Justice Ginsburg recently gave an interesting speech on the topic of the role of dissenting opinions. In the speech, she briefly compared the differences between common law and civil law traditions in the drafting of decisions that I think deserves some discussion: Our practice of revealing dissents, it bears emphasis, is hardly universal. In the civil law tradition that holds...
Will it be a Happy Halloween for fans of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNLCOS)? I'm guessing yes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee appears poised to report out the treaty favorably for a full Senate vote on giving advice and consent to U.S. accession to the treaty. You can listen to...
I want to post a public thanks to all who contributed to the great success of International Law Weekend which wrapped up on Saturday. My co-chairs Hari Osofsky, Nancy Thevenin and Patrick Reed, as well as the President of the American Branch of ILA, Charles Siegal, (who really was the fifth co-chair) deserve kudos, along with our terrific Organizing...
First there's this screed in Human Events, now this editorial from the more mainstream conservative mouthpiece National Review accusing Bush of being in the thrall of transnational progressives ("tranzis," for short). Coming out against ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty, NR asks: why the Adminstration support for it?Well, it seems to be part of a pattern. That...
The International Carbon Action Partnership was launched yesterday in Lisbon. The effort comprises an initiativeto create an international forum of governments and public authorities that are engaged in the process of designing or implementing carbon markets. ICAP will establish an expert forum to discuss relevant questions on the design, compatibility and potential linkage of regional carbon markets. The forum...
Since I last raised negotiations over the EU Reform Treaty, the Europeans have kept themselves quite busy. Early in October, lawyers agreed to a text. Then on October 18-19, the EU Council of Ministers hammered out a few last minute changes to the deal (e.g., moving the updated Charter of Human Rights into a side document) and setting...
Well, not actually moving it, so much as opening a branch in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. Following in the tradition of the Guggenheim, which now has five locations worldwide, with a sixth planned for Abu Dhabi, the French Government has concluded an international agreement with the UAE Government for the opening of a museum with...
Readers who are interested in international affairs — "at the highest level of generality," according to the title — would do well to check out The Grand Strategy Blog. Here is the blog's self-description:TGSB is a collaborative and non-partisan site dedicated to the study of international relations. The goal of this enterprise is to improve our understanding of major...
This is a wonderful story:For the first time, Yad Vashem will inaugurate an exhibition this week on Muslims who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The exhibition, which opens on Thursday, focuses on more than a dozen of the scores of Muslim Albanians previously recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" - the Holocaust center's highest honor - for risking their lives to...
I have posted to SSRN a substantially revised version of my forthcoming article Transnational Tribunals and the Transmission of Norms: The Hegemony of Process. Transnational tribunals, which I define as dispute resolution mechanisms that allow nonstate actors such as individuals and companies to sue states for alleged infringements of their rights, include regimes as disparate as ICSID arbitrations and the...
Last weekend I had the great privilege to meet Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus. His speech (which you can watch here) was one of the most inspirational messages I have heard in years. He received several standing ovations and many in the audience were moved to tears. I brought my children to the speech and explained...
I was shocked — to say the least — when I read Roger's post on the extremely important Khulumani case. With due respect to the Second Circuit, Judge Katzman's analysis of the mens rea of aiding and abetting under customary international law is completely incorrect. Although I can see how a judge who is not familiar with international...
