Is US Cooperation With The UN Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda Unconstitutional?

Abstract

On December 17, 1997 US Magistrate Marcel Notzon in Laredo, Texas stunned the US State Department and human rights advocates around the world by ruling that the congressional legislation enabling the US government to surrender or extradite indicted fugitives to the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was unconstitutional (1). The State Department had asked a Federal District Court in Texas to permit the surrender of Rwandan Elizaphan Ntakirutimana to the ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania where he had been indicted on several counts of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity.