Terrorism

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Convicted CIA Agent Seeks Pardon from Italian President

September 13, 2013

Mr Robert Seldon Lady, one of the CIA agents convicted in absentia in Italy for their involvement in the abduction/rendition of Abu Omar, has petitioned the President of Italy for pardon. The letter is available here, and is a fascinating read (not least because the guy’s (real?) last name is Lady, his middle name reminds me of one of my favourite sci-fi characters, and we can actually see a copy of a CIA agent’s passport). He supports his request with a number of arguments: that he could not properly defend himself as that would require the unauthorized disclosure of classified information; that he was acting under orders and with legal advice that his actions were lawful; and perhaps most interestingly that Italy itself is invoking before Indian courts the functional immunity of its agents who killed a couple of Indian fishermen, essentially asking Italy to apply the same theory on immunity at home that it wishes to apply abroad. Indeed, earlier this year the Italian president had pardoned…

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Kadi Showdown: Substantive Review of (UN) Sanctions by the ECJ

July 19, 2013

I. Introduction After more than a decade on the UN 1267 sanctions list, Yassin Abdullah Kadi was delisted by the UN 1267 Committee on 5 October 2012, following review of a delisting request he had submitted through the Office of Ombudsperson: a mechanism established by Security Council Resolution 1904 (2009) and enhanced by…

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On AG Bot’s Opinion in Kadi (IV)

May 31, 2013

Dr. Asier Garrido Muñoz is Assistant Professor of Public International Law (University of Salamanca). He has recently published Garantías judiciales y sanciones antiterroristas del Consejo de Seguridad de Naciones Unidas (Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2013 here). After Nada v. Switzerland (ECtHR) and Parliament v. Council, AG Bot has added new grounds to the…

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Obama’s Counter-Terrorism Speech: A Turning Point or More of the Same?

May 27, 2013

Gleider I Hernández is Lecturer in Law, University of Durham. The author is grateful to Dr Philippa Webb, Professor Michael Schmitt and Thomas Liefländer for their exchanges of views on this topic. The 2012 revelation that United States President Barack Obama was immersed in the authorisation and execution of targeted drone strikes by the…

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The ECtHR Finds Macedonia Responsible in Connection with Torture by the CIA, but on What Basis?

December 24, 2012

André Nollkaemper is Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. He directs the project on 'Shared Responsibility in International Law' (SHARES); this piece is cross-posted on the SHARES Blog. On 13 December 2012, the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) found the that the…

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