On June 4, 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) issued an arrest warrant against Charles Taylor, the incumbent President of Liberia. When the warrant was issued, Mr. Taylor was traveling to Ghana for talks with Liberian rebel groups to end a four-year civil war that has destabilized West Africa.
On December 15, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed separate complaints originally filed on April 29, 1999 by Serbia and Montenegro against eight NATO member states (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom), asking the ICJ to hold each of the respondent states responsible for international law violations stemming from the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in March-April 1999. According to the Court's unanimous Judgments, Serbia and Montenegro lacks standing to sue before the ICJ. [1]
On 1 November 2004, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued its decision on whether Slobodan Milosevic has a right to continue to act as his own lawyer in his war crimes trial at The Hague. [1] The decision has important implications for the trial of Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi Special Tribunal and future trials involving former leaders accused of international crimes.
The Initial Decision to Permit Milosevic to Act as His Own Lawyer