Nicaragua may vote on a referendum on whether to seek damages from the U.S. arising out of the 1980s civil war. I have grave doubts about Nicaragua's ability to win such a claim (as well as its method of calculating damages), but it might be an interesting case. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has proposed a referendum on whether to demand $17bn...
Having just returned from Asia, which is awash in disputes over territorial sea rights and exclusive economic zones, the U.S. domestic debate over ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention seems almost quaint. Unlike pretty much every country in East Asia, the U.S. does not have any serious boundary or other kind of dispute that is likely to be...
The International Court of Justice issued a "provisional measures" order today in a dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over a World Heritage temple located near or on the boundary between the two nations. The request for provisional measures was brought by Cambodia, which sought the withdrawal of Thai troops from around the temple. The ICJ granted this request, but went...
Toby Landau, one of the leading arbitrators in the world, gave the keynote address at the recent ITA Workshop in Dallas and, as always, he was entertaining and provocative. One of the central themes of his discussion was how arbitration counsel fail to present a case in a manner sensitive to the needs of the arbitration panel. “Inequality...
So I leave the country and the blogosphere for a few months, and what happens? (Well, beside that "war" in Libya), circuit courts have gone all negative on my argument against corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute. In addition to the D.C. Circuit's recent decision, the Seventh Circuit (speaking through Judge Posner) went out of its way to reject...
Those who have followed the cases relating to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) here in the United States and at the ICJ know that the United States has a compliance problem. The United States does not provide the 'judicial review and reconsideration' remedy that the ICJ has indicated is required in the event a violation of an...
Assume that a U.S. agency modifies its interpretation of a federal statute to respond to an adverse WTO decision. In so doing, consistent with the Charming Betsy doctrine, its interpretation is brought into conformity with WTO jurisprudence with respect to one stage--the investigation stage--of the administrative proceeding. But the agency does not alter its interpretation of the federal...
Today an Ecuador court fined Chevron $8.6 billion for environmental damage. According to the Wall Street Journal, $5.4 billion of that is to restore polluted soil, $1.4 billion to create a health system for the community, $800 million to treat individuals injured by the pollution, $600 million to restore polluted waters, $200 million to restore native species, $150 million...
I received this notice from my friend Gary Born and thought it worth sharing. Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for any academic interested in international arbitration. My Pepperdine colleague Tom Stipanowich was the resident scholar last semester, and he could not say enough about the experience. Here's the formal announcement: The International Arbitration Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering...
I don't quite mean that, of course. The total number of "international" law faculty depends on so many different things at any given law school. What I do mean is to follow on Kevin's post and ask, supposing you are trying to rationally plan out an international law faculty and curriculum, or more practically gradually shape into the future according...
In the past twenty years the world of investment arbitration has taken the commercial world by storm. There are over 2,750 bilateral investment treaties and almost every one of them has an arbitration provision. Investment arbitration is now a prominent feature of the arbitration landscape. Just as BITs have proliferated in recent years, so too have free...
Between Jose's guest blogging and book discussion we are about to start on Amos Guiora's book on religious freedom I want to sandwich a short notice about my recent favorite topic: no-holds-barred full contact chess arbitration. Backstory: here for the arbitration, here for the Russian regional politics and space aliens,and here for how it relates to the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero. I...
