Bolivia’s President Evo Morales announced today the nationalization of Bolivia’ oil industry:In a May Day speech, he said foreign energy firms must agree to channel all their sales through the Bolivian state, or else leave the country. He set the firms a six-month deadline, but the military and state energy officials have already started taking control of the oil fields. Although...
This seems to be cryptography’s breakout year. First we hAd all that FISA fun, then the breathleSs anticipation of the movIe release of the Da Vinci Code, and now the Smithy Code! Yes, Friends, it seems that Judge Smith, the witty High Court judge presiding over the recent U.K. copyright infringement trial against Da Vinci Code author Dan brown, has...
Frequent contributor Patrick O’Donnell has given me a heads-up that Brian Urquhart, the former Under-Secretary General of the U.N., has a review essay in the current New York Review of Books on recent books related to international law. He discusses two different editions of Philippe Sands’ Lawless World, Michael Byers’ new book on the law of the use of force...
The recent visit of Hu Jintao to the U.S. highlights an interesting game of mirrors being played by the U.S., China, the EU and others concerning the norms of good behavior of members of the international community. A few months ago, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick called on China to be a “responsible stakeholder” in the international system. Commentators...
Following on his visit to the U.S., President Hu Jintao of China is visiting Africa this week—his second state visit there in three years. As is the case with many such high-profile visits, they are only the tip of the iceberg, Chinese trade and energy officials have recently put a great amount of effort into building up relations throughout Africa....
Here's a topic that you don't read about everyday: my St. John’s colleague Nelson Tebbe, who is guest blogging at Prawfsblawg, has posted about his recent work on the regulation of witchcraft in South Africa’s evolving democracy. It is an interesting mix of comparative law, democratic theory, and law and religion. (By the way, for added fun at no...
Are we planning to use tactical nukes against Iran? That is one of the topics covered in a new article by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. He describes the increasing tempo of war planning, clandestine missions in Iran, and discussions of the nuclear option: A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that...
Well, not really. The New Republic’s March 20 issue had a fascinating article on what happened when some well-meaning college students tried to raise money to provide assistance to Darfur. They didn’t want to just ship off some food aid but wanted to provide protection for women who were being preyed upon. They start a group called...
The American and British families of victims of Irish Republican Army bombings are preparing to sue Libya and Col. Khaddafi in a class action in U.S. federal court. The suit will cover ten different bombings, all of which were believed to have used Semtex explosive supplied by Libya. More on this as the case progresses. ...
Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London is in negotiations to provide insurance for nascent space tour provider Virgin Galactic. According to the Lloyd’s site, Bruno Ritchie, director of the aerospace division at Hiscox Global Markets, says that insurance is likely to be sought for the hull value of the spacecraft, with the price of cover dependent on the safety and reliability of the venture...
In case anyone is interested in the latest efforts to combat the financing of terrorism, I wanted to let you know that I will be moderating a panel tomorrow on this topic. The symposium (sponsored by the New York International Law Review, the International Law and Practice Section of the New York State Bar Association and St. John’s University...
Chapman University Law School will host a conference this Thursday and Friday entitled “Are We At War?” The Conference will be webcast at http://www.chapman.edu/law/symposiums/areweatwar2006.asp. Following is Chapman’s conference description and the Agenda: Are We at War?: Conference Preview Are we “at war”? In what ways does it matter how we classify, describe or justify today’s global conflicts: as a global war, as several separate and distinct...
