Author: Ben Wallace
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Trump’s Anti-Media Rhetoric Turns to Action
“I don’t know if Trump himself has a ‘game plan’ per se, but it is clear that the overall picture is of an Administration that disdains a free press,” Rebecca Hamilton, a law professor at American University, said in an email. “Their view — and …
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Connecting the Dots: Trump’s Tightening Grip on Press Freedom
A free press is a pillar of democracy, just as state-controlled media is a hallmark of autocracy. That is why monitoring actions that stifle the freedom of the press is a time-tested means of tracking the health of a democratic system. As journalists themselves scramble to keep …
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Taliban Charges Show US Dilemma, Double Standards in Opposing International Criminal Court
On Thursday, Jan. 23., 2025, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his Office is seeking arrest warrants for the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief Justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for the crime against humanity of gender persecution (Rome …
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Meta Is Laying the Narrative Groundwork for Trump’s Mass Deportations
Multiple experts drew comparisons between Meta’s recent changes around immigration and what happened in Myanmar in 2017, where Facebook contributed to a genocide by allowing the spread of hate.
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Unpacking the Meta Announcement: The Future of the Information Ecosystem and Implications for Democracy
On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to “eliminate fact-checkers” across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, signaling a major shift in how the company handles misinformation. He also outlined plans to adopt a user-driven “community notes” system, inspired by Elon Musk’s approach on X. Zuckerberg stated Meta …
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Criminalizing Ecocide
Amid widespread acknowledgment that we live on a planet in peril, the term “ecocide” packs a powerful rhetorical punch. Extant regulatory approaches to environmental protection feel insufficient in the face of the triple threat of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. International criminal prosecution for …
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“What Kind of Court is This?” Perceptions of International Justice Among Rohingya Refugees
Among human rights scholars and practitioners, global justice is a sacred aspiration that finds expression in institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and investigative bodies established by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council. The intended beneficiaries …
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The ‘Year of Climate’ in International Courts
A backgrounder on how climate cases came before four international courts, with a summary of issues each court has been asked to address, offers a one-stop resource to refer to as opinions are issued in the weeks and months ahead. Read here.
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ICC Charges Against Russian Officers
I spoke to the NYT about the conduct of hostilities charges being brought against Russian officers in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The court has pursued war crimes charges, but that is not all: “They’ve pulled them together into a charge of crimes against …
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ICJ provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel
Shortly after the International Court of Justice handed down its provisional measures order in South Africa v. Israel, I spoke – along with Professor Steve Ratner, to Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. For extended reactions, see our compilation of expert views over at Just Security.