International Law

N. Korean political prisons rival Nazi concentration camps, investigator and Holocaust survivor says

A Holocaust survivor who investigated North Korean prisons for the International Bar Association says conditions rival those of Nazi concentration camps. Thomas Buergenthal, who was in the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, says the conditions justify trying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for crimes against humanity, the Washington Post…

Dec 12, 2017 12:38 PM CST

Law profs ask if Flynn and a Trump transition team member violated the Logan Act

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s admission about his discussions with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak “leave little doubt” that he violated the federal law known as the Logan Act, according to an op-ed by two law professors. Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner of the University of Chicago make the case…

Dec 4, 2017 9:49 AM CST

Whistleblowing for Wildlife: Advocates hope rewards prompt poaching reports

The word whistleblower evokes names such as Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg and Deep Throat. But the reach of today’s whistleblower has begun to extend beyond the political jungle and into the animal kingdom through the Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program.

Dec 1, 2017 1:45 AM CST

Dec. 23, 1948: Japan’s Wartime Leader Is Executed

Gen. Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander for Allied powers, authorized a military tribunal for Hideki Tojo, Japan’s penultimate leader during much of the war. He was later convicted for his part in war crimes and sentenced to death.

Dec 1, 2017 12:45 AM CST

War crimes defendant dies after drinking vial of what he called poison in international court

A convicted war criminal died at a hospital Wednesday after drinking from a vial he claimed to contain poison at a United Nations tribunal in The Hague. Slobodan Praljak, a former Bosnian Croat general, drank the liquid after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia upheld his 20-year sentence,…

Nov 29, 2017 11:24 AM CST

China sentences human rights lawyer to 2-year prison term

A prominent human rights lawyer in China, whose guilty plea came in what had been criticized as a sham trial, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for inciting subversion of state power, the Associated Press reports. During a brief hearing in the Intermediate People’s Court in the city…

Nov 27, 2017 7:00 AM CST

Serbian court gives suspended sentences to rioters who damaged US Embassy

In a move likely to strain relations with the United States, a Serbian court today gave suspended prison sentences to four men involved in the rioting in 2008 that resulted in serious damage to the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, the Associated Press reports. Rioting nationalists and soccer hooligans stormed the…

Nov 14, 2017 5:26 PM CST

World Justice Project compiles 2016 Rule of Law Index

The United States comes in at No. 18 in the overall global rankings, just behind the Czech Republic and just ahead of the Republic of Korea. At the top of the global rankings is Denmark, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Nov 1, 2017 12:45 AM CDT

Trump will refuse to certify Iran nuclear-deal compliance, but won’t scrap pact

Updated: President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he will refuse to certify Iran’s compliance with the international nuclear deal reached in 2015, even as he seeks to keep the agreement in place, for now. By refusing to certify compliance, the issue goes to Congress, report the New York Times…

Oct 13, 2017 9:10 AM CDT

Bassiouni, former law prof who championed human rights, dies at 79

Updated: M. Cherif Bassiouni, a human rights advocate and former DePaul University law professor, has died at the age of 79. Bassiouni died Monday at his Chicago home, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He had multiple myeloma. The Sun-Times calls Bassiouni “a champion of human rights who fought torture, war crimes…

Sep 26, 2017 12:25 PM CDT

How the author of ‘The Forgotten Flight’ fought for justice for terror victims’ families (podcast)

If you mention a terrorist attack in which a Libyan suitcase bomb brought down an airliner, most people will be quick to remember Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed on Dec. 21, 1988 in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. But there is another, similar attack that happened nine months later, on Sept. 19, 1989.

Sep 6, 2017 8:43 AM CDT

Web Extra: Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands, the author of East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, was interviewed by James Podgers for the ABA Journal. Here is an edited transcript of that interview.

Sep 1, 2017 12:20 AM CDT

Holocaust, international law intersect in Lviv, Ukraine

In East West Street, London barrister Philippe Sands weaves intertwining true stories against the backdrop of the Holocaust and the Nuremberg trials.

Sep 1, 2017 12:15 AM CDT

Realign laws on evidence-gathering on the internet, Google GC says

For as long as we’ve had legal systems, prosecutors and police have needed to gather evidence. And for each new advance in communications, law enforcement has adapted.

Aug 24, 2017 8:00 AM CDT

ABA Center for Human Rights forwards law prof’s assessment of illegality of arms deal to Senate

Further arms sales to Saudi Arabia would violate federal law, unless the country takes steps to comply with international humanitarian law, according to a law professor whose opinion was provided to the U.S. Senate by the ABA Center for Human Rights. The center supplied the opinion by Vanderbilt University law…

May 22, 2017 3:42 PM CDT