It makes no sense. Israel has traded five brutal militants for the bodies of two dead soldiers and the assorted body parts of other Israeli soldiers. I am in Israel now teaching with a Whittier/Pepperdine study abroad program and coverage of the prisoner exchange is ubiquitous. I attended a special class session with our students of a presentation by Major Aharon...
Here's a surprise -- China opposes indicting Bashir: China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Beijing maintains friendly relations with Sudan and is deeply concerned and worried about the charges. He says the situation in the Darfur region is at a sensitive and critical moment. He says China hopes all sides can resolve their differences through consultation and avoid adding complications...
Senators Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman have a joint commentary in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (July 14, 2008), promoting a federal law to discourage so-called “libel tourism." Libel tourism refers to the practice of a plaintiff suing for libel in a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction – i.e., the UK – and then seeking to have the judgment enforced in US and other...
I appreciate Kevin's thoughtful and evenhanded assessment of the ICC Prosecutor's complex decision to seek the arrest of Sudan's president. There are indeed good arguments both for and against the ICC Prosecutor's move. I'm torn myself. I have articulated many times before my skepticism of the ICC's effectiveness in helping to end the violence or even to bring justice for Darfur....
I missed Bastille Day celebrations in Paris on Monday – got on a plane back to DC early in the morning. But let me extend my best wishes on Bastille Day to all our French readers. And everyone else, too. My friend BP, a magazine editor in France, commented at dinner the other night that the thing about America and...
I have been going back-and-forth with myself about the wisdom of indicting Bashir for genocide. I continue to believe that the move is a risky one in the short term, given the likelihood that the Sudanese government will respond to the indictment with violence against the peacekeepers and the humanitarian workers in the country. Nevertheless, I find the following defense...
The day, a few weeks ago, when America Between the Wars arrived on my doorstop also saw the arrival of another book via Amazon ...
Financial intermediation is a dicey proposition these days, and 'asset securitization' a downright dirty word in a world in which securitization allowed the obfuscation of risk - purses from sows' ears, but actually just fancy looking sows' ears, it turns out, everywhere you looked. Nonetheless, one of the important longterm issues for microfinance (and for the whole, newly emerging...
In today’s Washington Post, a front page article titled, “Multitude of Forces Drains the Spirit of Giving,” by staff writer Philip Rucker. Compared with the tsunami of 2004 and Katrina, the natural disasters of Burma and China have not produced anywhere near the outpouring of American charitable aid donations: In the weeks since a cyclone laid waste to Burma's delta...
I understand that Opinio Juris will be hosting a discussion of Benjamin Wittes' new book, Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror (Penguin 2008) when it is released for distribution on June 19. That is a very good thing to do. I have heard Ben present material from that book and...
I notice that none of us have posted on the Israeli military assault on Gaza. This is not surprising, there is very little useful to say about it, especially from a legal point of view. There is something depressingly predictable about the commentary arising out of Israel's military incursion into Gaza. Critics of Israeli policy in general have denounced the incursion, alleging...
