News of planned military trials for five 9/11 suspects underscores the Obama administration's need to more forcefully defend the necessity of military tribunals if they are to have legitimacy at home and abroad, says CFR's Matthew Waxman.

Ambassador David Scheffer and former State Department legal adviser John Bellinger discuss how international justice over the last two decades has affected international politics, including the U.S. role in assisting local war crimes prosecutions in Libya and elsewhere.

Ambassador David Scheffer and former State Department legal adviser John Bellinger discuss how international justice over the last two decades has affected international politics, including the U.S. role in assisting local war crimes prosecutions in Libya and elsewhere.

Ambassador David Scheffer and former State Department legal adviser John Bellinger discuss how international justice over the last two decades has affected international politics, including the U.S. role in assisting local war crimes prosecutions in Libya and elsewhere.

John B. Bellinger III argues that Libyans should be allowed to choose whether they want to try members of the Qaddafi regime in their own courts.

The Charter of the International Military Tribunal, also known as the the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, was signed in London on August 8, 1945.

David Kaye, executive director of the international human rights program and director of the international justice clinic at the UCLA School of Law, discusses his Council Special Report, Justice Beyond the Hague, with students as part of CFR's Academic Conference Call series.

Learn more about CFR's Academic Initiative.

The International Criminal Court's warrants for the arrest of Libya's Qaddafi stir debate about whether they will facilitate or hinder his demise and about the effectiveness of the ICC itself.

Recognizing the limitations of current international systems based in The Hague, David A. Kaye provides a strategy for promoting national-level justice and accountability mechanisms to prosecute perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes.

John B. Bellinger III and Vijay Padmanabhan examine the legal questions surrounding detention for states engaged in conflicts with nonstate groups.

James M. Lindsay argues that an indictment of Moammar Gadhafi by the International Criminal Court could actually make it harder to bring Libya's civil war to a quick end.

A decade on, the ICC is still trying to find its footing, thanks partly from the chief prosecutor's poor management and excessive ambition.

John B. Bellinger III says that President Obama and the 112th Congress shoud comply with the Vienna Convention, to help ensure that Americans arrested abroad are given access to State Department officials.

Pending indictments in a UN tribunal could link Hezbollah and Syria to the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Lebanon expert Michael Young says all sides, including Saudi Arabia and the U.S., are scrambling to deal with the impact of the findings.

John B. Bellinger III discusses the anniversary of the Geneva Conventions and argues that the United States should use its political capital to clarify the Conventions and make them applicable to modern warfare.

Speech

Report

The controversial relationship between the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is at a crossroads: After an initial period of hostility toward the ICC, the United States has in recent years pursued a policy of cautious engagement. Vijay Padmanabhan offers a backdrop of the U.S.-ICC relationship and policy recommendations for the U.S. delegation attending the Seven-Year Review Conference in May/June 2010.

Recently, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo expressed plans to investigate alleged crimes against humanity during post-election violence in Kenya, and is considering an investigation of alleged war crimes during the 2008 Gaza War. To date, situations in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, and Darfur have been referred to the ICC. Please join Luis Moreno-Ocampo to discuss these issues, case selection, and the foreign policy implications of the ICC's work.