The BBC reports that the New Zealand government and seven Maori tribes have entered into an historic agreement concerning Maori ownership of a number of forests in the North Island, where I live:The NZ$420m ($319m) agreement transfers ownership of nine forests - covering 435,000 acres (176,000 hectares) of land - in the central North Island. Hundreds of Maori, some in traditional...
WorldPublicOpinion.org has released an interesting survey of world attitudes toward torture. Here is the summary of their findings:A WorldPublicOpinion.org poll of 19 nations finds that in 14 of them most people favor an unequivocal rule against torture, even in the case of terrorists who have information that could save innocent lives. Four nations lean toward favoring an exception in...
I have blogged recently about the EU's encouraging -- if insufficient -- criticism of Italy's shameful persecution of its Roma population. On Friday, the Council of Europe added its two cents:Europe's top rights body, the Council of Europe, on Friday voiced "deep concern" at a series of recent attacks against the Roma gypsies and immigrants and their treatment in...
No, Virginia, being unanimously acquitted by an international tribunal's trial and appeals chambers doesn't mean very much:Belgium has confirmed that it was investigating Emmanuel Bagambiki, former Governor of Cyangugu during the 1994 genocide, who was acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and who is sought by Rwanda, reports Hirondelle Agency . "The federal prosecutor is looking at the...
Courtesy of Toast.com, the quiz consists of 30 questions -- 20 drawn from the U.S. citizenship test and 10 harder "curveballs." 24 is considered the minimum passing score; I scored, much to my delight, a 26. Can you do better? Hat-Tip: Americablog. ...
I see that my alma mater, Stanford, is set to formally eliminate letter grades. Beginning perhaps as early as fall, students will receive one of four marks for their work: honors, pass, restricted credit, and no credit. Stanford will be the third major law school to eliminate grades, joining Berkeley and Yale. I have nothing against the change, notwithstanding...
In what can only be described as a stunning development, Trial Chamber I has stayed Thomas Lubanga Dyilo's trial because of the Prosecutor's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense. Indeed, the decision seems to indicate that unless the Prosecutor reverses course and agrees to disclose the evidence, the Trial Chamber is prepared to dismiss the charges and...
A confession: except for the basketball, I don't watch the Summer Olympics. In part, that's because I'm not particularly interested in the medal sports. The more significant reason, though, is that I simply can't stomach the rampant jingoism that inevitably accompanies the Games. Case in point — the reaction to Becky Hammon's decision to play basketball for...
As our Boumediene instant symposium gets underway, I thought it might be interesting to note that the Israeli Supreme Court has just upheld the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits the indefinite detention of a person who does not qualify for POW status and "who has participated either directly or indirectly in hostile acts against the State of Israel...
Very encouraging news out of Serbia -- Stojan Zupljanin, the commander of the Bosnian police during the war, has been arrested and will be handed over to the ICTY for prosecution:Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Their arrest and...
First the judge who felt "badgered, beaten, and bruised" by prosecutors for trying to protect Khadr's rights was removed from the case "for personnel reasons." Now it turns out that Khadr's interrogators were "instructed" -- read: ordered -- to destroy their notes, lest anyone ever find out that Khadr had been tortured or mistreated:Navy Lieutenant Commander Bill Kuebler said...
In an important first, Roma gathered in Rome on Sunday to protest their continued harrassment and persecution at the hands of the Italian government:The first national demonstration of Gypsies brought hundreds of people to the capital Sunday to protest recent episodes of racism in Italy that have targeted Roma and Sinti people, as they prefer to be called. "We're being used...
