Under President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership, the Sri Lankan civil war reached a brutal conclusion on May 18, 2009, ending a 25-year-long conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist rebel group. Rooted in longstanding grievances, including discriminatory policies against Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority, the conflict saw the [...]
Search Results for: 2017-04-21
Explainer: The Israel-Hamas War and the International Criminal Court
The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II). With both courts located in [...]
The exchange of information is a key driver of today’s digital economy. International trade cannot be performed without business owners’ ability to transfer data across national borders, and multinational enterprises’ (MNE) internal operation relies on the ability to move data among countries where they have business presence. Accordingly, data has come to the center of [...]
Facing Trump II: America's Urgent Obligation to Rethink Nuclear Command Authority
“The man who laughs has simply not yet heard the horrible news.” Berthold Brecht An Existential Task Until the end of his presidency – and even after his open complicity in subverting the United States Constitution on January 6, 2021 – Donald J. Trump held effectively unchecked nuclear command authority. Now, after multiple criminal [...]
UN condemns ongoing detention of human rights activist as 'inhumane and senseless'
UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor condemned on Monday the nearly decade-long detention of former Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba, who was arrested back in 2014 over his suspected links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Lawlor called upon Indian authorities to release Saibaba from detention, calling his continued detention [...]
Interview: Columbia's Jeffrey Sachs on Russia, Ukraine, and International Justice
Economist and foreign policy expert Jeffrey Sachs, a best selling author and director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development, has long argued that Russia’s hostility toward Ukraine was provoked by the U.S. vis-à-vis pushes for NATO expansion, military interventions, and other forms of meddling. In an interview with JURIST Assistant Editor Pitasanna Shanmugathas, Sachs [...]
The Battle for Inclusion: Pakistan's Transgender Community Faces Setbacks with Shariat Court Verdict
Pakistan’s transgender community finds itself embroiled in an ongoing struggle for inclusion, facing a recent setback with a verdict from the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Transgender activists in Pakistan have appealed the judgement of the Federal Shariat Court (“FSC”), which adjudicates based on the tenets of Islam, to the Supreme Court (“SC”). As many as [...]
Toward the Turkish Presidential Election: A Constitutional Question
A critical presidential election is scheduled to take place on May 14 in Turkey. Nonetheless, there have been heated discussions over the constitutionality of President Erdogan’s candidacy. Erdogan was elected president for the first time in August 2014, following his role as prime minister beginning in 2003. In June 2018, Erdogan was elected as president [...]
US Justice Department to give $144.5M to victims of 2017 Texas mass shooting in settlement
The US Department of Justice Wednesday reached a $144.5 million settlement with families of those injured and killed in the 2017 mass shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas. In 2017 Devin Kelley opened fire during a church service, killing 26 and injuring 22 others. Kelley later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. [...]
The Organization of American States’ (OAS) was presented with a crucial opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to democracy last month, as its Permanent Council turned its attention towards Haiti. The nation’s current crisis is one that is directly connected to the actions taken by members of its ruling Tèt Kale party (PHTK), which for the [...]