Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

 

“Our four weapons are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to…Justice?” Cardinal Ximénez, put aside the [dish-drying] rack and the Comfy Chair. Torture should be thrown into the ash heap of history. Spanish Inquisitors have devised a more clever means to punish the errant: universal jurisdiction.

With apologies to Monty Python, and with no intention of being too flip with a grave topic, I was struck when I heard this story on NPR’s Morning Edition on the drive to work. To quote,

Spain’s National Court operates under the principle of universal jurisdiction. As a result of a 2005 ruling by the Constitutional Court, the National Court must investigate allegations of crimes like torture and terrorism in another country if no legal action is being taken there.

Now, the court’s docket contains more than a dozen cases in countries including China, Morocco, Israel and the United States.

Thus, in March of this year, a Spanish magistrate on the National Court, Judge Baltasar Garzon “started an investigation into allegations that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other Bush administration lawyers gave legal justification for torture at Guantanamo.” The BBC reports that “Mr. Garzon is one of six investigating judges for Spain’s National Court which, like many other European countries, operates an inquisitorial system, as opposed to the adversarial system used by the US and UK.  The investigating judge’s role is to examine the cases assigned to him by the court, gathering evidence and evaluating whether the case should be brought to trial. He does not try the cases himself.”

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Mitten on International Sports Arbitration

Matt Mitten has a new article on SSRN, Judicial Review of Olympic and International Sports Arbitration Awards: Trends and ObservationsThe article focuses on the review of decisions by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, of which Matt is a member.  Here is the abstract:

This article provides an overview of the nature and scope of judicial review of Olympic and international sports arbitration awards, primarily those rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (based in Lausanne, Switzerland) and their review by the Swiss Federal Tribunal pursuant to the Swiss Federal Code on Private International Law. It also describes and compares U.S. courts’ review of international sports arbitration awards pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards as well as domestic sports arbitration awards. Both Swiss and U.S. courts are permitting CAS arbitration awards to establish a developing body of private international sports law that displaces national laws. The author concludes that this is the appropriate jurisprudential view because it is necessary to have universally accepted legal rules and dispute resolution processes for Olympic and international athletic competition, and for the governance of global sports competition to be fair and equitable on a worldwide basis.

The article is forthcoming in the Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Journal. 

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Marquette Law Alum Major Deon Green on WUWM’s “Lake Effect” Program

Our alum, United States Army Major Deon Green (Law 1997), was recently interviewed on WUWM’s “Lake Effect” radio program.  Maj. Green is a member of the JAG Corps and serves as the principal legal advisor to the Commanding General of the Third Sustainment Command Expeditionary in Iraq. The Third Sustainment Expeditionary handles all of the logistics and supplies for the 144,000 troops serving in Iraq. As the principal legal advisor, Major Green directs a team of fifty attorneys and legal assistants who address a broad array of issues—from contract questions to offering legal advice to troops serving in Iraq.  

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