As regular readers know, although I'm opposed to academic BDS, I fully support its economic incarnation. Which is why I find stories like this both depressing and infuriating: “I have no problem with Jewish people or any other religion or different beliefs. But for personal reasons, you can’t ask me to shake the hand of anyone from this state, especially in front...
I'm delighted to announce the publication of two new essays. The first is "The Use and Abuse of Analogy in IHL," which is a chapter in Jens's edited book for CUP, "Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict and Human Rights." I'm very proud of the essay -- and all of the contributions to the book are excellent. The second publication is my article "Radical...
Last week, Adrian Hilton -- a self-described "conservative academic, theologian, author and educationalist" -- published a vicious hit-piece in The Spectator about SOAS. It's entitled "A School of Anti-Semitism?", and the name basically says it all. According to Hilton: "[p]retty much all student societies at SOAS have no choice but to conform to the Islamo-Marxist orthodoxy"; "the entire student body defines...
The Unicode Consortium's job has always been to make basic symbols work across all computers and other devices, but the emoji has put the group at the center of pop culture. "Our goal is to make sure that all of the text on computers for every language in the world is represented,"However, as Mashable notes:
getting characters added to the Unicode Standard is a long, drawn-out process. In addition to the original Japanese emoji characters, the Unicode additions included other new characters — such as country maps and European symbols. What this means is that there is a data file that maps every individual emoji symbol to a Unicode code point or sequence. But this is just the standardization of the symbols. Supporting emoji, as well as the specific design of the emoji characters, is up to software makers.Thus, the administrative scaffolding that makes emojis ubiquitous is based on a non-governmental standard-setting body using soft law to allocate Unicode points or sequences to symbols (be they emojis, letters, mathematical symbols, etc.) that are approved by the Consortium. The approval of emojis is simply one example of a set of responsibilities with much broader implications than just whether "nauseated face" deserves its own encoding. (According to the Consortium, it does.) Besides interest in the process of institutional decision-making in standard-setting bodies such as the Consortium, there is also a question of whether the Consortium’s overall goal of ensuring that the script of every language in the world is represented digitally is in tension the current focus on encoding more and more emoji. Some have expressed concern that this focus on emojis may divert time and resources away from the protection of endangered languages. Peoples who are trying to preserve endangered languages (such as, for example, Native American and First Nation languages) would be greatly helped if the alphabet of that language would be as easy to read across a variety of computer platforms and digital devices as a smiley-face. Consider this an issue of resource allocation. Letterjuice, a Brighton and Barcelona-based type foundry, posted a thoughtful essay on Unicode and language rights, which stated:
I am delighted to announce that OUP has just published Mark Kersten's new book, Justice in Conflict: The Effects of the International Criminal Court's Interventions on Ending Wars and Building Peace. Here is the press's description: What happens when the international community simultaneously pursues peace and justice in response to ongoing conflicts? What are the effects of interventions by the International Criminal Court...
Just when I thought I was beyond being genuinely horrified, Roving Bandit called my attention to a story in Der Spiegel that almost defies words: The ambassadors of the 28 European Union member states had agreed to secrecy. "Under no circumstances" should the public learn what was said at the talks that took place on March 23rd, the European Commission warned...
Nothing quite beats a good treatise. Until recently, however, students and scholars of international criminal law had few worthy choices -- the best for students being Cryer et al's An Introduction to International Criminal Law and Procedure and the best for scholars being Werle's Principles of International Criminal Law. Those books now have serious competition. Over the past few months, OUP has published two...
The game in question -- from which the screenshot is taken -- is entitled Liyla and the Shadows of War. Here is how the gaming magazine Hardcore Gamer describes it: Liyla and the Shadows of War is a short, dark game about exactly what the title implies. You play as a father running home through a war zone attempting to collect...
I read with great interest Jens's excellent post about whether the US attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz was a war crime. I agree with much of what he says, particularly about the complexity of that seemingly innocuous word "intent." But I am not completely convinced by his argument that reading intent in the Rome Statute to include mental states other than...
As readers no doubt know, on Tuesday the ICC's Trial Chamber declared a "mistrial" in the case against William Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang. The decision likely puts an end to the fiasco of the Ocampo Six -- now the "Ocampo Zero," to borrow Mark Kersten's nicely-turned expression -- although the Trial Chamber dismissed the charges "without prejudice," leaving the door open for the...
Importantly, and for the first time, meetings will soon be held with all candidates for the post of UN Secretary General, enabling them to present their candidatures. Member States will also have the opportunity to ask questions. Mogen Lykketoft, president of the GA, has publicized his plans for these meetings in letters here and here. A current list of candidates (and...
I've been slowly working on a post that points out Ted "Carpet Bombing" Cruz is no less scary than Donald "Torture Everyone" Trump when it comes to foreign-policy. (Schadenfreude isn't a strong enough word for how much I am enjoying the implosion of the Republican party under the combined weight of their insanity.) To tide you over, I will simply offer this doozy of...
