Milosevic can’t call Blair, Schroeder to testify, ICTY rules News
Milosevic can’t call Blair, Schroeder to testify, ICTY rules

[JURIST] Judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website] on Friday decided [decision text; press release] that they will not issue subpoenas for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [official website] and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder [BBC profile] ordering them to testify as witnesses in the Slobodan Milosevic trial [JURIST news archive] as the former Yugoslav president had requested. Milosevic wanted the two leaders to testify that he was a peacemaker in the Kosovo conflict to help defend against charges [ICTY case backgrounder] of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Balkans in the 1990s. Milosevic has also asked for other high profile witness [JURIST report], including Bill Clinton and retired US general Wesley Clark, who were leaders during NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to stop Serbian repression in Kosovo. Lawyers appointed to help Milosevic conduct his defense told the ICTY that both Blair and Schroeder possess necessary information regarding the Kosovo charges. The court determined, however, that calling Blair and Schroeder as witnesses was not warranted in the case. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.