankind on this planet has never been an egalitarian process. This partly explains the birth and development of law and legal institutions to regulate the conduct and behaviour of mankind in its intercourse with one another. Admittedly the existence of law and legal institutions does not attest to the quality [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice | 2 Comments »
The ICTY Trial Chamber delivered on 26 March Decision on Prosecution Motion Seeking Determination that the Accused understands English for the Purposes of the Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence in Prosecutor v Radovan Karadžić. This decision inter alia concerns whether statements made on Opinio Juris by one of Karadžić’s legal advisers can serve as [...]
Filed under: International Courts, International Criminal Law | 2 Comments »
According to a press release of the UN, Antonio Cassese, the former (and first) president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has been elected president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Pursuant to Art. 8(2) of the Statute of the STL (annexed to UN Security Council resolution 1757) this makes judge [...]
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Ben-Naftali and Zamir have recently published an article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice titled ‘Whose ‘conduct unbecoming’? The shooting of a Handcuffed, Blindfolded Palestinian Demonstrator’. The work considers the case of HCJ 7195/08 Abu Rhama et al. v Military Advocate General – the petition in the case is available in English. The case [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, International Humanitarian Law, international justice, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, Publications, Responsibility to protect, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
On the 4th of March 2009, after seven months of deliberation, the International Criminal Court charged President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan with war crimes and crimes against humanity in the violence that has engulfed the Darfur region in recent years. But he escaped the charge on genocide at least for now, as the ICC [...]
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Last week much attention at the ICC has been devoted to the confirmation of arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir, while less attention has been paid to the important decision of the Pre-trial Chamber III to adjourn the confirmation of charges hearing in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and to ask the [...]
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A Special Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was convened on Friday 6 March in order to elect a judge to fill the vacancy created by the sad death of Judge Choon-Ho Park in November last year. In accordance with the practice of the States Parties, [...]
Filed under: International Courts, ITLOS, Law of the sea, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
As reported, the Pretrial Chamber of International Criminal Court has earlier today confirmed an arrest warrant for Omar al Bashir, the incumbent president of Sudan, for crimes against humanity and war crimes but not for crime of genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethinc groups. Albeit a number of practitioners and experts of international [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law | 5 Comments »
The Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC today partly approved the request for an arrest order for President Al Bashir of Sudan. The warrant, requested by the Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, relate to charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes but not genocide as requested by the prosecutor. In a press conference held today, the Registrar [...]
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Could the question of “Arctic ownership” push the US to sign the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention? As we have reported earlier, and as frequently reported in the media (see e.g. this latest article at tampabay.com), the support for the ratification of UNCLOS is growing by the day. Not only are prominent members [...]
Filed under: International Courts, ITLOS, Law of the sea, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
Speculation is rife on the eve of the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) expected to be released on the 4th of March 2009, about the issuance of an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President, Omar Al Bashir. Last year, chief ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo asked the court’s judges to indict Bashir for orchestrating [...]
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Elections at the ICJ. On 6 February 2009 Judge Hisashi Owada (Japan) was elected President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) by his peers and Judge Peter Tomka (Slovakia) was elected Vice-President, each for a term of three years. Elections were also held for the Chamber of Summary Procedure and of the Budgetary and [...]
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Following discussions in relation to the legality of the armed conflict in Gaza and the alleged violations of international law by the two belligerents (see here, here and here), some of you might find Professor Sloane’s recent paper, titled “The Cost of Conflation: Preserving the Dualism of Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello in [...]
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Today, on Tuesday 17 February at 9 p.m. the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) open their first trial (see the court schedule on the ECCC website). With a delay of several decades the first Khmer Rouge will be tried for his involvement in crimes against humanity committed under the Pol Pot regime, [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
* This post was co-authored with Benjamin Agsteribbe, formerly of the University of Amsterdam, and currently a researcher at HaMoked – Center for the defence of the individual in East Jerusalem. —- Some of our, and others’, previous posts have taken to outline the main legal issues that arise of the recent declaration submitted by [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice, Law of Treaties, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 2 Comments »
NY Times reports that judges at the ICC have now approved the arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. We have previously blogged on the issue here and here. The decision has not yet been made public. It is the first time that he Court is seeking the arrest of an incumbent head [...]
Filed under: African Union, Human Rights, ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice | 1 Comment »
Just as the first-ever trial at the ICC got on its way, several news agencies reported early this week that the prosecutor of the court would conduct a “preliminary analysis” of alleged crimes committed by Israelis during the recent offensive in the Gaza Strip (AFP; IHT; AP). Leaving the obviously one-sided character of the underlying [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 11 Comments »
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 »
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, [...]
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On December 23rd, the Federal Republic of Germany instituted proceedings against Italy before the International Court of Justice claiming that “Italian judicial bodies have repeatedly disregarded the jurisdictional immunity of Germany as a sovereign state.” (See the Press Release of the ICJ here, a Press Release from the German Parliament here.) The case was caused by [...]
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The vivid images currently emerging from the fighting in the Gaza Strip clearly drives home the need for the belligerent parties and the international community to find a peaceful solution and secure a halt to the hostilities. However, the fighting and Valentina’s post below raise questions as to what international law has to say about [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 11 Comments »
