In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

24 Apr

The American Society of International Law has recently begun partnering with journalism schools in an effort to introduce international law to future reporters and editorial boards. And, publications like ASIL Insightsand IL.Post are circulated broadly among media outlets, and ASIL makes the expertise of its membership available when issues or cases arise in which explanations of the law can be...

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23 Apr

One of the unintended consequences of the movement to hold corporations liable for aiding and abetting human rights abuses is that doing so may prove to be the most effective way of holding sovereigns accountable. That is the surprising conclusion of my latest article just published in the Notre Dame Law Review. Here is an excerpt: One has...

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22 Apr

That would be the Financial Times, under the fairly emphatic headline "Democrats Must Choose Obama." As far as I can tell, it's the only foreign newspaper to make an endorsement. (Some might consider it not really all that foreign, given its large daily US circulation — so it's not like Le Monde putting down a marker — but the...

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22 Apr

One of my students recently took the naturalization test and was kind enough to share with me the “Quick Civic Lessons” that the government hands out to help prepare for the test. Most questions are terribly easy, but I would suspect a few are hard for the average would-be American: 15. Who Elects the President of the United States? 19....

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22 Apr

The very first post I wrote for Opinio Juris -- more than two years ago, when I was guest-blogging -- was about the inequality of arms that exists between the prosecution and defense at the international tribunals. I recall spending hours on the post, mustering facts, honing my arguments, polishing my prose. I was proud of my first...

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22 Apr

[Professor Elihu Richter teaches at Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine and Public Health and heads the Program on Genocide Prevention. This post follows up on last week's discussion of Susan Benesch's VJIL article.] I congratulate the Virginia Journal of International Law for hosting this web-based discussion with Susan Benesch and Greg Gordon (among others) on the legal aspects of incitement...

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21 Apr

From Convictions, his argument that a Democrat president won't show any more respect for IL than Bush has, paired with an engaging episode of bloggingheads.tv with Heather Hurlbut (for those of you with busy lives, you can listen to Eric and Heather talk really fast with the new 1.4x function!). Eric takes his usual skeptical view of international law,...

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21 Apr

John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations, issued a draft report last week that "presented a conceptual and policy framework to anchor the business and human rights debate." The section that particularly grabbed my attention was on corporate complicity for human rights violations. Notice the shift toward recognition of corporate responsibility...

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20 Apr

Pope Benedict XVI's address at the United Nations General Assembly last week is definitely worth a read for anyone concerned about human rights. Here is an interesting excerpt on the natural law underpinnings of all human rights: This reference to human dignity, which is the foundation and goal of the responsibility to protect, leads us to the theme we are...

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18 Apr

I realize that Bluebook bashing is something of a varsity sport among legal academics. And yes, much of the Bluebook's arcana is profoundly annoying. But you know what? I'll take that arcana over social science citation any day. I've been writing another "cognitive psychology of [insert concept here]" essay — mens rea, this time — and...

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