In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Julian Ku

10 Nov

Here we go again. According to Time.com, Germany's chief prosecutor will be petitioned next week to prosecute Donald Rumsfeld and various U.S. officials for "abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." (UPDATE: The petition was filed by the NY-based Center for Constitutional Rights and their background brief can be...

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08 Nov

Although this was an unusually foreign policy-focused congressional midterm election here in the States, international trade was not on any candidate's radar screen. Still, one early indicator of the new Congress' internationalist temperamant will be whether it swiftly approves Vietnam's accession to the WTO. Although the WTO General Council formally approved Vietnam's application for membership yesterday, the U.S....

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29 Oct

Last Thursday, ICJ President Roslyn Higgins Q.C. delivered a sort of "state of the ICJ" speech to the U.N. General Assembly along with the Annual Report of the ICJ. As longtime readers of this blog may recall, teasing the ICJ about its self-importance and inefficiency is a favorite hobby-horse of mine. Judge Higgins' speech and the 2005/2006 Annual Report...

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27 Oct

The Supreme Court granted certiarori today in Microsoft v. AT&T, an important and complex case involving the extraterritorial scope of U.S. patent law protections (SCOTUSBlog has the summary here). The case will revolve around the interpretation of 35 U.S.C. 271(f), which prohibits the “suppl[y] * * * from the United States * * * [of] all or a...

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27 Oct

The U.N. General Assembly's First Committee on Disarmament and International Security voted overwhelmingly yesterday to recommend the drafting of "a comprehensive, legally binding instrument establishing international standards in the trade on conventional arms." This was long expected, and the vote was a resounding 139-1, with the United States as the only country voting against the resolution (but with 24...

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26 Oct

The Rwandan government has established a commission to investigate France's possible responsibility in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. That commission heard testimony this week (see reports here and here). There are some pretty ugly allegations. The French soldiers established several communes in the former Gikongoro province, now Southern Province, on their arrival to what they called Operation Turquoise, MP Desire...

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26 Oct

The Working Party on the accession of Viet Nam to the WTO completed its discussions today in Geneva and decided to approve Vietnam's application to join. Final approval by the WTO General Council should occur before the end of the year and Vietnam would become the 150th member of the WTO, leaving only Russia, Ukraine, and Iran as the...

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25 Oct

An outfit called the Better World Campaign is circulating a survey seeking to get U.S. senatorial and congressional candidates to commit to support of the United Nations. They seem to have very little participation so far, except from candidates in very safe seats like Carolyn Maloney from NY's Upper East Side. Check for your congressional candidate's views here....

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24 Oct

Today October 24th is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the United Nations Charter entering into force in 1945. I have to admit I was ignorant of this holiday until just now. I might support it if we can get the day off, but I am unaware of any events around here that mark this date. In any event, here...

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24 Oct

Last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, John Dugard, presented his report to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly (the Committee's account of his presentation can be found here and a draft if his report here). Dugard's mandate is somewhat odd....

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