I would be remiss if I did not mark, here at Opinio Juris, the fifth anniversary of the tragic death of UN diplomat and humanitarian Sergio Vieira de Mello, who died in the terrorist attack on the UN's Baghdad headquarters in 2003 along with many other aid and relief workers. And also - it receives far less attention, alas -...
There is nothing international law specific about this pedagogically-oriented post. But as the new fall semester begins for many readers of this blog, I am curious about where OJ readers stand on the question of limiting or prohibiting laptop use or internet access in classrooms. I have written on my regular blog about this topic, as have many other professors....
I have this gnawing suspicion that the only two law professors deeply interested in battlefield robotics are Glenn Reynolds and me. Nonetheless, when it comes to battlefield bots and the law, you can take satisfaction that you will have Heard It Here First, unless, of course, you read Instapundit. As I've said in earlier posts on this subject (and here and...
The Olympics have been amazing. Great athletes, amazing venues, wonderful organization. The Chinese have much to be proud of. But whatever goodwill that the Olympics have engendered in me is quickly being lost based on their treatment of dissent. The Chinese are being utterly hypocritical in promising to afford opportunities for dissent but not making good...
The Language Trainers Group has a great new on-line game: trying to guess what country 16 people with different accents are from. It's called, not surprisingly, Can You Guess Where My Accent Is From? I scored a 28 -- a full 10 points higher than Blake Hounsell, who tipped me off to the game at FP Blog. And yes, I could...
For anyone following the situation in Georgia and US/ Russian relations, there was a very interesting statement and Q&A today from Secretary of State Rice, who is in Brussels for meetings at NATO. Among other things, she announced the creation of a new NATO-Georgia cooperative framework and also discussed the concerns about isolating Russia. Among other topics, she also answered questions about...
I've missed Eric Muller's blogging at Is That Legal? -- but he has obviously put his free time to good use, because his new article on the Supreme Court's decision in Hirabayashi v. United States is sensational. Here is the abstract: This Article presents newly discovered archival evidence demonstrating that government lawyers told a crucial lie to the United States Supreme...
The most famous quote from the founder of the modern Olympic Games is: “The important thing is not to win, but to take part” (L'important n'est pas de gagner, mais de participer). So far, the Beijing experience of the CAS Ad Hoc Division seems to give a new relevance to this Olympic slogan. Indeed, after the first week of competition, the...
John McCain on Guantanamo Bay, during a question-and-answer session with Walter Isaacson: it may be one of the nicest places in the world to live in. Hyperbole or not, shouldn't comments like that disqualify someone from being president? ADDENDUM: This is a pretty good one, too, concerning Russia's invasion of Georgia: My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally...
Following is a statement that Secretary of State Rice made today in Tbilisi regarding the sirtuation in Georgia, the cease-fire agreement, and next steps. I have also included an excerpt from her Q&A with reporters and highlighted throughout a few parts that I thought were particularly interesting. SECRETARY RICE: Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, as President Bush noted in his statement a couple...
Last October, Col. Morris Davis resigned as chief prosecutor of the military commissions, claiming that Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann had interfered with the prosecutor's office, pressured him to use classified evidence -- requiring sessions to be conducted behind closed doors -- and encouraged the use of evidence obtained through waterboarding. Col. Davis filed a formal complaint at the time, but...
Our friend John Boonstra at UN Dispatch calls attention to a little-used provision of the UN Charter that requires members of the Security Council to abstain from voting on substantive matters when they are a party to a dispute. Here is the text of Article 27(3): Decisions of the Security Council on all other matters shall be made by an affirmative...
