In association with the International Commission of Jurists

June 2005

14 Jun

In a response to my earlier post on Ikenberry’s views on progressive versus conservative foreign policy thinking, an anonymous commenter wrote:I don't buy either Ikenberry's superficial presentation in this post, or the underlying superiority of the liberal order as defined as "commitment to multilateralism and rules-based relations," which again is simplistic in the extreme. Clinton wanted to build "liberal" order?...

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14 Jun

If (1) Justice Breyer thinks reference to foreign law is appropriate to understand structural guarantees; and (2) Congress is constitutionally authorized to regulate the jurisdiction of federal courts; then (3) Justice Breyer should rely on foreign law to shed light on this structural power.If this syllogism is correct, then I suppose that if (1) a foreign constitution grants the legislature...

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13 Jun

I teach international trade and my students have often struggled to understand Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage. They should visit Bangalore.The modern era of free trade is premised on Ricardo’s theory, which presumes that each country should specialize in the production of the goods and services in which it has a comparative advantage and then trade with other countries for...

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13 Jun

John Ikenberry has a great post over at America Abroad entitled “Democratic Enlargement versus Liberal Order.” I think it neatly contrasts the world views of conservatives and liberal internationalists (and by “liberal” I don’t mean “left wing”). I'll write on this more in the coming days. For now, here’s a few excerpts from Ikenberry's post (but the...

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12 Jun

On June 3, the United States issued its 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report and demoted from Tier 2 to Tier 3 some of our closest allies in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. This opens these Gulf allies to U.S. sanctions if they do not improve their record in human trafficking.For a useful discussion of...

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11 Jun

While on the train to Bangalore this morning I read an especially bad op-ed piece in the Hindu on what is wrong with the United States. Money quote:"After the invasion of Iraq, the collective punishment of Fallujah, the abuses of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram, the reckless insistence on the right to pollute the planet and the systematic asset-stripping of...

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10 Jun

Suzanne Nossel over at Democracy Arsenal has posted this excellent analysis about why the US House of Representatives' current move (voted out of the International Relations Committee Wednesday) to condition or withhold US dues to the UN will be counter-productive. It includes a lot of detail about the US dues crisis of the late 1990s and how then-US Ambassador to...

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09 Jun

I have long found it curious that those who favor constitutional comparativism often fail to appreciate the particular cultural distinctives that imbue different legal systems. It is rare that comparative scholars will outline those differences, many of whom wish to deny that they exist or diminish their importance.It was therefore of great interest to me today when I came across...

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08 Jun

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in his new book The World is Flat, argues that the global playing field is being leveled and that as a result the world is now flat. He argues that, “it is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on a more equal...

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07 Jun

There have been numerous posts on Opinio Juris concerning how it may be time to reconsider the role of the ICJ. One recent comment to the blog and another “out in the real world” provide a good counterpoint to this whole discussion.Dr. Cesare Romano of NYU has posted an insightful comment to an earlier post on whether the ICJ needs...

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07 Jun

According to the ILO, today in the world there are 20 million people (i.e., the population of Texas) who are currently in bonded labor. Bonded labor is a variation of forced labor that is little discussed and only vaguely understood by most Westerners. In its typical manifestation, bonded labor occurs when credit is advanced to an impoverished person and then...

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