In association with the International Commission of Jurists

February 2013

12 Feb

Neither the arbitral tribunal's order demanding Ecuador act to stop enforcement of the $18 Billion judgment against Chevron, nor Ecuador's continued brazen refusal to follow the order is really much a surprise. The Chevron-Ecuador Death Cage Match continues unabated and has gotten so out of control that almost nothing shocks me about this case anymore.  A former Ecuadorian judge swearing...

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12 Feb

In doing research on Aung San Suu Kyi, I recently came across this wonderful discussion from 2005 on the role of the intellectual in society. It comes in the form of a dialogue with Alan Clements in his book, The Voice of Hope: Aung San Suu Kyi: Conversations with Alan Clements. Clements: I brought with me a...

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12 Feb

North Korea carried out its third-ever successful nuclear test, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, among others, condemned the act as a violation of several Security Council resolutions. The Sudanese government signed a Qatar-sponsored ceasefire with a splinter Darfur rebel group, in an attempt to revive a stalled peace process to end a decade-long conflict. Rebels have captured Syria's biggest hydro-electric dam and...

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11 Feb

Andrew Sullivan raises the stakes on the legal effect of the Pope's retirement decision. As the Pope emeritus, can he now be sued in connection with his role in the sex abuses cases against the Catholic Church?  I can already see a lot of problems such a suit would present, and I am writing on the go today, but what...

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11 Feb

Syrian opposition leader Mouaz al-Khatib has said he is willing to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad's representatives in rebel-held areas of northern Syria to try to end the conflict that has killed more than 60,000 people. The UN reports that up to 5,000 people are fleeing Syria per day. The British government intensified its campaign to stop Scotland from leaving the United Kingdom, publishing a...

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11 Feb

I know we normally announce call for papers in a group, but I want to highlight a particularly exciting new journal from Oxford University Press, the London Review of International Law.  As you'll see, the editors are both distinguished and innovative; I'm sure the journal will prove to be both, as well.  I hope readers will consider submitting to it. Call...

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10 Feb

 Calls for Papers The 21st Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (‘ANZSIL’) will take place from Thursday, 4 July 2013 to Saturday, 6 July 2013 at The Australian National University, Canberra with the theme of "Accountability and International Law" The conference will be hosted by the Centre for International and Public Law, ANU College of Law. The Conference Organizing Committee now invites...

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09 Feb

This week on Opinio Juris, Duncan started us off by discussing privileges and immunities for diplomats and posed the question of what the public should know in cases like DWIs. His next post offered a discussion of the Native American mutual defense treaty involving the Tar Sands Projects. Kevin weighed in this week on affairs at the ICC, including this post...

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08 Feb

Noam Lubell and Nathan Derejko, both at the University of Essex, have posted "A Global Battlefield? Drones and the Geographical Scope of Armed Conflict" on SSRN. The essay will appear in the same Journal of International Criminal Justice symposium as my essay on signature strikes. Their abstract is all of one sentence, so here are the first couple of paragraphs: Defining...

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08 Feb

I have posted on SSRN my latest article, "Ancillary Discovery to Prove Denial of Justice" just published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. It analyzes Section 1782 discovery proceedings in the context of BIT arbitration and argues that there is now uniform agreement among federal courts that investment arbitration panels are "international tribunals" within the meaning of Section...

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08 Feb

Syrian troops are battling rebels around Damascus, trying to halt their advance on the capital. The ICC has demanded the extradition of Libya’s Abdullah al-Senussi to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity under Gaddafi’s regime. A UN survey has found that more than $3.9 billion was paid out in bribes in Afghanistan in 2012, amounting to more than double...

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