The ICJ is set to deliver its judgment in Belgium v. Senegal, this Friday, July 20, 2012. The press release from the Court is found here. The UN Security Council has condemned the rebel attacks in eastern Congo and demanded an end to outside support for the conflict on the Rwanda-Congo border. The African Union has urged the group Mali Ansar Dine...
It's official. US ratification of UNCLOS is dead (at least for this year). And, perhaps more significantly, the treaty was sunk by two senators, Robert Portman and Kelly Ayotte, both of whom appear to be on Republican nominee Mitt Romney's vice-presidential short list. Their announcements, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, brings the number of announced U.S....
Two quick research-related items. First, I'm pleased to report that the 2011 Digest of United States Practice is now available on the State Department website. Here's the description from today's press release: The digest provides the public with a record of the views and practice of the Government of the United States in public and private international law. The official edition...
The sudden announcement that North Korea's military chief was relieved of his duties for health reasons has spurred rumors about a possible power struggle. Cambodia and Thailand have announced that they will redeploy some of the troops stationed at the Preah Vihar temple from Wednesday onwards, to comply with last year's order of the ICJ. Maritime disputes between China and Japan and China and the Philippines continue. Foreign Policy points...
Conferences & events The Brookings Institution will host Translating Human Rights into Practice: A Conversation on the United Nations Human Rights Council: Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 2:00 — 3:30 pm in Washington, D.C. Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law along with ASIL will host Human Rights Implications of SCOTUS Decisions in the 2012 Term: Wed., July 18, 2012, from 4:00-5:30...
This week, Opinio Juris was a bit lighter on the blogging due to the Fourth of July holiday in the US, but we did feature a post from Peggy McGuinness that pointed out a discussion on the St. John's Center for Law and Religion Forum around the question of whether American foreign policy is Christian, in a conversation Mark Movsesian had...
"Non-citizen nationals" - a very small group of "Americans". Anyone born in a state of the United States is a citizen under the 14th Amendment. Almost everyone else born in sovereign US territory (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam) has citizenship at birth by statute. The only folks who don't have citizenship at birth are those born in American Samoa and...
A recurring criticism of the ICC is that it has little to show for its first 10 years -- just one conviction -- and has cost an inordinate amount of money. Here, for example, are the opening paragraphs of Eric Posner's recent attack on the Court in the Wall Street Journal, entitled "The Absurd International Criminal Court": Ten years ago, on...
Reports say that over 200 civilians have been massacred in execution-style killings in the Hama region of Syria after government forces bombarded the area with helicopter gunships and tanks yesterday. Following talks with the International Olympic Committee, for the first time Saudi Arabia will send female athletes to London to compete in this year's Olympic Games. Human Rights Watch points out...
Syria has been hit by a wave of defections, with the latest--that of the ambassador to Iraq--coming yesterday. Kofi Annan has urged the UN to "reunite" regarding plans moving forward with Syria, suggesting "consequences" were Syria not to comply with the latest ceasefire calls. A human rights group, Women Under Siege, has reported that sexual violence is being used in Syria as a weapon...
As the rare American legal academic who has both a JD and a PhD in law (the latter, of course, from a law school outside the U.S.), I think this is an exciting development, for all the reasons that Jason Mazzone laid out nicely last year at Balkinization. I imagine Yale's PhD will be very popular, particularly given that the...
The Independent has the story: European governments, including Britain's, have received legal opinion from a leading international counsel who argues they would be fully within their rights to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The formal opinion from James Crawford, professor of international law at Cambridge University, is likely to inject fresh momentum into campaigns in the United...
