The blogosphere has a new member: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran. He doesn't write many posts — "personal musings," as he calls them — but the comments section has been quite active. And quite critical, as the Guardian (UK) notes in an article today:Somewhat gleefully, the reformist newspaper Etemad reported yesterday that some respondents were venting their...
According to Reuters, prosecutors in Paris have dismissed a claim against Donald Rumsfeld for the abuses at Abu Ghraib:The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday. The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and...
Mary Dudziak has an interesting post today at Legal History Blog that discusses why Brian Leiter's citation rankings underestimate the scholarly impact of legal historians. One of the primary reasons, she explains, is that the study is confined to Westlaw's JLR database:What does this miss? Leading scholars will have an impact that ranges beyond their fields and beyond their...
In June, I blogged about evidence presented at a New South Wales Coroner's Court indicating that, contrary to the longstanding position of the Indonesian and Australian governments, Indonesian troops murdered five journalists in Balibo on October 16, 1975, the first full day of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. Last week, the deputy coroner in New South Wales officially concluded that the...
The "Fair" in "Fair and Balanced": Wouldn't it be nice if Fox News at least pretended to live up to its motto? UPDATE: In the comments, "Humble Law Student" claims that my post is a "cheap shot at sliming the network [and] is both incorrect and dishonest," ostensibly because the screenshot comes from The Big Story, an opinion show instead of a...
According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 1,000 individuals who have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide currently live in the United States free from the threat of prosecution. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) wants that to change:America has become a haven for the world's war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them,...
By a 99-52 vote, with 33 abstentions, the United Nations' Third Committee has endorsed a worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty:It isn't the first time that a majority of the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations has voted against capital punishment, but each time brings renewed promise to opponents of the practice. On Thursday, after two...
Readers interested in the Second Circuit's Khulumani decision -- whose analysis of aiding-and-abetting under customary international law I recently criticized -- should check out Anthony Sebok's new FindLaw column here. It provides an excellent overview and analysis of the decision. ...
The Iraqi government has released a draft of legislation that would revoke the immunity of private-security companies operating in Iraq. Here is the operative language:Article 1: Non-Iraqi security companies and its non-Iraqi employees and contractors shall be subject to the Iraqi legislations and the jurisdiction of the Iraqi judiciary in all civil and criminal cases. All immunities granted to...
As widely anticipated, Ban Ki-moon has named Serge Brammertz, a deputy prosecutor at the ICC and the head of the UN commission investigating the murder of Lebanase Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, to succeed Carla del Ponte as the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY. Brammertz will take over the position on January 1, 2008. As I discussed in September, the ICTY's...
The Leiden Journal of International Law has asked me to post the following call for papers:Special Issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (2008) The Risks of International Law Abstracts due 1 December 2007; Complete articles by 1 April 2008 The Leiden Journal of International Law (LJIL) is now soliciting articles for a special issue of the LJIL to be dedicated to...
According to the Blog Readability Test, you need a postgraduate education to understand Opinio Juris. ...
