In association with the International Commission of Jurists

October 2009

19 Oct

[caption id="attachment_10134" align="alignleft" width="110" caption="Alexander Orakhelashvili"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_10102" align="alignright" width="101" caption=" "][/caption] Peremptory norms (jus cogens) form part of the core of the international legal system, and combine both public policy (public order, ordre public) and constitutional elements in the sense that they ban the legal effect of conflicting acts and transactions and prevail over conflicting norms and instruments. Both these qualities follow...

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19 Oct

[caption id="attachment_10102" align="alignright" width="61" caption=" "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_10105" align="alignleft" width="105" caption="Evan Criddle"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_10106" align="alignleft" width="97" caption="Evan Fox-Decent"][/caption] We would like to begin by thanking Opinio Juris and the Yale Journal of International Law for hosting this symposium, and Alexander Orakhelashvili for generously agreeing to act as our interlocutor. In international law, the term “jus cogens” refers to norms that are considered peremptory in the...

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19 Oct

Making Sense of Darfur will be holding an online symposium over the next few weeks dedicated to analyzing what is likely to happen in Sudan in 2010 and 2011.  Here is how it's described by Alex de Waal, with whom I rarely agree but always respect: Sudan faces two momentous events in the next fifteen months. The first is the general...

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18 Oct

(Please note that a commenter has rightly corrected me on two points, which I correct below) Former State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger (and former OJ guest blogger) spoke today at Hofstra's biennial Legal Ethics Conference.  His talk was typically engaging, honest, and interesting (it will not be news to many of our readers that Bellinger was an internal dissenter on...

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18 Oct

[caption id="attachment_10089" align="alignright" width="101" caption=" "][/caption] The Yale Journal of International Law (YJIL) is pleased to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris in our fourth online symposium (previous symposia can be found here). This Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we will feature three Articles published by YJIL in Vol. 34, No. 2, which are available for download here. Our sincere thanks to Julian...

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17 Oct

Martin Holterman and Marko Milanovic have been kind enough to respond to my post on the ICTY's attack on Dr. Karadzic's right of self-representation, so it's only fair that I respond to their responses. To begin with, Martin writes that "[g]iven the precedent of the Milosevic case, and undoubtedly many others with which I am less familiar, I think we can...

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17 Oct

OUP just sent along a review copy (note, per the FTC, free merchandise from OUP!!). The book is Rumu Sarkar, International Development Law: Rule of Law, Human Rights, & Global Finance. This isn't a review - I have only read the first chapter, and I am pretty certain I will find places both to agree and disagree.  But I am finding...

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17 Oct

As everyone in the world probably knows by now, Dr. Karadzic's trial is set to begin on October 26th.  The current trial date is the culmination of two interrelated decisions by the Tribunal: the Trial Chamber's unsurprising decision not to require the Prosecution to trim its monstrous and completely unworkable indictment (choosing instead to impose insignificant time-limits on the prosecution's...

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16 Oct

The Obama Administration is becoming famous for their Friday night news dumps (deficit reports are always on Fridays).  So here is another one sure to anger some parts of their base, but which is carefully buried while everyone is watching the Yankees beat up on the Angels. The Obama administration has formulated a new policy for Sudan that proposes working with that country’s...

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15 Oct

Wow! I know there has been some talk and some cases about an international right to internet access. But Finland has upped the ante by guaranteeing a right to high speed internet access. Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1-megabit broadband Web access a legal right, YLE, the country's national broadcasting company, reported on Wednesday. According to the report, every person...

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15 Oct

It sure looks like it, according to Bloomberg. The Pentagon is reviewing the Bush administration’s doctrine of preemptive military strikes with an eye to modifying or possibly ending it. The international environment is “more complex” than when President George W. Bush announced the policy in 2002, Kathleen Hicks, the Defense Department’s deputy undersecretary for strategy, said in an interview. “We’d really like to...

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