As Zacarias Moussaoui was escorted from the courtroom today following the jury’s verdict, he declared “America you lost, I won!” “America you lost, I won!” What an odd declaration. But in a strange way he is right. He won. But not what he thinks he won. What did he win? Well, he won...
One of my earliest encounters with international law was in graduate school when I studied the use of international legal discourse in the 1895 U.S. crisis with Great Britain over the Venezuela/British Guyana boundary line. In researching the U.S. diplomatic statements of the time, I discovered John Bassett Moore’s 8 volume, Digest of International Law. From it, I quickly learned...
Cesare Romano, currently of NYU (moving to Loyola-LA this summer) and the Project on International Courts and Tribunals, and Lenore Jones Peretto of Duke University have launched the African International Courts and Tribunals Website. Following the format of the amazingly comprehensive PICT website, this is a terrific resource for all transnational courts in the region, including the ICTR and...
Ken Anderson has an interesting article responding to Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner's book, The Limits of International Law. Anderson largely resonates with Goldsmith and Posner, but argues for the incorporation of values into the interest-based analysis. "In order for the Goldsmith and Posner theory to have content therefore, it requires some limit on the meaning of...
My vote for the most important international case for the month of April is the Canadian softwood lumber case. The case was one of the largest and oldest trade disputes in U.S. history, a dispute that spawned over 20 different litigations in multipla fora, spanned over two decades, and had over $5 billion at issue. The dispute threatened to dramatically...
It’s a busy time of year for international lawyers. For those of us who work as academics, we’re busy writing and grading exams. For those working for governments, international organizations and NGOs, the spring season of treaty negotiations and meetings is in full swing. This week, for example, negotiators and other interested stakeholders are in Geneva for the Second Conference...
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales announced today the nationalization of Bolivia’ oil industry:In a May Day speech, he said foreign energy firms must agree to channel all their sales through the Bolivian state, or else leave the country. He set the firms a six-month deadline, but the military and state energy officials have already started taking control of the oil fields. Although...
Check out these current and historical photos over at Slate honoring International Workers Day, which, despite its origins in the US, is not celebrated here. But it is still a holiday in many countries. And it is no coincidence that today was chosen to be boycott day (El Gran Paro Americano) for US immigrants. Whether your sympathies lie...
