In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

29 Nov

Coming Anarchy has this post on the possibility of Greenland becoming an independent country, noting that Greenland this week voted with a supermajority of more than 75% to receive greater autonomy from Denmark. This may even lead to independence for this enormous island of just 56,000 people. For more on "arctic nationalism," including recent events in the Faroe Islands, check out the...

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29 Nov

I just came across (a little late I'm afraid) this notice for a program that the Complex Terrain Lab had in London called "BattleSpaces: Feral Cities and the Scientific Way of Warfare." The speakers were Geoff Manaugh of the excellent BLDGBLOG (he has a post on the event here) and Antoine Bousquet, lecturer on international relations at Birkbek College. The...

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28 Nov

Edward Lucas has an essay in The Economist on political philosophy and the (r)evolution of central and eastern European politics centered on 1989. His essay begins: They gripped the world, but left political philosophers yawning. According to Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher, the revolutions that overturned decades of totalitarian rule in central and eastern Europe in 1989 were marked by a...

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28 Nov

I will be spending most of the next two months in Europe, with the following itinerary: Vienna, December 7-17 Leuven, December 17-20 Vienna, December 20-26 Rome, December 26-January 1 Amsterdam/The Hague, January 1-February 1 If any OJ readers in those cities -- students, academics, activists, etc. -- would like to meet for coffee or a drink, please don't hesitate to contact me: k.heller@auckland.ac.nz....

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28 Nov

That's the interesting argument raised in this cert. petition in Abbott v. Abbott. Although certiorari is warranted based solely on the conflict among the federal courts of appeals, certiorari also should be granted because the Fifth Circuit’s holding conflicts with the interpretation overwhelmingly adopted by the foreign courts that have addressed this issue. In construing the terms of a...

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27 Nov

I take Deborah's point in our conversation below on the administrative detention point, and think she is probably being a little bit nicer to me than I deserve in suggesting that I am running together two things - law and policy.  Fair point, and although I might return to it sometime next year (if I can persuade myself to assign...

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27 Nov

For the last few weeks, popular culture has become reacquainted with the less romantic side of piracy. (For the romantic side, picture my 2 year old running around my living room -- yes, this Thanksgiving morning -- dressed with eye patch, bandana, "puffy pants" and a plastic sword yelling "arrgh" at the top of his lungs.)   But, with seizures of...

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27 Nov

Thanks Ken. Let me try to clarify again. On one level, you’re quite right: many human rights advocates believe a new system of administrative detention – beyond the criminal law and beyond the Geneva regime – is not a good idea as a matter of policy. (I hasten to add many who are not human rights advocates think...

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26 Nov

Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has been criticized by some as being invisible, at least compared with his rock-star predecessor, Kofi Annan.  However, he has emerged as UN frontman for a new campaign from the UN for a plan for a simultaneous global jobs and economic recovery program together with green program.  The SG's program is outlined in op-ed form...

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26 Nov

As a follow-up to Peggy's very interesting post below on the performance of global versus non-global law firms, let me raise an issue that has, for obvious reasons, disappeared in the last year, but which was a topic of discussion in 2007 and might well re-surface at point in the future: law firms going public via an IPO and listing...

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