One Step Forward
A federal criminal court in Switzerland ruled last week that a former Algerian defense minister doesn’t have immunity for war crimes allegedly committed while in office in the early 1990s. Two...
View ArticleAiding and Abetting in Kiobel
In gearing up for Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum at the U.S. Supreme Court this fall, debates are raging about the scope of the Alien Tort Statute. Among key claims is the argument that universal...
View ArticleJudicial Diffusion in Africa
Late last spring a group of East African magistrates met in Kigali to discuss the question of universal jurisdiction in Africa. The May meeting of the East African Magistrates and Judges Association...
View ArticleWikiLeaks 101: Extradition Isn’t Universal Jurisdiction
I asked for the extradition of Pinochet, who had been investigated and charged with… genocide, torture, serious breaches of human rights… Assange is having a fundamental right breached too — freedom...
View Article“Exceptional and Supplementary”
For the fourth year in a row, the Legal (Sixth) Committee of the U.N. General Assembly took up the issue of universal jurisdiction this month, debating its scope and application. One of the central...
View ArticlePost-Conflict Accountability in Nepal
Earlier this month the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 233-page report, Nepal Conflict Report, detailing violations of international human rights and...
View ArticlePiracy and Economics
No one seems to have much of a problem applying universal jurisdiction to piracy. Last month’s ruling by Kenya’s Court of Appeals confirmed this, effectively reversing a 2010 judgment by the...
View ArticleInsecure Safe Havens
Last month, Amnesty International issued the latest set of reports as part of its “No Safe Haven” series on universal jurisdiction. The human rights organization began the multi-year project in 2008,...
View ArticleIn London and Kathmandu, Progress without Illusions
If two wrongs don’t make a right, one right isn’t always enough. The UK’s recent use of universal jurisdiction against a Nepali colonel, for torture committed during his country’s civil war in 2005,...
View ArticleGendering Jurisdiction
Labeling a person according to her gender highlights difference—really, ongoing hierarchies of power. Two recent incidents, both referencing sub-Saharan Africa, insert ‘women’ (as social category)...
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