I remember when Michelle (name changed to protect identity) got the email. She yelled out, “What?! This is so unfair!  I’m writing to CSS right now!” CSS is the Counsel Support Section of the Registry at the International Criminal Court (ICC). One of CSS’s responsibilities is approving the budget and appointments of defense teams who [...]

Why was the cryptocurrency exchange FTX valued at $32 billion before it filed for bankruptcy? Many of the world’s most sophisticated investors believed it was worth that much and invested billions based on that valuation. They failed to detect the company’s massive misconduct and their investments were completely wiped out over the course of a [...]

The fall of Afghanistan was a sad end to the longest armed conflict in American history. It resulted in the destruction of a nation-state, over 6 million displaced the world over, and one of the worst refugee crises currently ongoing. For the millions of refugees from the crisis, their trials are far from over. And [...]

“All our dignity consists in thought.” – Blaise Pascal, Pensées For the most part, penetrating thought on politics remains the veiled province of academic specialists. Though such thought can never become appropriate for any wider consumption by “mass,” it nonetheless warrants a more prominent place in world affairs and international law. Nowhere is this assertion [...]

The Global Accountability Network (GAN) is a consortium of universities and other organizations staffed by academics, practitioners, law students and graduate students. The network works alongside organizations such as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court to build international criminal cases. GAN was founded in 2011 by Professor David M. Crane, the Founding Chief Prosecutor [...]

The new government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte is employing tricks and propaganda to entrench impunity and ward off the International Criminal Court’s long-delayed probe of crimes against humanity committed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s reign of terror. The latest of these ploys is the government’s attempt, through the Office of the Solicitor [...]

“What does not benefit the entire hive is no benefit to the bee.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations There are many reasons to fear Donald J. Trump’s return to the American White House, but one reason remains especially worrisome. It stems from the former president’s explicit recommitments to “America First.” A previously failed foreign policy orientation, [...]

The 1996 federal law that protects the privacy of our medical records –the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA – has from the outset contained a carefully crafted exception for personal health information that might bear directly on the commission of a crime. But with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the [...]

“Civilization is the never-ending process of creating one world and one humanity.” Lewis Mumford, In the Name of Sanity (1954) Biological Sameness and Species Unification The unity and interdependence of humankind is not subject to reasonable challenge. Beginning with our biological sameness, species’ commonality includes a broad variety of human needs and expectations. In the [...]

“Defectors often cause more difficulty than disinterested disbelievers” – Neal Ash Maxwell, American scholar, educator, and religious leader. Recent events in the Indian state of Maharashtra reaffirm the existence of glaring loopholes in a law aimed at bolstering political stability in India. The recent fall of the democratically elected government led by the state’s former [...]