Chris mentioned earlier the NPR interview with Brookings Institution scholar PW Singer on his new book, Wired for War. I am naturally reading the book as we speak, but for those wanting a useful, clear, short take from Singer himself, check out the Winter 2009 issue of the Wilson Quarterly, and Singer's cover article, "Robots at War: The New Battlefield."...
The ICJ has issued a judgment in the case Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine). At first glance the issue may seem relatively dry: whether Serpents' Island in the Black Sea is an inhabited island or just a rocky outcropping. But the answer to this question affects maritime delimitation lines, which in turn resolves which country has the right to...
I rarely like – if that is even the right word – movies about the Holocaust. Such movies almost invariably invite us to identify with a small number of Jews imprisoned in the concentration camps, turning the millions of others (unintentionally, to be sure) into a nameless, faceless backdrop of suffering that makes the fate of “our” Jews all the...
The Second Circuit last week rendered another important ATS decision addressing some of the most troublesome issues relating to human rights litigation against corporate defendants. In the case of Abdullahi v. Pfizer, the Second Circuit was faced with the question of whether involuntary medical testing on humans violates international law. Perhaps the most significant part of the decision was the...
Although prospects of a marriage remain somewhat fanciful, if the ASIL Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court has its way, the Obama Administration will take steps to engage with the ICC in a much more positive way than the Bush Administration. The Task Force issued a press release today, proposing several significant shifts in U.S. policy. ...
The Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation may be well and good as a desk reference, but the Voice of America (VOA) Pronunciation Guide does them one better: Online MP3 files for checking the pronunciation of the names of foreign leaders and public figures in the news. So, if like me you are checking to be sure your pronunciation of Vojislav...
My Washington College of Law colleague, Darren Hutchinson - a brilliant and distinguished scholar in constitutional law, jurisprudence, critical race theory and identity theory - takes on Human Rights Watch for the apparent shift in position on rendition it took under the Bush administration and long-time Washington advocacy director Tom Malinowski's comments on rendition under the Obama administration, as reported...
Ever responsive to the needs of our readership, Opinio Juris underwent some minor surgery this weekend, upgrading our server and tweaking a few of our features. We anticipate that our new server will speed up the blog and eliminate some of the pesky service interruptions we have experienced in the past couple of months. As you will note, we have...
John Yoo has been hitting the op-ed pages alot, lately. The most recent one (that I know of) being this piece in the Wall Street Journal that attempts a critique of President Obama's order to close Gitmo. While the piece is ostensibly about why closing Gitmo is a bad idea, some have argued that the real money shot is here: What such...
The American Society of International Law has announced that the annual Pace Law School International Criminal Court Moot Competition, which is being held this weekend, is now the North American qualifying round for the ICC Trial Competition held in The Hague. The North American qualifying round is open to teams from the U.S, Canada, and Mexico. The global rounds at the Hague will...
Every law professor has that one edited book to which they wish they had contributed. This one is mine. The contributors read like a Who's Who of international criminal law: A. Major Problems of International Criminal Justice Part I. How to Face International Crimes Collective Violence and International Crimes, A. Ceretti State Responsibility and Criminal Liability of Individuals, ...
I'm grateful to Professor Ochoa for her thoughtful contribution. By way of reply to her post, I want to mention a couple of issues that I think are difficult puzzles for those of us who write in this area. First, I particularly like Professor Ochoa's suggestion that I include information about corruption and governance when assessing whether a SWF should be...
