11 July 2018 - NPWJ News Digest on International Criminal Justice

South Africa: Pretoria Backtracks on ICC Withdrawal Threat
by All Africa, 10 Jul 2018

In what appears to be an extraordinary about-turn, International Relations Minister Lindiwe Sisulu last week hinted that the government might reconsider the controversial decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Legalbrief reports that SA's threat to dismantle its own international criminal justice framework over the Omar al-Bashir debacle, sent shockwaves across the continent.

Sisulu did not mention former President Jacob Zuma by name, but said the ICC withdrawal decision was taken ‘under the previous administration’. She said it was back on Cabinet's agenda. 
 

Trump Picked Kavanaugh. How Will He Change the Supreme Court? Top legal thinkers weigh the record of Brett Kavanaugh, the likely replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy.
by Politico, 09 Jul 2018

In the end, President Donald Trump made the expected choice: Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative jurist who has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit since 2006. Kavanaugh, a former clerk to the retiring Anthony Kennedy, has a sterling reputation in conservative legal circles, and a record to match.
In his remarks announcing his pick, Trump suggested he had chosen Kavanaugh for his originalist conception of the law -- a philosophy more in keeping with the late Antonin Scalia than with the more activist Kennedy. “What matters is not a judge’s political views but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require,” the president said. Kavanaugh reinforced that idea in his own comments, remarking, “A judge must be independent and must interpret the law, not make the law.”
But how will Kavanaugh rule once he’s actually on the bench? We asked top legal thinkers to evaluate his record -- and tell us how he might change America’s highest court.