Libya trial
It looks like Libya has freed the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor in an interesting political deal that, at least according to the NYTimes, seems to fit in with Libya’s legal code. It seems clear that it was the extensive and ongoing political pressure, Libya’s attempts at “rejoin[ing] the international community”, and whatever chips were offered to Libya (including Cold War debt forgiveness), instead of true legal arguments, that led to the releases. But of course, that is perhaps not any different than anywhere else (in a realist mood today), but this will certainly be an interesting case study in IL, international pressure, “soft power” and the like. With respect to IL, it will be interesting to see if there was much reference to IL at all, either in the trial or during this release (I have not been following the case closely), or if this was kept in the “domestic” legal realm but subjected to outside pressures for this outcome. Seems to be very worthy of an article, or at least a note.
