It is amazing how much effort has been expended in countries like Japan and Australia to argue about whaling. It is fascinating from say, a realist perspective, since it is hard to imagine that either side has any real meaningful national interest. And as far as I can tell, Australia's government is acting on essentially moral grounds, which is er,...
The invaluable "Turtle Bay" Blog points me to this recent Gallup poll on the U.S. public's view of the United Nations. I'm a bit surprised the UN polls so badly (26 percent is pretty low). Then again, Americans are a tough lot. Congress rates even lower, and President Obama is heading in this direction. So the UN is actually doing quite...
Despite all the grumbling from NGOs, there does appear to be some modest progress toward more peace and stability in Sudan. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has signed a framework ceasefire deal with one of Darfur's main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem). The power-sharing agreement in Qatar is seen as an important step towards peace, though the other main rebel...
Emerging disputes over oil drilling and natural gas exploration in the Falklands should provide an ideal test case for international dispute resolution. Argentina appears to be ready to contest UK drilling for hydrocarbons in the Falklands' exclusive economic zone. Britain rejected Argentine objections to oil exploration off the disputed Falkland Islands on Tuesday, saying the drilling was within international law. Argentine President...
The following is a guest-post -- actually a short book-proposal -- by my friend Mark Osiel, the Aliber Family Chair in Law at the University of Iowa. I have agreed to post it despite the inordinate jealousy I feel toward his remarkable productivity. Mark would greatly appreciate comments and criticisms, especially examples and counter-examples of what he is trying to...
That's the question, sort of, raised in Totes-Isotoner v. United States, the most interesting tariff classification case you will ever read. Under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, men's glove have a tariff rate of 14 percent whereas gloves "for other persons" have a rate of 12.6 percent. An importer of gloves, Totes-Isotoner, argues that these duties unconstitutionally discriminate on...
So says Ashley Samuelson of the Becket Institute. I'm not sure there has been a policy shift yet, but it is worth watching. “Freedom of worship” first appeared in a high profile speech in Obama’s remarks at the memorial for the victims of the Fort Hood shooting last November, a few months after his Cairo speech. Speaking to the crowd gathered...
Sure, it's in Roman Polanski's new film, The Ghost Writer. But it's still cool -- especially when the Prime Minister, played by an excellent Pierce Brosnan, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for aiding and abetting torture by the United States! I have to admit, I never thought I'd live to see Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute...
The usual meeting of U.S. governors this year has an added wrinkle: the participation of premiers from Canadian provinces. Provincial leaders wrapped up three days of meetings with U.S. governors in Washington, D.C., on Sunday and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the unprecedented get-together paves the way for improved relations between Canada and the U.S. “It’s the first time the governors and...
I am sitting in the Indianapolis airport as I write this, heading home from a conference on the Milosevic trial. The conference was easily the most enjoyable I've ever attended -- I vastly prefer small, specialized conferences to mega-events like the AALS or ASIL. The attendees were a superb mix of academics, former OTP investigators and analysts, and defence attorneys. ...
Over at the Los Angeles Times opinion page today, Sunday, February 21, 2010, Marjorie Miller has lined up various folks to opine on targeted killing and the presumed Mossad hit in Dubai. The offerings are very short — a hundred or so words each — but I had no idea when approached I would be in such exalted company, including Philip Alston,...
Over at Discover.com, Brian Lamb reports on a lecture by Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, an American Jesuit who is a research astronomer for the Vatican Observatory (and has archived blog posts here). On the issue of asteroid mining (which we tangentially touched upon in this discussion on legal issues related to mining the Moon), Lamb describes the opening of Brother Consolmagno's argument: Can...
