New term of court begins in Abidjan

The military court in Abidjan has ended one term and begun another. Details and a word on the court's important role here.

Illegal orders and the civil service

Military personnel are not the only public employees who may be faced with illegal orders -- and wonder what to do in response. Consider this recent column from The Denver Post by Matt Nicodemus. He is the founder and coordinator of Sworn to Refuse, and says this on the organization's Facebook page:

If our command-and-control military can recognize the need to protect conscientious refusers from having to follow unlawful orders, then why can’t and shouldn't we implement similar provisions on the civilian side of our government? Sworn to Refuse has taken up the mission of fighting for such provisions in law and in policy.

The Facebook page says "Sworn to Refuse is a grassroots effort to encourage and support government employees, their families and friends, to follow their employment oath." (In case you were wondering, The Orders Project home page reports: "Update 1/20/2021 15:00 : The Orders Project is now in Charlie Status. Active operations and referral services will resume if and when a need arises.")

Town Hall 12 video -- pardons and war crimes

Today's excellent Town Hall presentation by Prof. Stuart Ford on pardons and war crimes can be found at this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/RUpyVCkw9LotIwwBbDQq_dypeonJk9UfplitjZURGsMVKfsQeUJSfhsC3jEKKQOt.8h5QdUVgSyECdHYZ

The passcode is ks=P2dG=.

Foreign officials’ lack of immunity in war crimes trials

Just Security posts,

[Editor’s note from Ryan Goodman: In light of this major decision by Germany’s highest criminal court, Professor Claus Kress has graciously agreed to write this preliminary note about the oral pronouncement of the judgment by the Court’s presiding Judge. Professor Kress will write a more comprehensive article for Just Security once the written opinion is publicly available.]

Last Thursday, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice issued a potentially landmark judgment in a case that pits the immunity that foreign state actors enjoy in criminal proceedings against efforts to achieve accountability for war crimes. The court rejected the idea that “functional immunity” under customary international law precludes criminal proceedings against organs of a foreign State for internationally crimes. This was the presiding Judge’s core message when, on last Thursday, he orally pronounced his criminal chamber’s decision on a case against a former Afghan soldier involving a war crimes’ allegation under the German Code of Crimes under International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch).

Starting at 0900 -- Town Hall 12 -- pardons and war crimes

https://globalmjreform.blogspot.com/2021/01/town-hall-12-is-pardoning-war-crime-war.html