Search Results for: 2013-12-24

Israel concluded on Friday its weeks-long investigation into the alleged deaths of multiple hostages held by Hamas via friendly fire, asserting that it is likely that at least one hostage was killed by an Israeli helicopter. In its investigation, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) found that Efrat Katz, who was kidnapped from her home in [...]

The ongoing conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine continues to raise significant issues of international law and policy. My earlier contribution focused on the jurisdiction and substantive law of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Here I address the ongoing litigation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court). Because the crime of genocide can be [...]

It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]

“For by Wise Counsel, Thou Shalt Make Thy War.” Proverbs 24,6 Israel’s nuclear posture remains closely held. On its face, this “ambiguous” stance appears perfectly reasonable. But a critically core question should now be raised: Is unmodified deliberate nuclear ambiguity (the “bomb in the basement”) still in the long-term survival interests of the beleaguered state. [...]

UN Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ni Aolain released a statement on Friday urging the cessation of “indefinite mass detention without legal process,” particularly for children, in northeastern Syria detention centers. After arriving in Damascus, Syria on July 15, she visited prisons and detention sites and witnessed “major humanitarian challenges,” including inadequate access to water and electricity [...]

For years, Sri Lanka has occupied the international spotlight for one of its contentious laws—the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The PTA was introduced in 1979 during the Sri Lankan Civil War using the emergency law provisions in Part II of the Public Security Ordinance. While similar laws exist in other nations, showing widespread acceptance [...]

Crowds supporting former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Sunday infiltrated and vandalized the country’s National Congress, Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), and presidential palace buildings one week after the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Demonstrators smashed the National Congress’s windows and stormed its senate chamber. Protesters then breached the country’s Supreme Federal Tribunal, [...]

The situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, with news received on July 25 that four activists have been executed. The executions are the first carried out in Myanmar for several decades. The government mouthpiece, the Global New Light of Myanmar, claimed that the activists’ crimes were “giving directions, making arrangements, committing conspiracies for brutal and [...]

The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service Tuesday arrested a 34-year-old Syrian man accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes during in the Syrian Civil War. The unnamed suspect is reported to have served in the state-aligned Liwa al-Quds militia during the ongoing conflict. According to prosecutors, the suspect, along with other members of the militia, [...]

After the Second World War, the International Committee of the Red Cross created new treaties to constrain the methods and means of warfare—a stark acknowledgment that armed conflict would continue to exist and that the world needed updated legal limits on the waging of war. The Geneva Conventions (1949), Additional Protocols (1977) and customary international [...]