EJIL Analysis

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ICC Prosecutor Seeks Permission to Investigate Kenyan Crimes Against Humanity

November 17, 2009

Lionel Nichols is a research student in the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. He is an executive member of the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group and has prevously interned at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Earlier this month, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced that he will seek permission in December from the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber to initiate an investigation into crimes alleged to have been committed during the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. The announcement signalled that Ocampo’s patience in relation to the situation in Kenya had finally expired.  Ocampo has waited over a year for Kenya’s Grand Coalition Government to establish a Special Tribunal for Kenya to try those suspected of being responsible for the 2007 post-electoral violence. Now, for the first time, he is using his powers under Article 15 of the ICC Statute to initiate proceedings in the ICC propio motu (on his own motion). The investigations into the Kenya situation will…

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The Conviction by an Italian Court of CIA Agents for Abduction – Some Issues Concerning Immunity

November 7, 2009

As Marko reported in an earlier post, an Italian Court has convicted 23 American agents (including the former head of the CIA in Milan) and 2 Italian intelligence agents for their part in the abduction and rendition of a muslim cleric Abu Omar. Abu Omar was taken from the streets of Milan to Egypt where he claimed to have…

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Dispute Concerning Honduran Government Crisis Heads to the International Court of Justice (UPDATED)

October 30, 2009

UPDATE: Since I wrote this piece it has been announced that the rival Honduran leaders have reached agreement to resolve the crisis relating to the Presidency (see BBC report here). It is not clear what impact this will have on the ICJ case discussed below. The  new "government" of Honduras has instituted proceedings…

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Is There Still a Need for Guidelines for the Exercise of ICC Prosecutorial Discretion?

October 28, 2009

In April of this year, the ICC Prosecutor issued a set of Regulations of the Office of the Prosecutor. These regulations are intended to govern the way in which the office of the ICC Prosecutor  is administered and the way in which it conducts investigations and operations. Back in 2003, the Office of the Prosecutor issued a…

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The (Aborted) Start of the Karadzic Trial

October 26, 2009

The trial of Radovan Karadzic at the ICTY was supposed to begin this morning, but, true to his word, Karadzic decided to boycott the trial because he was allegedly not given enough time for preparation. In reality, however, it has been more than a year and three months since his transfer to the Hague - time that he…

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