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Full-Text Articles in Law

A Critical Guide To The Iraqi High Tribunal's Anfal Judgement: Genocide Against The Kurds, Jennifer Trahan Jan 2009

A Critical Guide To The Iraqi High Tribunal's Anfal Judgement: Genocide Against The Kurds, Jennifer Trahan

Michigan Journal of International Law

In the Anfal trial, the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT or the Tribunal) in Baghdad convicted former Iraqi high officials of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Unlike its predecessor-the Dujail trial-the Anfal trial included the presentation of a high volume of documentary and eye-witness evidence. This evidence clearly revealed the existence of a genocidal campaign by the former Iraqi government and military that eliminated an estimated 182,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1988, as part of the eight-phased "Anfal campaign" (the Anfal). Relying on this and other evidence, judges in the Anfal Trial Chamber explained fairly persuasively how genocide, crimes against …


Failures To Punish: Command Responsibility In Domestic And International Law, Amy J. Sepinwall Jan 2009

Failures To Punish: Command Responsibility In Domestic And International Law, Amy J. Sepinwall

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article embraces one of two contested understandings of what a failure to punish entails. On the first understanding, a military commander's failure to punish is construed solely as a dereliction of duty. Accordingly, his failure to punish constitutes a separate offense from the underlying atrocity that his troops have committed. The failure to punish is, then, a substantive offense in its own right. On a second understanding, for which I argue here, the failure to punish renders the commander criminally liable for the atrocity itself, even if he neither ordered nor even knew about the atrocity before its occurrence. …


Asat-Isfaction: Customary International Law And The Regulation Of Anti-Satellite Weapons, David A. Koplow Jan 2009

Asat-Isfaction: Customary International Law And The Regulation Of Anti-Satellite Weapons, David A. Koplow

Michigan Journal of International Law

The argument in this Article proceeds through several steps. As background, Part I outlines the current and projected future human uses of outer space, emphasizing the plethora of civilian and military applications that now rely on satellites. The United States, especially, but other countries, too, are coming to depend on multiple space assets for the performance of a wide array of vital functions; the investment is huge, diverse, and growing, despite the costs and natural perils of operating in the harsh exoatmospheric environment.


The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman Jan 2009

The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article argues that the most difficult future crises for which this legal debate is most consequential will not resemble those described by Prime Minister Thatcher or Director ElBaradei. Rather, in confronting potentially hostile and aggressive states believed to pose a WMD threat, decisionmakers contemplating the use of force will face an intelligence picture that is open to reasonable debate (contra Thatcher) and irresolvable to high levels of certainty (contra ElBaradei). This paper examines how competing legal approaches deal with this epistemic problem.