Stranger things have happened. The Carnegie Council's Ethics & International Affairs, a quarterly journal with consistently thoughtful interdisciplinary material, has this essay in its summer issue by Campbell Craig on the resurgence of the idea of world government. Craig finds three strands in recent thinking on the question, which basically boil down to why, how and and whether. The ''why' will...
Senators Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman have a joint commentary in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (July 14, 2008), promoting a federal law to discourage so-called “libel tourism." Libel tourism refers to the practice of a plaintiff suing for libel in a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction – i.e., the UK – and then seeking to have the judgment enforced in US and other...
I appreciate Kevin's thoughtful and evenhanded assessment of the ICC Prosecutor's complex decision to seek the arrest of Sudan's president. There are indeed good arguments both for and against the ICC Prosecutor's move. I'm torn myself. I have articulated many times before my skepticism of the ICC's effectiveness in helping to end the violence or even to bring justice for Darfur....
I missed Bastille Day celebrations in Paris on Monday – got on a plane back to DC early in the morning. But let me extend my best wishes on Bastille Day to all our French readers. And everyone else, too. My friend BP, a magazine editor in France, commented at dinner the other night that the thing about America and...
My thanks for Chris' generous introduction, and I want to say how honored I am to join the team at Opinio Juris. I have followed it closely from its first days, and have watched with admiration as it has grown into the amazing blog it is today. The migration to the new format is just a part of that -...
In conjunction with the announcement of our new partnership with Oxford University Press, Opinio Juris is pleased to roll out our redesigned site. A lot of hard work has gone into the redesign and we want to thank Seth Elalouf of Spacesuit Group Design for his technical and design support during our migration to a new hosting platform and...
The Sudanese government is not very happy with the Prosecutor's decision to indict Bashir. Indeed, Sudan's ambassador to the UN has said that the government intends to ask the Security Council to block the prosecution, describing any attempt to arrest Bashir as "an act of war." Such belligerent rhetoric is expected from such a belligerent regime. Many opponents of the Sudanese...
I have been going back-and-forth with myself about the wisdom of indicting Bashir for genocide. I continue to believe that the move is a risky one in the short term, given the likelihood that the Sudanese government will respond to the indictment with violence against the peacekeepers and the humanitarian workers in the country. Nevertheless, I find the following defense...
I am grateful to be associated with this blog in so many ways: personally, because of my wonderful co-bloggers and our many invited guests; intellectually, because the blog allows me to try out new ideas and forces me to keep up with what is happening in the world; and -- yes -- professionally, because the blog exposes my ideas, often...
Oxford University Press and Opinio Juris have teamed up to re-launch this widely read and influential blog. The new site continues to provide the insight, debate and analysis that you’re used to, but has been enhanced with an easy-to-use interface and additional features. We invite you to re-discover Opinio Juris, with its contributions from leaders in the field and thought-provoking...
Besides announcing our new partnership with Oxford University Press, and debuting our new-and-improved website, we are also pleased to welcome Kenneth Anderson of American University’s Washington College of Law as the newest member on the Opinio Juris team of bloggers. Ken should be well-known to our readers. He is a scholar in areas such as international humanitarian law, international finance, and...
I mentioned last month that the ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, was considering bringing genocide charges against Sudanese officials far more senior than Ahmed Haroun, the country's "humanitarian affairs" minister. Well, he's now decided to do exactly that — and his target is no other than Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the President of Sudan himself:The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal...
