Commission of Inquiry Formed: Professor Schabas Final Commissioner Appointed

Professor William Schabas is the final commissioner to be appointed as a member of the International Commission of Inquiry in Incidents of War Crimes in the Hawaiian Islands—The Larsen Case that stems from the Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom arbitration held at the Permanent Court of Arbitration from 1999-2001. Professor Schabas was appointed by the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom and Dexter Kaiama, attorney for Lance Larsen, on October 14, 2017.

The Commission of Inquiry has been duly constituted which comprises of Professor Schabas from Middlesex University London and the University of Leiden, Professor Pierre D’Argent from the  University of Louvain and Professor Jean d’Aspremont from the University of Manchester.

In these proceedings, the Provisional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom is represented by Dr. Keanu Sai, as Agent, Professor Federico Lenzerini, Ph.D., as Deputy-Agent, and Ben Emmerson, QC, from the Matrix Chambers in London, as Counsel.

William Schabas is professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. He is also professor of international criminal law and human rights at the University of Leiden. Professor Schabas is also emeritus professor of human rights law at the National University of Ireland Galway and honorary chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, invited visiting scholar at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Politiques), honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, visiting fellow of Kellogg College of the University of Oxford, visiting fellow of Northumbria University, and professeur associé at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Prof. Schabas is a ‘door tenant’ at the chambers of 9 Bedford Row, in London.

Professor Schabas holds BA and MA degrees in history from the University of Toronto and LLB, LLM and LLD degrees from the University of Montreal, as well as honorary doctorates in law from several universities. He is the author of more than twenty books dealing in whole or in part with international human rights law, including: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: travaux préparatoires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Unimaginable Atrocities, Justice, Politics and Rights at the War Crimes Tribunals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), The International Criminal Court: A Commentary on the Rome Statute (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), Introduction to the International Criminal Court (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, 4th ed.), Genocide in International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2009) and The Abolition of the Death Penalty in International Law (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 3rd ed.). He has also published more than 350 articles in academic journals, principally in the field of international human rights law and international criminal law. His writings have been translated into Russian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Nepali and Albanian.

Professor Schabas is editor-in-chief of Criminal Law Forum, the quarterly journal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.He is President of the Irish Branch of the International Law Association and chair of the International Institute for Criminal Investigation. From 2002 to 2004 he served as one of three international members of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Professor Schabas has worked as a consultant on capital punishment for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and drafted the 2010 and 2015 reports of the Secretary-General on the status of the death penalty.

Professor Schabas was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2007. He has been awarded the Vespasian V. Pella Medal for International Criminal Justice of the Association internationale de droit pénal, and the Gold Medal in the Social Sciences of the Royal Irish Academy.

The Commission of Inquiry will hold its first hearing in Honolulu on January 16 and 17, 2018, which marks the 125th year of the United States’ invasion on the 16th, the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian government on the 17th, and the ensuing prolonged occupation since. According to Article III of the Special Agreement to form an International Commission of Inquiry:

“The Commission is requested to determine: First, what is the function and role of the Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom in accordance with the basic norms and framework of international humanitarian law; Second, what are the duties and obligations of the Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom toward Lance Paul Larsen, and, by extension, toward all Hawaiian subjects domiciled in Hawaiian territory and abroad in accordance with the basic norms and framework of international humanitarian law; and, Third, what are the duties and obligations of the Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom toward Protected Persons who are domiciled in Hawaiian territory and those Protected Persons who are transient in accordance with the basic norms and framework of international humanitarian law.”

9 thoughts on “Commission of Inquiry Formed: Professor Schabas Final Commissioner Appointed

  1. This is very exciting news! Where will the hearings be held? Who can attend? and will it be streamed online?

    Mahalo, Frank Ka‘ano‘i, Hawaiian National.

  2. “The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness.” The final King’s Crown of the Kingdom of Hawaii has 5 Christian Crosses on it, at the top and all 4 sides. If Hawaii is again to be a Kingdom it will first needs to be New Testament Christian Kingdom as commissioned by the Alii of old. And second it will need to be inclusive of all who live on the Islands in which the Hawaii Kingdom has been their only home for some years. The old gods were trashed in 1919 by the Alii for good cause before the Missionaries even arrived in 1820.

    • Ken, Hawaii never stopped being a Kingdom. The SIN of the insurgents and the United States is what created the problem. The so called Christians, Pastors and their churches including you endorsed the SIN by preaching Hawaii is part of the United States. We know what is truth and we know God’s word and how to obey it not like you and your so called Christians that use God’s name in vain. Do not preach to us how we must be all inclusive. The only thing that we and you need to do is follow the Law. We know what the law says about the occupier transferring their nationals into occupied territory. Obey it.

  3. Sorry Ken it was under all 5 or just one of those crucifixes that the Christian Churches destroyed my kanaka family determining that one church, mine, was the church of the devil which led me to believe that together they knew nothing about righteous behavior from any basis of belief. You might believe that the old gods were trashed and then mine, Akua continues to exist in my life and make certain that the “Pono” in our believe statement is still current and the one we continue to live with. If they were trashed before the missionaries arrived they could hardly have accepted a Christian ho`ailona.

  4. For those interested, here is a source of scholarship for many aspects of international law. https://www.icrc.org/en/international-review . That in trying to understand the situation faced by Hawaiians. By ‘Hawaiians” here I mean nationals of the state, the Kingdom of Hawaii, created by Hawaiians as part of their self-determination. It was a state recognized as a member of the family of nations. Of course the information has value to all. Cheers.

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