At risk of exhibiting the same cynicism of which Stendhal himself was accused, a famous passage on politics and newspapers and literature from The Red and the Black, Book Two, chapter 52, "The Discussion": Here the author would have liked to insert a page of dots. 'That will not look pretty,' says the publisher, 'and for so frivolous a work not...
Interested in how popular culture constructs narratives about torture? Fascinated by the ticking time-bomb scenario? Like Battlestar Galactica and/or 24? Then do I have an essay for you, written by my friend and colleague John Ip: This article is about two different narratives or accounts of torture. Each narrative signifies a certain view about the legality and wisdom of employing torture...
As part of its ongoing efforts to educate Americans about the national shame that is Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International is touring the country with a replica of David Hicks' cell: AIUSA’s prison cell replica includes a steel toilet, florescent lights and a sliding metal door. In addition, visitors may record a 30-second reaction video that will be posted on youtube.com and...
I have posted a substantially rewritten version of my essay "Situational Gravity Under the Rome Statute" on SSRN. Here, again, is the abstract: The ICC is often derided as the "African Criminal Court." That criticism cannot easily be dismissed: all of the Office of the Prosecutor's (OTP) current investigations focus on African states -- Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic...
As we enter in the election home-stretch, there have been some tit-for-tat allegations about foreign money ending up in presidential candidate coffers. The GOP has filed this complaint with the FEC alleging Obama to have accepted more than $30 million in questionable donations (the document cites a speech by Libya's Moammar Ghadafi for support). Obama has returned the...
Today is Halloween in the U.S. and some kids will be going door to door dressed as norm entrepreneurs. Not that they will be dressed up as Nobel laureates (though some may...
As I predicted a few weeks ago, Judge Allred has refused to reconsider Hamdan's sentence in light of the Bush administration's argument that he was not entitled to credit for the time he served as an enemy combatant: A military judge has refused to reconsider the sentence of Osama bin Laden's former driver, forcing the Bush administration to either release a...
The OECD has released a very interesting new study of relative income distribution, poverty, inequality, and tax burdens and progressivity of the tax burden, comparing the OECD member states. "Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries." The study is sure to produce a number of discussions about the relative position of the US in relation to the OECD...
Okay, now I'm confused. The Republicans keep telling me that Obama is a socialist, a Marxist, and a communist all rolled into one tasty expropriation-minded morsel. So why is The Economist, center-right at best, endorsing him for President? Has the left infiltrated that august journal, as well? Call in Michelle Bachmann! Read the endorsement here....
TaxProfBlog has posted a chart with the visitor and page view ranks for law professor blogs for the last quarter. Our Very Own Opinio Juris is ranked number 19th in visitors. Of course, we like to think that it is the quality, rather than the quantity, of our visitors that matters. And we do thank you for coming by. However, I...
Francis Fukuyama, one of the leading intellectual lights of American conservatism, has endorsed Barack Obama in a short essay in the (aptly titled) magazine The American Conservative: I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war...
The last few weeks have seen a flurry of news stories on Iraqi political resistance to the "final" text of a U.S.-Iraqi status of forces agreement ("SOFA"). Last week, the main storyline was that the Iraqi Parliament had better accept the agreed text or else, while the Iraqi Parliament gave every indication they would delay any decision till after U.S. and Iraqi elections. This week the new...
