I know absolutely nothing about intellectual property, but Bolivia's current efforts to trademark "coca" strike me as rather odd:Companies such as Coca-Cola Co. could be barred from using the word "coca" in their brand names under a measure endorsed by a panel that is helping rewrite the Bolivian constitution. The coca committee of the assembly that is overhauling the constitution has...
Ever wonder whether blogs have become mainstream? Typically one has no easy answer to the question of whether blogs have become an acceptable medium for academic discourse. We rely on anecdotes, intuition or hunches. I thought it might be interesting to add yet another unscientific reference point to determine whether blogs have become mainstream. How? ...
As has been widely reported, Chiquita Brands International has been fined $25 million for paying designated terrorist groups in Colombia not to attack its workers:US authorities charged Chiquita Wednesday with paying 1.7 million dollars between 1997-2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group on the US list of terrorists. Chiquita, through its subsidiary C.I. Bananos de...
If there is any lingering doubt about whether we are engaged in a global war on terror, the transcript from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should dispel those doubts. Call it whatever you want, but the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed unequivocally describes it as war. There are two significant portions of the transcript. First, is Mohammed's enumeration of various...
Today’s New York Times has a fascinating story about efforts among the parties to the Montreal Protocol to accelerate the phase-out of HCFCs, chemicals which it turns out not only deplete the ozone layer, but may have a far greater impact on climate change than carbon dioxide emissions. The story references a report published last week under the auspices...
In a welcome move, Egypt has named its first female judges:Mukbil Shakir, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, appointed 31 women to judge or chief judge positions in Egypt's courts, the official Middle East News Agency said, quoting Shakir's decree. The move is expected to give a boost to President Hosni Mubarak's political and social reforms that have been widely...
As expected, Sudan and the Organization of the Islamic Conference have rejected the report prepared by the Human Rights Council's assessment mission to Darfur, and they want the Council to do the same. (See Reuters and AP stories.) Having not received the desired exculpation of Sudan from the current team, they say that a new team, approved by the Sudanese...
In my recent article on the role of foreign relations in statutory interpretation (available for download here), I made an argument that Charming Betsy is grounded in separation of powers concerns and that this means, among other things, that the Youngstown categories should be read in light of Charming Betsy. Here is what I argued: It is now accepted that...
Just when you might have thought it a little safer to go out at night, we have a strong offensive articulation of a sovereignty-based foreign policy to twin with the more traditional defensive one. Anna Simons and her co-authors set out “The Sovereignty Solution” in the latest edition of The American Interest (unfortunately available neither online or Lexis, but...
The U.S. announced last week that it again would not seek election to the Council. Despite the body’s serious flaws, UN Watch had urged the U.S. to run, believing that it could better fight for improvements from the inside. Although the U.S. can be—and has been—an active non-member, membership would allow it to do more. (Only members can...
Last month, a British military judge dismissed charges against five of seven British soldiers accused of mistreating an Iraqi prisoner who died in their custody. At the time, the judge refused to explain the reasoning behind his decision to take the case away from the seven-officer jury, saying only that the prosecution had failed to introduce evidence of the...
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon, which resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court refusing to follow an ICJ treaty interpretation, even though the ICJ had compulsory jurisdiction to interpret that treaty. A few months later, Germany's highest constitutional court (the Bundesverfassungsgericht) resolved a similar conflict between domestic and ICJ interpretations by following the ICJ. ...
