By Björn Elberling

Two counts of navel-gazing in one post: First of all, I would like to welcome our new co-bloggers to the Invisible College. I am looking forward to reading your perspectives and to hopefully many interesting discussion.

Second, I want to shamelessly abuse my posting privileges for some self-promotion: On the occasion of the re-start of the Karadzic trial at the ICTY, the Hague Justice Portal has published a short comment by yours truly on the accused’s defense woes. (Full disclosure: I clerked with the Karadzic defense team in the summer of 2009).

The comment focuses on the imposition of standby counsel (particularly the selection of that counsel) and the funding of the team assigned to assist Dr. Karadzic in his self-representation. In my view, both aspects show the ICTY dealing with self-represented accused in a very unfortunate manner. In the conclusion, I propose what might be a rather “German” remedy to some of the troubles that courts and/or accused have had in the context of self-representation.

And to tie the two aspects of this post together, the comment even contains a link to new co-blogger Dov’s other blog 🙂

By the way, to those interested in international justice developments in The Hague who do not know the Hague Justice Portal yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s a great site to keep up-to-date on what’s happening at the international courts and tribunals in The Hague, including – I’m assuming this might be relevant for a lot of our readers – international law-related vacancy and internship announcements.

What it does not offer yet, alas, is a comment function, so if readers have comments on the paper or on the Karadžiæ trial more generally speaking, I’d love for you to leave a comment here on the blog.