Here's a fun game everyone can play. Take five minutes (and no more than five minutes) to list the five most important treaties ever. By "important" I mean in terms of historical significance--i.e., their impact on human history. Thus, despite the views of some, focus on what the treaty did (or did not) do, rather than its potential. This, I think,...
I had the good fortune to be invited to lecture to Jack Goldsmith's class on Cyberwar and Cybercrime at Harvard Law School last week to discuss my arguments for why we need new international law rules for cyberconflicts. While there, a student flagged for me a new journal--the Harvard National Security Journal--that's literally and figuratively coming on-line right now. Here's how their web-page...
It's Day 2 of the First Ever! (people keep emphasizing this) joint ASIL-ESIL Research Forum. Jan Klabbers who seems the chief (but by no means the only) organizer has done Helsinki proud in terms of the site and the conference structure. It's been a remarkably solid event; unlike ASIL all the speakers were required to submit abstracts AND papers as the...
Well, I don't know that for sure yet -- I only just got in from the airport an hour ago. But it sure is beautiful this time of year. I am here for what looks to be a great conference -- the first academic forum (i.e., workshop) jointly organized by the American Society of International Law and the European Society...
IntLawGrrls has a new project going titled, Experts at Law. Here's how they describe it: Organized by field of expertise, this series of posts aims to provide easily accessible information to conference organizers, media, and others who seek expert opinions on a variety of subjects while ensuring gender balance. The list below provides institutional affiliations for, as well as links to,...
Adjudicating Europe, a new blog dedicated to EU law, has just launched. Here's how the editors describe it: EU Law, despite its expansion and maturity, has not yet developed a comparable blogsphere of its own. Languages, the vastness of its scope, or a tendency to work and discuss inside national communities, have probably influenced this lack of blogging culture among EU...
Joel Trachtman, whose book with my colleague Jeff Dunoff on Ruling the World is just out, also has a new paper on the relationship of domestic political coalitions and compliance with international law. Of course, compliance theory has taken a strong hold in international law (and international relations) scholarship of late. For the most part, however, that work has had...
As Ken noted, Eric Posner has responded to my question on whether 1Ls should take international law with an emphatic "No!" In fact (and perhaps not surprisingly given his scholarly positions) Eric's not very keen on law students taking international law courses at all; he advises them to take statistics instead. Eric does concede that international law belongs in the...
I started teaching my introductory course to international law this week. I've got nearly 80 upper-level students, which is a pretty good number considering that an equal if not greater number of students had the opportunity this past spring to take international law as a first year elective. Nor is Temple alone in moving international law into the first year...
Yesterday, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission awarded final damage awards for the fifteen partial and final awards on liability it rendered between July 1, 2003 and December 19, 2005. You can access the damages decisions for Eritrea here, and those for Ethiopia here. According to the AP, both sides will accept the awards, but neither is apparently thrilled with...
A few weeks ago, a regular reader asked why we don't do more with private international law/conflicts of law matters here at Opinio Juris. I'm not sure I had a good answer. Certainly, those who follow these topics already have some resources to turn to, most notably the European-based Conflicts of Law.Net blog. But these are important topics, and those who follow international...
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative frequently does impressive work; witness the U.S. WTO victory this week over China. But when it comes to openness and transparency, USTR's efforts do not have the same shine; this is an agency notorious for its resistance to traditional inter-agency procedures (e.g., the C-175 procedure), let alone opening up its work to the public eye. So, I...
