Professor Michael. J. Glennon
Julian Ku over at Opinio Juris explains:
On Monday, Michael J. Glennon of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will be leading a discussion around his timely Article The Blank-Prose Crime of Aggression. In his Article, Glennon addresses the draft definition of the crime of aggression that was released in early 2009 and is set to be voted upon by the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ICC) this coming May. This crime has remained undefined since being included in the ICC’s underlying Rome Statute, for what Glennon maintains are good reasons. He argues that the crime of aggression is subject to too much disagreement among strong and weak states to reach the level of specificity necessary for imposing individual criminal liability. As a result, the draft definition is ambiguous, overbroad, and inconsistent with the Rome Statute’s own requirement that the court act consistently with internationally recognized human rights. Given these difficulties, Glennon argues that efforts to criminalize aggression along these lines be dropped. Anthony Clark Arend of Georgetown University and Larry Johnson of Columbia Law School will both provide responses.
It was my honor to be able to comment on my friend Mike Glennon’s post. In a time when international law has come under great criticism, Glennon is one of the far too few international legal scholars that have a realistic and accurate understanding of the nature of international law. I look foward to the comments to his posts and our responses. And I would encourage everyone to read Glennon’s full article, The Blank-Prose Crime of Aggression. It is outstanding.