The NYT has an article today discussing negotiations between the President and Congress on revisions to pending bilateral free-trade agreements. The new Democratic Congress is pushing for greater protection of labor rights in those trade agreements with Panama, Peru, and Colombia. I'm far from an expert on labor rights in trade agreements, but I do find a couple...
UCLA is hosting a great conference this afternoon and tomorrow on nuclear weapons in the new century. I will be attending and will provide you with details after the conference. Speakers will include former Secretary of Defense William Perry, the current Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Robert Joseph, among other luminaries. The topics...
Apparently, the Bush Administration forgot to tell the Pentagon that global warming is nothing more than a hoax perpetrated by the Left:Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities...
On Sunday, a Taliban ambush on a U.S. convoy in Afghanistan left approximately 10 civilians dead and dozens wounded. It is unclear who is responsible for many of the deaths — and not surprisingly, the U.S military and witnesses are giving very different accounts of the incident:A suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled minivan as the American convoy approached, then...
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 86 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and another 26 are abolitionist in practice. Virtually every western industrial democracy except the United States has abolished capital punishment. What explains the sharp contrast between U.S. and international attitudes about the death penalty? In brief, I contend that the...
Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome Professor David Sloss as a guest blogger for the next week. Professor Sloss will be familiar to many of our regular readers as a prior contributor and commentator. He teaches a range of international and domestic law subjects at Saint Louis University Law School, and his recent scholarship has focused on foreign relations...
I have written before about the Bush Administration's war on attorneys who defend individuals accused of terrorism. (See here and here.) A new front has now been opened in that war, with the chief U.S. military prosecutor accusing Major Michael Mori, who is representing David Hicks — the Australian scheduled to be the first GITMO detainee tried by...
Reading this post by a former Washington Times reporter is a bit like rubber-necking while driving by an accident. The spectacle is ugly and yet...
One day I will be able to fly a foreign airline like Lufthansa from New York to Seattle. That day is not quite here yet, but (hopefully) it's getting closer. The U.S. and the E.U. announced a long-sought "open skies" agreement Friday that should allow EU based airlines to fly anywhere in the U.S. (and vice versa). Prior...
A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld the use of the "state secrets privilege" to dismiss lawsuit brought by a German national. The underlying lawsuit, brought by Khaled El-Masri in U.S. federal court, alleged that he had been kidnapped by U.S. CIA agents and rendered to a third country for interrogation and torture. The appeals court, like the...
Although it is still unclear whether cluster munitions violate Additional Protocol I's prohibition of attacks that "employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective," Belgium — so often on the cutting edge of international criminal law — isn't waiting to find out. On Thursday, the Belgian Senate passed a law that...
As someone who is interested in the crime of aggression, I was appalled to learn of Switzerland's recent invasion of Liechtenstein. I can only hope that the responsible individuals are punished appropriately:What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring...
