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Articles by Ben Batros
Thinking strategically about climate litigation
Climate litigators can learn from human rights actors on how and when to use litigation strategically to create systemic change. This article is a part of OGR's Litigating the Climate Emergency series on how human rights and strategic litigation might best be leveraged in the climate action movements.
Litigating the Climate Emergency
People around the world, from indigenous activists to students, continue to demand that governments and industries address the causes and consequences of global heating. One emerging strategy seeks to connect the scientific and legal arguments of climate change activism with the tangible harms facing communities.
Pensamiento estratégico para el litigio climático
Los litigantes climáticos pueden aprender de los actores de derechos humanos acerca de cómo y cuándo usar el litigio estratégico para crear cambios sistémicos. Este artículo hace parte de la serie Up Close de OGR “La emergencia climática ante las cortes," sobre la difusión global de litigios basados en derechos humanos que buscan impulsar accciones contra el cambio climático.
Recap of Recent Articles on Just Security (June 8-12)
We are a forum on law, rights, and U.S. national security. You can follow on Twitter @just_security
Ali Kushayb’s Arrest Highlights the Other Side of the U.S.-ICC Relationship
There has been a lot happening over the past couple of weeks, at home and abroad. So it would have been easy to miss the news that earlier this week, Ali Kushayb, a Sudanese war crimes suspect, turned himself in and was transferred to the International Criminal Court. This is a major breakthrough in an investigation that the United States has long supported.
Why the Arms Trade Treaty Matters - and Why It Matters That the US Is Walking Away
It was not surprising or unexpected when President Donald Trump announced that the United States would “withdraw” from the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in an April 26 address to the National Rifle Association (NRA). To a roaring crowd, he declared: “Under my administration, we will never surrender American sovereignty to anyone. We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your second amendment freedom.
Elisions and Omissions: Questioning the ICC's Latest Bashir Immunity Ruling
In their seminal article on Third World perspectives on international criminal law, Professors Anghie and Chimni express hope for the International Criminal Court (ICC) partly on the basis that it will constrain the controversial judicial lawmaking of the ad hoc tribunals by establishing clear rules “through an open process which has received the broad approval of the international community as a whole.” That optimism is surely tempered now by the recent Afghanistan decision and this week’s...
The Early Edition: May 8, 2019
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. IRAN Iran has announced its partial withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, a year after President Trump took the U.S. out of the accord.
A Confusing ICC Appeals Judgment on Head-of-State Immunity
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered its much-anticipated judgment yesterday on whether then-President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan was entitled to head-of-state immunity when he travelled to Jordan in March 2017. Given that the Darfur situation had been referred to the ICC by the United Nations Security Council, the outcome was not a surprise – the Court concluded that Bashir had not been entitled to immunity and that Jordan was obliged to arrest him.
Preview of the International Criminal Court Appeals Judgment on Al-Bashir and Head of State Immunity
Three weeks ago, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber announced that on May 6 it would issue its judgment on whether President Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan was entitled to head of state immunity. At the time, it looked as though this would be one of the biggest decisions of the year – for Al-Bashir, and for the ICC. Well a lot can happen in three weeks. Bashir has been deposed in Sudan.
Pentagon’s Climate Change Report Lacks Analysis the Law Requires
We may look back on 2018 as the year we could no longer avert our eyes from climate change’s destabilizing national security effects. Yet the Pentagon’s congressionally required climate report, released last week, fails to match the reality, lacking key analytical details and leaving the reader with more questions than answers. The toll of 2018 was striking.
The Early Edition: January 23, 2019
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AND BORDER WALL The Senate will hold rival votes tomorrow on President Trump’s plan to spend $5.7 billion on a wall at the Southern border and on a Democratic bill that would fund the government through Feb. 8 without such a wall.
What Now for the Mattis Transgender Policy?
As I predicted here a couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court today unanimously denied the government’s petitions for certiorari before judgment in the “transgender in the military” cases. The real action was, as I suspected, on the accompanying motions to stay the injunctions that district courts have imposed to bar implementation of the 2018 Mattis policy. The Court split 5-4 on that question, and stayed the injunctions.
Western Covert Action and Russian Active Measures
Most Americans now realize the Kremlin has attempted to influence, interfere, and subvert our democratic system. Recent reports even suggest the Russian intelligence services may have also sought to suborn President Trump himself. This is obviously a critical national security threat and needs to be fought on many fronts. When not outright denying their activity, the Kremlin and its enablers justify their actions by claiming American covert and overt policy abroad is equally intrusive.
The Early Edition: January 22, 2019
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news.
Martin Luther King Day at Just Security
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, Just Security is on a reduced schedule. We will address any major news development today, and will return at full steam tomorrow. In the meantime as we reflect today on Dr. King’s life’s work and legacy, we recommend reading a particular text about racial justice and national security. We discuss Russian interference in American democracy here at Just Security a great amount.
The Early Edition: January 21, 2019
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. SYRIA The Israeli military claimed it carried out strikes on Iranian targets in Syria early today, after it intercepted a rocket fired from Syrian territory hours before.
Recap of Recent Pieces on Just Security (January 14-18)
We are a forum on law, rights, and U.S. national security. You can follow on Twitter @just_security
National Security at the United Nations this Week
Editors’ Note: Just Security is now producing a new weekly series that keeps readers up to date on developments at the United Nations at the intersection of national security, human rights, and the rule of law.
The ICC Acquittal of Gbagbo: What Next for Crimes against Humanity?
The International Criminal Court (ICC) dismissed another case this week, ordering the release of two more defendants accused of serious international crimes. Laurent Gbagbo, the first former head of state to be tried before the court, and his youth leader, Charles Blé Goudé, had been on trial for crimes against humanity in the post-election violence in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in 2010-11.
Untangling the Issues in the “Transgender in the Military” Litigation
A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice made something of a splash by filing petitions for certiorari “before judgment” in three of the pending cases challenging then-Secretary of Defense Mattis’s new policy regarding transgender service-members, Nos. 18-676, 677 & 678. In each of the cases a district court preliminarily enjoined the policy and DOJ appealed. One of those cases, Karnoski v. Trump, was argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on October 10. A second, Doe v.
Deciphering the Mystery Subpoena Case: Corporate Claims to Foreign Sovereign Immunity from U.S. Criminal Proceedings
Speculation has been rampant about the identity of the appellant in In re Grand Jury Subpoena, the case that prompted the D.C. Circuit to seal off an entire courthouse floor for oral argument. The dispute might well end up being decided at the Supreme Court, although it would be extremely unusual and perhaps unprecedented for the Court to conduct plenary review in a case that remained entirely under seal.
Trump Gets “Presumption of Innocence” Wrong on Saudi Responsibility for Khashoggi Disappearance
President Donald Trump has weighed in several times in recent days on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi in ways that seem intended to minimize Saudi Arabia’s responsibility, or even stack the decks in its favor.
To Undermine the ICC, Bolton’s Targets Extend Way Beyond the Court
National Security Advisor John Bolton’s recent speech condemning the ICC has generated significant criticism for going beyond his traditional attacks on the court to targeting its judges and prosecutors in a uniquely personal way. But far from his plan to “let the ICC die on its own,” as he put it, he is actively trying to get other states to undermine it by reviving the Article 98(2) agreements that the administration of George W. Bush gave up on 12 years ago.
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