International Law Loopholes: A Get-Out-of-Jail Card for Guilty States?

"Regrettably, states’ power to protect themselves and to ensure impunity has continued to grow in recent years. This paper discusses two recent examples of this political trend: the far-reaching reaction to Judge Baltasar Garzon’s legal decision not to apply the 1977 Spanish Amnesty Law to crimes against humanity committed during the Franco regime, and the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on state immunity according to which a state is immune from jurisdiction before foreign national courts, even in cases involving civil responsibility for international crimes."

Wouldn't it be amazing if the news was told via Internet memes? Well, here's a taster of what to expect.

"On March 24th, 2012, a 32-year-old Iraqi-American woman, Shaima Alawadi, passed away. She been found three days earlier by her 17-year-old daughter, brutally beaten in her home with a note next to her that said, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” The story made national headlines, and drew many parallels with the story of Trayvon Martin, a young black man from Florida who was also recently killed for reasons involving race. Alawadi’s death reflects the large profiling of a particular faith group, and the unchecked issue of Islamophobia."