Uri Feldman and Josh Keating have this excellent piece now up over at Foreign Policy on the history and mechanics of diplomatic asylum, as now possibly playing out in the case of Chen Guangcheng. This in the wake of Wang Lijun, who got the Bo Xilai ball rolling and spent 30 hours holed up in the US consulate in Chengdu. In...
At least from the text, John Brennan seems to have positioned the speech that he delivered yesterday at the Wilson Center (that Marty linked to) as the capstone of the Obama Administration's transparency campaign on drones and targeted killings in the conflict with al Qaeda. He made a point of referencing the string of other Administration figures that...
China and Russia are resisting calls for sanctions against Sudan and South Sudan being pushed by the United States and other Western nations within the UN Security Council. South Sudan has claimed that Sudan bombed oil fields yesterday in the latest clash between the two nations. The decision on Dominique Strauss-Kahn's immunity in the civil law suit brought against him by the Sofitel housekeeper is...
Of course, that means it's been a much better week for anyone who isn't so keen on the prospect of attacking Iran. I'm not sure the nails are in Netanyahu's political coffin quite yet, but the carpenters are certainly gathering their supplies. First up, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Chief of Staff of the IDF, rejecting the notion that Iran is...
Brennan's speech, given today at the Wilson International Center, can be found here. I don't have time to blog about it now; but in any event, it is more detailed than the previous Administration statements on the same subject and I think it largely speaks for itself. Substantive comments welcome....
In Sudan/South Sudan news, the Sudanese army has arrested four Westerners on a de-mining mission in South Sudan. China is lending $8 billion to South Sudan to finance infrastructure projects. Sudan has declared an emergency in the border area with the South and the recent split between the two countries has brought about questions of nationality. The ICJ has issued a press release on the election of its newest judge, Dalveer...
The blog, which has been uniformly excellent to date, is dedicated to exploring maritime piracy in all its dimensions. Here is the description: Piracy is on the rise because of failed states and crushing poverty. A majority of modern pirate attacks originate in the Horn of Africa in Somalia although there is now a growing problem in the Gulf of Guinea. This...
This is the fourth installment of our new feature; last week’s announcements can be found here. If you are organizing a conference or other event and would like to see the call for papers or the program announced on Opinio Juris, please contact us. Calls for Papers: Transnational Dispute Management has issued a call for papers on "Aligning Human Rights and Investment Protection." Topics of...
I'm just back from the U.S. Naval Academy and a great conference put on by the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership: Warfare in a New Domain: The Ethics of Military Cyber Operations. Ed Barrett pulled together a truly impressive group of technologists, international lawyers, philosophers, ethicists, active duty military personnel and US Government officials to weigh in on existing cyberthreats and...
Kevin Jon Heller kicked us off this week with posts about the ICC’s report regarding Gaddafi’s situation in Libya and the infighting at the ICC between the Prosecutor and Libyan authorities. He also added a post about the OPCD report outlining Saif Gaddafi’s attitude about the ICC. Peter Spiro previewed the Arizona SB-1070 immigration case before the Supreme Court, discussing why...
China's famous human rights activist Chen Guangcheng (who even Christian Bale was beat up when he tried to visit) has somehow managed to escape from his two-year house arrest* and may have made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Chen has released a powerful web video detailing the physical abuse he and his family have suffered during his...
ECOWAS will dispatch troops to both Mali and Guinea-Bissau in order to swiftly reinstate civilian rule after recent coups. In a Reuters exclusive, the US Senate, after a three-year investigation, is expected to find that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used failed to yield counterterrorism breakthroughs. As a result of ongoing clashes between Sudan and South Sudan, the United States has circulated a...
