H/T to commenter at Lankanewspapers.com for pointing out that Dr. Boyle has copied his charges against Sri Lanka, made in 2013:
“UN Sri Lanka Tribunal Will Avoid ICC Jurisdictional Issues,“ Francis Boyle, Tamilnet.com, July 23, 2013.
He has recycled them from his charges against Israel in 2008:
“An Israeli war-crimes tribunal may be the only deterrent to a global war,” Francis Boyle, Globalresearch.ca, December 31, 2008.
Furthermore, in both pieces, Boyle cites U.N. Charter Article 22 as authorizing the creation of an International Criminal Tribunal as a subsidiary organ to which Sri Lanka (and, previously, Israel) would be brought.
But is this even possible under the terms of the charter?
Here is Article 22 from the UN Charter:
The General Assembly may establish such subsidiary organs as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions.”
The language is vague, but is there any warrant here or elsewhere to read this article so broadly so as to bestow powers on the General Assembly to create an international criminal tribunal?
Especially, when elsewhere the powers of the General Assembly are severely circumscribed?
At JustSecurity.org, Professor Derek Jinks, Marrs McLean Professor of Law at the highly regarded University of Texas law school, blows this notion out of the water.
Citing learned literature on the subject and previous advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice itself (which is under the authority of the Security Council, not the General Assembly of the UN), he writes:
Indeed, the more common reading of Article 22 is that it accords the GA the authority to establish only subsidiary organs enjoying the same powers as the GA itself (for good sources, see Simma, et al., The Charter of the United Nations: A Commentary 427-28 (2nd ed. 2002); Goodrich, et al., Charter of the United Nations 191 (3rd ed. 1969)). In other words, the GA cannot via a subsidiary organ wield any powers it does not otherwise enjoy under the Charter. Article 22, on this view, is not an end run around the enumerated powers of the GA.
An early advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice confirms this view. In assessing the legality of the GA-established United Nations Administrative Tribunal (UNAT)—a tribunal for resolving disputes between U.N. staff and the United Nations—the ICJ found that Article 22 alone does not empower the GA to establish a judicial body because the GA enjoys no judicial authority under the Charter.”
Since Wikipedia gives Dr. Boyle’s resume thus:
A professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.[1] Boyle received a A.B. (1971) in Political Science from the University of Chicago, then a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Political Science from Harvard University. He also practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould,”
I think it would be safe to say that the activist professor is not incompetent but extraordinarily competent.
That being the case, it would also be safe to infer that “propaganda” or “chicanery” remains the only cogent explanation for Dr. Boyle’s misleading public statements.
I have excerpted the texts of Dr. Boyle’s two articles (on Israel in 2008 and on Lanka in 2013) to show how much of the latter is simply regurgitated.
Black text: Identical language
Red text: Lankan names substituted for Israeli names, with some additional details at the end.
Purple text: Incorrect insertion of names appropriate to the charges against Israel into the document charging Sri Lanka.
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“The United Nations General Assembly (GA) must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka (ICTSL) as a `subsidiary organ` under U.N. Charter Article 22.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a ‘subsidiary organ’ under U.N. Charter Article 22.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“and organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“The purpose of the ICTSL would be to investigate and prosecute Sri Lanka war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine“
Lila: Notice the careless insertion of the wrong countries’ names into a boiler-plate “genocide” denunciation.
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“–just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“The establishment of ICTSL would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Sri Lanka`s war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Tamil people in North-East–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans-“
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine–just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“Furthermore, the establishment of ICTSL by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Sri Lanka`s political leaders such as Sri Lanka`s President Mahinda Rajapakse, his sibling and Defense Secretary, Gothabaya Rajapakse, another brother and minister for Development, Basil Rajapakse, Military Commander Sarath Fonseka and other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Tamils from the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Foreign Minister Livni, Defense Minister Barak , Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and Israel’s other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.”
FRANCIS BOYLE ON LANKA, 2013
“Without such a deterrent, Sri Lanka will likely continue the cultural genocide including forced colonization, grabbing land from Tamil civilians, and militarization of day-to-day life and engaging the military in civilian affairs.
FRANCIS BOYLE ON ISRAEL, 2008
“Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as ‘low-hanging fruit’ ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria’s defense.”