Francis Boyle

For other persons named Francis Boyle, see Francis Boyle (disambiguation).

Francis Anthony Boyle (born 1950) is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law[1]. Boyle received a J.D. degree magna cum laude and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Harvard University. He also practiced tax and international tax with Bingham, Dana & Gould.

Background and Legal Work

Professor Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine. He also represents two associations of citizens within Bosnia and has been instrumental in developing the indictment against Slobodan Milosevic for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Professor Boyle is Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, conducting its legal affairs on a worldwide basis. Over his career, he has represented national and international bodies including the Blackfoot Nation (Canada), the Nation of Hawaii, and the Lakota Nation, as well as numerous individual death penalty and human rights cases. He has advised numerous international bodies in the areas of human rights, war crimes and genocide, nuclear policy, and bio-warfare. From 1991-92, Professor Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations. He also has served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, as well as a consultant to the American Friends Services Committee, and on the Advisory Board for the Council for Responsible Genetics. He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

Activism and Views

Amnesty International

As member of the board of Amnesty International USA at the end of the 1980s/early 1990s, he claimed that Amnesty International USA acted in ways closely related to United States and United Kingdom foreign policy interests. He stated that Amnesty, along with other human rights organisations in the US, failed to sufficiently criticise the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in Lebanon. Boyle stated his suspicion that the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, based geographically in London, UK, was also subject to this bias. He attributes the alleged links between Amnesty International and US and UK foreign policy interests to the relatively large financial contribution of Amnesty International USA to AI's international budget, which he estimated at 20%. Boyle also stated that Amnesty international was instrumental in publicizing the "Iraqi soldiers dumping children from incubators in Kuwait" hoax. Boyle also claimed that aspects of organisational continuity and survival came ahead of human rights aims in Amnesty International. He stated "Amnesty International is primarily motivated not by human rights but by publicity. Second comes money. Third comes getting more members. Fourth, internal turf battles. And then finally, human rights, genuine human rights concerns."

US Foreign Policy since 9/11

Boyle is a harsh critic of the Foreign Policy of former American President George W. Bush. In 2007, Boyle denounced the "ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by the Bush Jr. administration and its nefarious foreign accomplices in allied governments such as in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Georgia, etc." He also stated that the Bush administration "would welcome the outbreak of a Third World War" and "is fully prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons against Muslim and Arab states and peoples." He also stated that American treatment of Muslims and Arabs since the attacks of September 11, 2001 is "almost to the same extent that America inflicted upon the Japanese and Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor." He concluded his speech by calling on American lawyers to "lead the fight against the Bush Jr. dictatorship."

Hawaii

In 1993, Boyle gave a speech in which he called for Hawaiian independence from the United States.

In December 2004, Boyle stated that the United States is illegally occupying the state of Hawaii and has encouraged Native Hawaiians to press for independence and, if necessary, unilaterally proclaim their own state. In a three-hour speech entitled "The Restoration of Hawaii's Independence," Boyle claimed that the United States has conceded it unlawfully occupied the Kingdom of Hawaii and that fact alone "gives the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) the entitlement to restore their independent status as a sovereign nation state." Boyle argued that, like the Palestinians, Hawaiians should "exercise their right of self-determination," instead of asking the permission for it. Boyle stated that "the plight of the Hawaiian people is generally well known in the world and there's a great deal of sympathy." He concluded his speech by stating that "Hawaii should send the strongest message to Washington it can. Letters carry no weight. The number of people in the street do. Ghandi threw the mighty British out of India with peaceful, nonviolent force. People power, submit to it."

Iran

Boyle has urged Iran to sue the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague in order to discourage a military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and prevent the imposition of new sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. He has also offered to represent Iran and recommended that Iran begin drafting lawsuits for presentation to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In May 2008, Boyle offered to "represent Iran in an international tribunal for trying the Zionist regime on charges of genocide of Palestinians", and reportedly demanded that his proposal be submitted to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Israel

Boyle is a harsh critic of Israel and American foreign policy towards Israel. In January 2009, Boyle wrote that "Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948... Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much touted “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide."

External resources

• Dennis Bernstein's interview with Francis Boyle
• Francis Boyle's Faculty Webpage
• Francis Boyle's statement on Hawaiian Independence
• Francis Boyle's interview with Bill O'Reilly
• Francis Boyle discusses the Bill O'Reilly interview and the War in Afghanistan
• Francis A. Boyle. Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, review of his book by Ghada Talhami, Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Summer, 2003

Audio

• Radio interview by Robert W. McChesney on UIC Media Mattersprogram December 23, 2007.

sv:Francis Boyle