Military Commissions and Tribunals Established by Law

Given our examination this week of the Tadic decision's consideration of the question of whether general principles of international law require that a tribunal be "established by law", it is apt that we give some thought to whether the military commissions trying detainees in Guantanamo Bay are sufficiently "established by law" to satisfy the requirements of the principle (links to further critiques of the commissions on Opinio Juris can be found here, here and here). We will discuss these military commissions in more detail later in the course, but we should remember then, the general principle discussed in Tadic.