Philippe Kirsch of Canada was chosen as President of International Criminal Court by the Court's newly-sworn judges at its inauguration at The Hague Tuesday. Judge Kirsch is a former Canadian diplomat and Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Establishment of the International Criminal Court. In July 1998 he chaired the Committee of the Whole of the Rome Conference, which adopted the statute of the Court. Read a brief McGill Law Journal article by Judge Kirsch on the prospects for the ICC written in 2000. The Court's new Vice Presidents hail from Ghana (Akua Kuenyehia) and Costa Rica (Elizabeth Odio Benito). UN Radio has more on the Court's inauguration ceremony and the election of Judge Kirsch.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights sent a letter to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday expressing "grave concerns" over allegations of US mistreatment of security detainees:

We urge you to address these issues personally and publicly by making clear the unambiguous US prohibition against all forms of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. As you know, these practices are strictly prohibited under international laws, to which the United States is a party, including the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The use of torture also violates a 1994 U.S. federal law that explicitly provides penalties of fines and up to 20 years imprisonment for acts of torture committed by U.S. officials outside of the U.S. (18 U.S.C. § 2340 A). As you also know, many practices that do not constitute "torture" are still strictly prohibited as "other acts of cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" under article 16 of the Torture Convention. When the Senate ratified this treaty it construed this language as applying standards that are consistent with U.S. domestic legal principles.

Read the full text of the letter[PDF], which follows the deaths of several prisoners while in US custody, several reported suicide attempts by detainees, and similar expressions of concern by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch previously mentioned in JURIST's Paper Chase.

Twenty-six countries and international organizations[PDF] addressed the UN Security Council Tuesday at an open session on Iraq. Watch recorded video or review a printed summary of remarks from the UN. More countries[PDF] are scheduled to speak when the open session resumes Wednesday afternoon at 3 PM ET.

A joint report on minority rights in Kosovo issued Tuesday by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says that despite progress, problems of discrimination in the UN-administered territory remain. The report concludes:

Further fundamental changes need to be made in order to improve conditions for Kosovo's minorities and to create an environment conducive for returns of all ethnic groups. While improvements have been seen in many areas since the last Assessment, concerns remain in minorities' access to justice, essential services, property rights, and public, civil, and political structures and their security and freedom of movement in Kosovo.

Review the Tenth Assessment of the Situation of Ethnic Minorities in Kosovo[PDF].

The French Embassy in Washington has posted an English translation of French President Jacque Chirac's interview Monday evening on French TV - the French-language broadcast version of which was featured yesterday in JURIST's Paper Chase - in which he said that France would veto a US-UK resolution authorizing force against Iraq.

US District Judge Michael Mukasey's Tuesday ruling[PDF] reaffirming his December holding[PDF] that "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla - currently detained by the United States as an "enemy combatant" - be allowed to consult with counsel is now available online from the US Southern District of New York. Apparently frustrated by the Government's disputation of his original decision, Mukasey concluded: "Lest any confusion remain, this is not a suggestion or a request that Padilla be permitted to consult with counsel, and it is certainly not an invitation to conduct a further “dialogue” about whether he will be permitted to do so. It is a ruling -- a determination -- that he will be permitted to do so." The US Department of Justice issued a statement on the ruling saying that it would "review today's opinion in light of our duty to take all steps possible within the law to protect the American people."

Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law hosted a panel discussion March 7 on Iraq, the UN, and the threat of war. Streaming video is now available.

Stanford Law School's Larry Lessig breaks a long silence on his blog now that Eldred v. Ashcroft is finally over, the Supreme Court Monday having refused a petition to rehear [the subject, by the way, of a somewhat critical assessment by DC appellate lawyers Goldstein & Howe on their SCOTUSblog].

Yale Law's Jack Balkin takes the US Justice Department to task for insisting that as an enemy combatant, "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla has no constitutional rights, an argument that was rejected Tuesday by US District Judge Michael Mukasey in reaffirming his December ruling holding that Padilla be allowed to consult with counsel.

Peter Tillers of Cardozo Law School is back on his JURIST Evidence blog with a conference plug and some suggested readings.

UCLA's Eugene Volokh is torn over the legality of torture.

Lawrence Solum of Loyola Law School Los Angeles wraps up his debate with colleague Rick Hasen on political ideology and judicial selection.

Loyola's Rick Hasen, meanwhile, has been reading President Bush's letter on judicial nominations and has a suggestion.

The European Court of Justice Tuesday rejected a German law student's claim that Germany's compulsory military conscription of young men, and not women, breached EU job equality law. Alexander Dory had argued that military service had a discriminatory impact because mens' careers were delayed, while those of exempt women were not. The Court ruled, however, that European states could choose how to organise their own militaries, and were not subject to EU law in that respect. Read the ECJ press release summarizing the judgment.

Frustrated with the continuing debate on Miguel Estrada and declaring that the "judicial confirmation process is broken," President Bush sent a letter Tuesday to Senate leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle asking Senators of both parties to come together and "take action, including adoption of a permanent rule, to ensure timely up or down votes on judicial nominations both now and in the future, no matter who is President or which party controls the Senate." Read the full text of the letter.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday that it has agreed to a partial settlement of its insider trading civil suit against former ImClone Systems Inc. chief executive Samuel Waksal under which Waksal would be barred from acting as an officer of any publicly traded company and would pay back more than $800,000 in insider trading profits. Read the SEC press release and review the SEC's amended complaint against Waksal, who still neither admits or denies the allegations against him.

A panel of the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that it had no jurisdiction to hear claims of unlawful detention brought by 16 Afghan war detainees - including two Britons and two Australians - held without access to lawyers or their families at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Upholding a lower court ruling, the Court said its jurisdiction did not extend to non-resident aliens outside the sovereign territory of the United States (sovereignty over the Guantanamo Bay base properly belonging to the nation of Cuba, which leased it to the US indefinitely in 1903). Read Al Odah et al. v. US[PDF]. The ruling drew a statement from Attorney General John Ashcroft.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement to the inaugural meeting of the judges of the International Criminal Court at The Hague Tuesday in now online from the UN. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello also issued a statement.

New online Tuesday in JURIST's Forum op-ed series: UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Hans Corell, who's heading to Phnom Penh this week, says that any Cambodian crimes court has to be set up in such a way as to guarantee its impartiality, independence and credibility. Read Justice for the Killing Fields: Re-negotiating a Khmer Rouge Genocide Court for Cambodia right here on JURIST.

The International Criminal Court is officially inaugurated today at The Hague. The Court has a brand new website, which will carry streaming video of the inauguration ceremony - including the swearing-in of the judges by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan - live beginning at about 8:30 AM ET (14:30 CET).

On March 11, 1861, seven former US states adopted the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, which closely followed the language, if not necessarily the purport, of the original US Constitution.