This page will allow for a free-form discussion. Students should feel free to post whatever they like here: questions, comments, musings, &c.
International Law (Spring 2009)
PS 0236 with James Ashley Morrison at Middlebury College.
This page will allow for a free-form discussion. Students should feel free to post whatever they like here: questions, comments, musings, &c.
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/20090301faessay88205/stephen-g-brooks-william-c-wohlforth/reshaping-the-world-order.html?mode=print
An interesting take on international institutions…
http://fullaccess.foreignaffairs.org/19981101facomment1429/ruth-wedgwood/fiddling-in-rome-america-and-the-international-criminal-court.html?mode=print
another one about America and the ICC
This article explains a new route the U.S. could start taking to change the detainment policies of the Bush Administration. We’re also seeing a case where the trial will be held in the U.S. in a civilian criminal court, and how a domestic legal system can impact an international issue. This is definitley a developing issue with hundreds of detainees statuses to be adjusted to the Obama Administration’s policies, so it will be interesting to see how the legal process changes over time. Lastly, is this case an example of where having a membership in the ICC would come in handy?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27detain.html?_r=1&hp – Sorry, here is the link to the article.
Hey guys,
Some of you may have already heard about this, but the ICC has ordered the arrest of President Bashir of Sudan for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but not genocide. Here is the Times article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/world/africa/05court.html?_r=1&hp
It is the first time the ICC has ordered the arrest of sitting head of state, and as couple be expected, President Bashir doesn’t plan on cooperating.
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/46/4933.pdf
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/48/5209.pdf
the two cases on Africa tried in ICJ…
Actually, here are two later ones that have to do with the ramifications of colonialism…
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/69/6449.pdf
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/82/6865.pdf
Here is also an advisory opinion from the ICJ pertaining to South West Africa (Namibia)
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/53/5597.pdf
This is a documentary called Terror’s Advocate, about
Jacques Vergès (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Vergès). It is on
google video
(http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=terror's%20advocate&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#).
This guy has defended Nazis, Khmer Rouge, Front Liberation Algerian, against war crimes accusations.
He said he would defend George Bush “If he would agree to a guilty plea”…
The Spanish, specifically Baltazar Garzon, are at it again, this time looking to indict six Bush administration officials, including Alberto Gonzales.
This NY times articles sums it up:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/world/europe/29spain.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
This Wall Street Journal Opinion piece is a response by John C. Yoo, one of the six officials:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123638439733558185.html
This is CNN article that included an interesting quote by Yoo about
lawyers not making policy:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/03/29/gonzales.spain.gitmo/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
As a sidenote to the discussion we had on Tuesday regarding whether or not there have been any secret treaties since the formation of the UN, there apparently have been. An example I came across is the 1947 Quadripartite pact signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia regarding cooperation on intelligence matters, basically giving each nation unlimited access to all of the intelligence gathered by the other signatories. This treaty, which later evolved into the UK-USA Security Agreement, was apparently so secret that even Australian PMs weren’t informed of it until 1973…
http://www.williambowles.info/spysrus/cia_australia.html
After Professor Morrison mentioned the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in our discussion this morning I figured I’d take a quick look at it, and thought you all might like to as well:
http://www.oicun.org/articles/54/1/Cairo-Declaration-on-Human-Rights-in-Islam/1.html
A number of the document’s features as you’ll see are probably quite opposite from your concept of “rights”…
I got mixed up yesterday in class on Preemption and preventative war. Preemptive war is a more imminent threat, and preventative war is a little more remote. Both are illegal under international law, although the Security Council does maintain that some preemptive wars can be legal. President Bush tried to claim he was pursuing a legal preemptive war, but his policy in Iraq is likely better understood as a preventative war, which is a much further removed threat. Sorry for the confusion!
The surviving pirate from the Maersk Alabama hostage situation is now in New York and wading through some of the preliminary work prior to his trial. Here’s a Times article that goes into some of the dubious maritime and general international law at play here. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/nyregion/22pirate.html?_r=1&hp
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/drafting-the-anti-genocide-playbook/#more-11715
A really interesting image pertaining to war criminals in Rwanda
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/dozens-of-civilians-killed-in-afghanistan-air-raid-report/#more-12113
an interesting case pertaining to loss of civilian life in Afghanistan..