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International Justice in the News
The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life brings you a monthly selection of news about the people involved in the work of international courts and tribunals, significant developments in international justice, and articles and publications of interest. We hope that this brief selection will help you keep abreast of the field and lead you to sites where you can inform yourself further.
October 2011
People in the News

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New ITLOS Judges |



Developments in International Justice
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has delivered its judgment in the so-called “Government II” case, involving four former state ministers of Rwanda. Two of the accused were convicted of the crimes of conspiracy to commit genocide and also direct and public incitement to commit genocide. They have been sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. Two other ministers were acquitted and their immediate release was ordered by the Trial Chamber. Delivery of the judgment comes 12 years after the accused were arrested and nearly eight years after the trial began. Read more from AllAfrica.

Read a summary of the case and download the full decision at the Legal Momentum website.

The Hershey Company may have abused the human rights of foreign students when a summer cultural exchange program allegedly used 400 foreign students in the United States on a J-1 student “work-travel” visa as underpaid labor at a Hershey’s packing facility. A Human Rights Delegation linked their situation with that of domestic laborers and drew parallels with the treatment of undocumented migrant workers in the United States. The report alleges various violations of human rights law, including the right to freedom of association awarded to everyone without regard to nationality or immigration status in accordance with Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Read the Delegation’s report here. Learn more about the situation from IntLawGrrls blog.

The United States plans to veto the Palestinian request. Watch President Obama’s address to the UN General Assembly where he declares that Israel and Palestine must resolve their dispute through continued negotiation. A controversial report by Oxford University researcher Goodwin-Gill also challenges the Palestinian bid for statehood, on grounds of constitutionality, statehood legitimacy and representation. The application for recognition has been sent to the admissions committee of the United Nations Security Council for review.

To highlight the importance of this concept, a mock trial has been conducted at the United Kingdom Supreme Court as though the crime of ecocide had already been adopted. The CEO’s of fictitious fossil fuel companies, played by actors, were grilled and defended by real barristers and international lawyers. The two crimes chosen for the ecocide mock trial were the extraction of oil from Canada's tar sands and a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The verdict handed down by the volunteer jury? Both bosses were found guilty as charged. Read more from The Independent.
Articles and Publications of Interest
Theodor Meron ((BIIJ 2006, 2010 & 2012), judge and former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), has published a collection of the most important speeches from his first decade on the ICTY bench (OUP 2011). The speeches in The Making of International Criminal Justice offer the reader Meron’s personal insights on the development of international law as well as an insider’s perspective on the role of judges in the enforcement of international law. Read more here.
Could Africa be ready for supranational courts? Africa Legal Aid explores this question in a recent opinion piece. It is argued that the idea of creating a regional criminal court for Africa has emerged out of debates surrounding the jurisdiction of the ICC. The creation of a regional court would remove the criticism that Western nations are targeting Africa and would create an African solution to problems plaguing Africa. The court could potentially enhance the legitimacy of international criminal tribunals, although questions remain as to what would be realistic expectations for the Court, particularly due to the role of politics in regional courts in Africa, like the East African Community Court of Justice and the Southern African Development Community Tribunal. Read the full piece here.
Feminist international legal scholarship has been brought together in a new publication, Feminist Perspectives on Contemporary International Law (Hart Publishing, 2011). The collection, edited by Sari Kouvo and Zoe Pearson, features various articles by established international law scholars as well as newcomers to the field. It is divided into three themes: theory and method, national and international security, and global and local justice. Read more here.
As announced in recent issues of International Justice in the News, a report of the 2010 Brandeis Institute for International Judges (BIIJ) is now available. Organized around the theme “Toward an International Rule of Law,” BIIJ 2010 hosted 16 judges from 13 international courts and tribunals last July in Salzburg, Austria.
To read an excerpt from the BIIJ 2010 report – “What Does Diversity Imply for an International Rule of Law?” – click here. To download the entire report, and to find details on BIIJ 2010 participants, go to the BIIJ website.
International Justice in the News is edited by Leigh Swigart, Director of Programs in International Justice and Society, with the assistance of Katherine Alexander '12.
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