In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

27 Apr

From the Judgment: It was further argued that Germany alone could decide, in accordance with the reservations made by many of the Signatory Powers at the time of the conclusion of the Briand-Kellogg Pact, whether preventive action was a necessity, and that in making her decision final judgment was conclusive. But whether action taken under the claim of seIf-defense was in...

|
27 Apr

On a non-aggression note, Jennifer Howard has an article in yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education about Karin Calvo-Goller's baseless criminal-libel suit in France against NYU's Joseph Weiler.  It's an excellent piece -- and not just because she is kind enough to quote me.  Here's a snippet: If you're an author confronted with a negative book review, you have several options. You...

|
27 Apr

My UN Dispatch friend Mark Leon Goldberg notes today that a group of Representatives are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter urging their colleagues to support a resolution "opposing the United States joining the Rome Statute or participating in the upcoming review conference."  Reading the letter is an infuriating experience, not only for its ridiculously bad grammar -- how does one...

|
27 Apr

When I teach International Trade, one of my favorite parts of the class is the discussion of trade linkages. How does a state balance competing concerns such as labor, the environment, and human rights? Typically the WTO accommodates those concerns through the General Exceptions that permit a state to violate the WTO rules if doing so is, say,...

|
27 Apr

What should South Korea do if it confirms the responsibility of North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel?  This article quotes a Korean law professor offering three options: Writing in JoongAng Daily, Kim Hyun-soo, professor of international law at Inha University, said Lee has three options if he wishes to avoid risking all-out war on the peninsula. He...

|
26 Apr

My colleague David Post and I have an op-ed in today's National Law Journal.  In it, we challenge the sufficiency of existing responses to cyberattacks, whether in terms of pushing for heightened security, more criminal law enforcement or applying the laws of war (if applicable).  Criminal law (and the laws of war for that matter) depends on identifying and holding...

|
26 Apr

This is not really a big deal, but it is still annoying when President Obama (or any president) flagrantly breaks his campaign promises with respect to foreign policy matters that are completely within their executive discretion.  Today, in his commemoration of the Armenians who died in the 1916 expulsion from Turkey, President Obama carefully avoided the use of the word "genocide"...

|
25 Apr

I still think there is no chance of this happening, but Christopher Hitchens offers this narrative of how and why he is pushing for legal action against the Vatican, or maybe at least a deposition of the Pope himself. I telephoned a distinguished human-rights counsel in London, Geoffrey Robertson, and asked him if the law was powerless to intervene. Not at...

|
25 Apr

The International Whaling Commission's proposed compromise on the whaling dispute has been released (h/t Jurist). As I noted before, the proposed deal would bring all nations within the IWC framework, but explicitly permit commercial whaling for certain nations for at least the next 10 years. The numbers permitted under the proposal is a little murky, but it may include thousands...

|