My vote for the most interesting international law case for the month of May is United States v. Juvenile Male 1, 2006 WL 1427281 (D. Ariz. 2006). The case is an unusual choice as it involves federal district court criminal proceedings against a juvenile charged with sexual abuse of a minor on an Indian reservation in Arizona. Not the typical...
I spent the day yesterday in Lausanne listening to a presentation on the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and visiting the remarkable Olympic Museum. I will spare you the details, as it really is not fair to our readers to describe in any detail the breathtaking beauty of this splendid place in this idyllic town along the placid waters...
Tony Blair's speech at Georgetown University offers some interesting thoughts on UN reform. It includes proposals for Security Council expansion, perhaps through ex officio permanent members, as well as dramatically enhancing the Secretary General's authority. Details on the speech from Anthony Arend available here. ...
This week I had the privilege to hear a remarkable presentation by Peter van der Auweraert of the International Organization for Migration discussing a little-known quasi-international tribunal. The tribunal, known as the Commission for Resolution of Real Property Disputes (formerly the Iraq Real Property Claims Commission) was designed to resolve claims by Iraqi nationals against the Hussein regime for...
The American Society of International Law has named Betsy Andersen as their new Executive Director to replace Charlotte Ku. Kudos to Betsy, who will ably serve one of the most important international law societies in the world. Details here. ...
Today I had the good fortune to have a private tour of the Alabama Room at the Hôtel de Ville in Geneva, Switzerland, one of the most famous rooms in the history of international law. Two parts of the room were particularly interesting. One was the prominent display of a sculpture of a plowshare made from swords. The other were...
The Washington Post has just launched a new law blog called Bench Conference by Andrew Cohen of CBS News. The Washington Post now has over twenty blogs that it sponsors, and they even include comments. Kudos to the Washington Post for embracing the blogosphere in such a serious way. Here is an excerpt from his first post entitled...
Faisal Kutty of York University has recently published a paper on the role of Shari'a law in international commercial arbitration. You can download the paper here. Here is the abstract: The world has witnessed a phenomenal growth in commercial disputes transcending national borders due to our increasingly interrelated and globalized world economy. In addition to issues in interpretation of...
If you were commissioned to design a museum to memorialize war, how would you design it? You can easily imagine how a Museum of Tolerance, or a Holocaust Memorial Museum, or an Air and Space Museum should be designed. But what emphasis would you give to a museum about war? Would it be pro-war or anti-war? Would it lament the...
A couple of weeks ago David Zaring had an interesting post about his informal study of the most frequently-cited international law cases. Thanks to this post by Paul Caron, I recently came across a list of the most frequently-cited Supreme Court cases. One of the top ten most frequently-cited cases is a Supreme Court international case that was rendered in the...
I'm in London for the next few days where I have had the wonderful occasion to spend a good deal of time with some of the premier maritime arbitrators in the world. These arbitrators shared wonderful stories about the history of arbitration in England, in particular maritime arbitration. I will spare you the details, but there is one...
This is very disturbing news. As reported here, "the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments." The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to...
