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21 Oct

[caption id="attachment_10243" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Elena Baylis"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_10102" align="alignright" width="101" caption=" "][/caption] Thanks to Opinio Juris and to YJIL for giving me the opportunity to comment on Tara Melish’s article, From Paradox to Subsidiarity: The United States and Human Rights Treaty Bodies. I have long been a fan of Tara’s work, and so it’s a pleasure to have the chance to respond to...

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21 Oct

Jonathan Adler, a blogger at The Volokh Conspiracy, has asked me what I think about the editorial that Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, published yesterday in the New York Times criticizing the organization's coverage of Israel.  My basic response: although I disagree with much of what Bernstein has to say, his criticisms must give anyone pause, because...

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21 Oct

[caption id="attachment_10236" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Tara Melish"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_10102" align="alignright" width="101" caption=" "][/caption] [Ed. This is a slightly different, updated version than the one posted earlier today.] Let me begin by thanking Opinio Juris and the editors of the Yale Journal of International Law for hosting this online symposium, and especially Professor Elena Baylis for her willingness to provide comments on my recent article,...

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20 Oct

One of the pleasures of teaching at Washington College of Law is that so many of your colleagues are involved in so many real world public international law activities.  They include our dean, Claudio Grossman, who in his capacity of chair of the UN committee against torture, today addressed the General Assembly.  (I'll try to provide a webcast link; can't...

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20 Oct

In something of a surprise move, the Supreme Court decided today to grant cert in Kiyemba v. Obama – an enormously important case about whether or not the federal courts have the power to order Guantanamo detainees (whose writs of habeas corpus have been granted) released into the United States. The NYTimes story is here. The Justice Department’s statement on...

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20 Oct

I had resolved to avoid blogging about Bernstein's endless series of attacks on Human Rights Watch, but I couldn't let the following pass without at least some acknowledgement: At what point does the MSM stop treating HRW as a neutral source on human rights in the Middle East, and start treating it like the left-wing, anti-Israel, anti-Western organization it has openly...

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19 Oct

Looking at the long-awaited new Obama Sudan Strategy, there is much to admire.  It is sensible, forward-looking, and realistic.  It also appears to be pretty much the same policy President Bush pursued, which then Obama campaign adviser Susan Rice (and current UN Ambassador) trashed back in 2008.  For instance, it emphasizes ending the violence and war through a peace agreement,...

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19 Oct

Making Sense of Darfur will be holding an online symposium over the next few weeks dedicated to analyzing what is likely to happen in Sudan in 2010 and 2011.  Here is how it's described by Alex de Waal, with whom I rarely agree but always respect: Sudan faces two momentous events in the next fifteen months. The first is the general...

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18 Oct

(Please note that a commenter has rightly corrected me on two points, which I correct below) Former State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger (and former OJ guest blogger) spoke today at Hofstra's biennial Legal Ethics Conference.  His talk was typically engaging, honest, and interesting (it will not be news to many of our readers that Bellinger was an internal dissenter on...

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17 Oct

Martin Holterman and Marko Milanovic have been kind enough to respond to my post on the ICTY's attack on Dr. Karadzic's right of self-representation, so it's only fair that I respond to their responses. To begin with, Martin writes that "[g]iven the precedent of the Milosevic case, and undoubtedly many others with which I am less familiar, I think we can...

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17 Oct

OUP just sent along a review copy (note, per the FTC, free merchandise from OUP!!). The book is Rumu Sarkar, International Development Law: Rule of Law, Human Rights, & Global Finance. This isn't a review - I have only read the first chapter, and I am pretty certain I will find places both to agree and disagree.  But I am finding...

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17 Oct

As everyone in the world probably knows by now, Dr. Karadzic's trial is set to begin on October 26th.  The current trial date is the culmination of two interrelated decisions by the Tribunal: the Trial Chamber's unsurprising decision not to require the Prosecution to trim its monstrous and completely unworkable indictment (choosing instead to impose insignificant time-limits on the prosecution's...

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