After dedicating much of his career to the establishment of the International Criminal Court, M. Cherif Bassiouni -- often called the "father" of international criminal law -- startled an audience at an international law conference in Washington, D.C. on Thursday when he called some international criminal tribunals shams and declared others to be mired in bureaucratic failures. He asserted that there really is no political will by States to have an independent international criminal justice system. Experience has shown that States can create obstacles to justice and international accountability by intentionally underfunding some efforts, making access to data difficult, supporting tribunals premised on little more than window-dressing, and creating overly bureaucratic international criminal systems. He never blatantly said the ICC will dissolve, but he implied its current overly bureaucratic framework is leading to the Court's irrelevancy. Whereas his quixotic dream has been to build an international criminal system to stop national politicians from determining who gets prosecuted, the hero of international criminal justice now implies that his vision is unachievable, at least within any foreseeable future. As such, Bassiouni predicts that there will be a transformation of international law and its institutions. "International criminal justice will take another turn," he said. "And maybe it's a turn for the best." Specifically, we likely will see a shift from supranational criminal courts to national courts, which he said will be more successful in prosecuting the guilty. The challenge he put forth to the lawyers and soon-to-be international lawyers in the room is how to use international law both to connect the national courts and to provide for effective domestic prosecutions of international crimes. More

Last night, U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh outlined, for the first time, the Obama administration's legal justifications under international law for the targeted killings of non-state actors using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to as "drones." He inserted the topic of drones into his keynote at the American Society of International Law 104th Annual Meeting at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. The United States has used drones since at least 2001 to kill high-level terrorist operatives abroad, particularly in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. The Obama administration has significantly increased the number of targeted drone killings, according to various non-governmental organizations and media outlets. In this posting, I look at the specific legal reasoning and standards put forth by Koh, the reactions by international law experts, and a few unanswered questions under international law. More

The 14th Annual International Environmental Moot Court Competition concluded yesterday with the Law Society of Ireland, Cork as Applicant facing the University of Maryland School of Law as Respondent. This year's simulated case before the International Court of Justice focused on "Beaked Whales and Marine Seismic Surveys." Student attorneys made arguments under the Espoo Convention, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the duty to prevent transboundary harm under customary international law. More than 80 teams competed worldwide with 19 teams advancing to the international finals in Florida. And the 2010 winner is . . . More

The UN Commission on the Status of Women invites any individual, non-governmental organization, group, or network to submit accurate and detailed information to the Commission relating to the promotion of women's rights in political, economic, civil, social, and educational fields in any country anywhere in the world. The Commission is particularly interested in receiving any information relating to alleged violations of human rights that affect the status of women. The Commission will use this information to analyze emerging trends and patterns of injustice and discriminatory practices against women. This analysis informs the Commission's policy process, including the formulation of the best strategies to promote gender equality. The author's name will not be made known unless the author provides explicit permission. Submissions will be accepted until 14 August 2009. More

Jeffrey L. Bleich, Special Counsel to President Barack Obama in the White House, moderated a discussion on human rights in the new administration with four panelists: Santiago Canton, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS); William Davis, the Director of the United Nations Information Center in Washington, D.C.; Ambassador Karen Stewart with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U. S. Department of State; and Chip Pitts, an international attorney with Amnesty International. The panel was part of the 2009 ABA Section of International Law Spring Meeting, held 14-18 April 2009 in Washington, D.C. The panelists provided reflections and recommendations with respect to the Durban Review Conference, the Human Rights Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the Alien Tort Claims Act, China, Sudan, Cuba, and actions for the Obama administration to take within the next 30 days. More