The Swiss have always represented an unusual blend of pro- and anti- internationalism. For instance, they only recently joined the United Nations, yet the U.N. has more offices in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe (probably). They remain a weird outlier in continental Europe, surrounded by the EU yet, as far as I know, they haven't even applied...
I thought it might be interesting to review the foreign policy platforms of some of the less mainstream candidates for the U.S. presidency. On the far "right" and "left," we do find one piece of common ground: serious and substantial skepticism of U.S. participation in international organizations. Here is an excerpt of U.S. Congressman Ron Paul's views on international...
Okay, New Zealand isn't perfect. The proof: Hell Pizza, one of the country's most successful pizza chains. The company has cornered the market in offensive advertising, with the Advertising Standards Complaints Board recently upholding complaints against the following billboard — which even I find beyond the pale: But you haven't seen anything yet. The company's most recent billboard...
OK, that's not exactly what is going on. But Canadian PM Stephen Harper did recently finish a three-day tour of the Canadian Arctic where he announced the establishment and upgrade of two new Canadian military bases in the Arctic region, one which is barely 600 km from the North Pole. Separately, he announced the deployment of six new...
Fresh from the first two decisions by the Special Court, Sierra Leone faces a critical political test today — its first elections since UN peacekeepers left the country 20 months ago:Long lines were visible at most polling stations in the capital, where voters queued up with umbrellas under drizzling rain, in some cases hours before voting booths opened. Vice President Solomon...
The Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) signed between Canada and the United States in October 2006 is headed to arbitration. As reported in a USTR press release, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that “It is truly regrettable that, just ten months after the Agreement entered into force, the United States has no choice but to initiate arbitration proceedings to...
The American Journal of International Law has posted a continuation of its "Agora" on the legal validity of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It continues an earlier Agora which was interesting and intelligent, but predictably one-sided in its relentless criticism of the MCA (thanks to the Chron of Higher Education blog for the pointer). In its continuation, the...
A federal district court has rendered an interesting memorandum opinion on whether plaintiffs in the Kenyan embassy bombing case are entitled to a jury in the determination of damages. The case also raises important questions on the applicable law in the calculation of ATS damages. Here is an excerpt from Mwani v. Bin Laden: The 523 Plaintiffs include Kenyan...
Peggy and I have noted the seeming thaw of late between the Bush administration and the ICC, citing as Exhibit 1 the US decision not to veto the Security Council resolution referring the situation in Darfur to the Court. We might have spoken too soon — according to documents obtained via FOIA by Mark Leon Goldberg, who writes about...
Joseph Raz of Oxford University has published on SSRN a short essay entitled "Human Rights Without Foundations" that is getting a lot of play, with over 150 downloads in less than a month. He offers a theory of human rights that rejects the notion that human rights must encompass universal norms and instead argues for a political approach to...
In a column that only a NYT columnist could write, Nicholas Kristof gives President Bush a 10-point plan to solve the Darfur Crisis. After noting that Condi Rice talked President Bush out of his initial instinct to send in the Marines, Kristof offers mostly sensible advice, starting with U.S. pressure to come up with a negotiated peace settlement in...
A federal district court in Washington D.C. has rendered an important decision imposing limits on the scope of terrorism claims. In Oveissi v. Iran, the court addressed an action "aris[ing] from the death of Gholam Ali Oveissi, chief of the Iranian armed forces under the Shah's pre-revolutionary government, who was gunned down on a Paris street in February 1984....
