The transitional government of Somalia announced yesterday that it has agreed to allow U.S. Navy vessels to enter Somali waters to pursue and capture pirates seeking refuge there. Last month, such pirates seized a South Korean fishing vessel and crew and escaped a joint U.S.-Dutch naval force by heading for Somalia. Given the rather anarchic nature of...
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday and several of the prizes recognized subjects of international concern. Here they are: Explanatory Reporting: David Finkel of the Washington Post for "his ambitious, clear-eyed case study of the United States government's attempt to bring democracy to Yemen."Beat Reporting: Dana Priest of the Washington Post for "her persistent, painstaking reports on secret...
U.N. officials are blaming (who else?) the U.S. for blocking its plan to begin renovating U.N. headquarters in NY. According to the NYT, the U.S. is blocking the disbursement of $100 million in funds to launch the project, which is expected to cost $1.6 billion. The article certainly makes it seem like the U.S. is being a bit...
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously passed Resolution 1664, which calls for Kofi Annan to begin negotiating with the Lebanese government to establish an international tribunal that would try the individuals responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in May, 2005. Annan has suggested to the Security Council that the tribunal...
The Supreme Court denied cert. today in the case of Schneider v. Kissinger, a case involving a claim that Henry Kissinger, CIA Director Richard Helms, and the United States were liable for the Chilean coup led by Augusto Pinochet that deposed Salvador Allende. According to the D.C. Circuit opinion, the "complaint alleged that in 1970 the leader of the Chilean...
The tax man cometh. The overwhelming majority of us will dutifully pay our taxes today, perhaps with reservations, but not with actual resistance. For most I suspect income taxes are viewed as a regrettable but inevitable part of modern life. But as noted in various news reports, a small percentage will refuse to pay a portion of...
One of the enduring puzzles for international law and international relations scholars is determining when and why states resort to international dispute settlement and when and why they don't. Last week, a tribunal constituted under the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a decision delimiting the maritime boundary between Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, thus (partially) settling a long-time dispute between...
Last week, the Appellate Body of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body issued a ruling finding that the U.S. government improperly calculated the level of duties it imposed on Canadian lumber, in the long-running never-ending struggle between U.S. and Canadian lumber producers. The gist of this dispute is that the U.S. is claiming the right to impose duties on Canadian lumber on...
In his first Easter address, Pope Benedict XVI called on the international community to bring relief and security in Africa, peace in Iraq and in the Holy Land, assistance to the Palestinians, recognition of Israel, a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran, and an end to the threat of terrorism. If one wanted to identify the top...
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were 762 active hate groups in the US as of 2004, ranging from neo-Nazis to the KKK to black separatists. To date, however, the Department of Homeland Security has not issued a single Homeland Security Assessment warning us about one of those groups. It has, however, just issued the following...
In addition to my treaties obsession, I seem to be spending more and more time each year following the U.S. national pasttime – baseball. This year, in addition to the on-the-field action, attention has swirled around the question of doping – who used steroids to amplify their physical performance, when did they use it, and what should baseball do about...
I want to recommend a wonderful book written by a dear friend and occasional collaborator, Brandt Goldstein. As the title indicates, it's the remarkable — and true — story of how a group of students at Yale Law School and Harold Koh shut down Guantanamo Bay in the early 1990s, when it was being used to illegally detain a group...
