This week on Opinio Juris, we welcomed Kristen Boon as our newest permanent blogger. In her opening post, she examined why the Security Council's work on Children and Armed Conflict has turned out to be controversial. She also asked readers' opinion on a recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture claiming that there is an emerging customary norm that...
The NY Times reports on a transcript from the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference that was recently discovered in a library at the US Treasury and has been released as an e-book by the Center for Financial Stability. The NY Times also published about the wealth accumulated by the family of outgoing Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiaobao in the past decade. Web access from mainland China...
Two years ago this month, an unprecedented cholera outbreak in Haiti left more than 7,500 Haitians dead. As the New York Times reported in a front page article in May 2012, Lightning fast and virulent, it spread from here through every Haitian state, erupting into the world’s largest cholera epidemic despite a huge international mobilization still dealing with the effects of...
The agonizing close presidential race in the U.S. has made everyone on edge about election day problems at the polls. This may explain why the State of Texas has decided to pick a fight with the election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), threatening to arrest election observers who interfere with the upcoming November 6 elections. Texas...
Japan claims that four new Chinese ships have appeared in the territorial waters related to the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute. The African Union has reinstated Mali to the organization while stating it was planning an intervention against Islamist fighters in the north of the country, a plan that will be ready within weeks. The Syrian government has indicated to Russia that it will...
In his August 9, 2012 report, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, makes the claim that there is an emerging norm that the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Mendez acknowledges that international law does not prohibit the death penalty, but notes it does encourage its elimination. Specifically, his report states: "there is an evolving standard whereby states...
More than 50 rockets have been fired from the Gaza strip into South Israel,an Israeli officer was wounded in the exchange of fire, and one Palestinian was killed when Israel launched rockets back into Gaza. Senior Japanese and Chinese diplomats met last week to discuss the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The US is finding itself at both ends of two new WTO disputes after the WTO Dispute Settlement...
Julian beat me to discussing Romney's statement last night that, if elected, he would “make sure that Ahmadinejad is indicted under the Genocide Convention. His words amount to genocide incitation" (what we ICL scholars call "direct and public incitement to genocide"). I disagree with Julian, however, that Ahmadinejad could not be prosecuted in the United States. Pursuant to the Genocide...
Contra Peter, there was one indisputable reference to international law in last night's U.S. presidential debate. Mitt Romney repeated his argument that Iran's president should be indicted for inciting genocide. This idea has spawned quite a bit of reaction, especially from the lefty blogosphere. One typical reaction, from Greg Sargent, suggests that Romney is turning his back on his famously...
I've long wondered whether and when the American Law Institute (ALI) might try to update its 3rd Restatement on the Foreign Relations Law of the United States. Since its 1987 publication, the two-volume set, culled together under the leadership of Professor Lou Henkin, has had a tremendous impact. It has been a frequent resource for U.S. courts and American international...
Let's just say international law was not a fulcrum in last night's debate. It's not like the topic was being discriminated against -- many important topics were ignored. (Among them the Eurozone crisis, climate change, cyberwar, NATO, anything much of Asia beyond China, Mexico or Canada.) Bob Scheiffer asked a question about drones, which Romney answered by agreeing with the...
Iran has said it may stop oil production if Western sanctions tighten. The United Kingdom will double the number of drones it has in Afghanistan for combat and surveillance missions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany could take part in assisting a European mission to Mali that would train troops to fight Islamist insurgents in the north of the country. Former US...
