Something I missed while I was away: a substantial new tax on Americans who want out. As its name implies, the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (will some self-respecting legislator please put a stop to bill names adding up to forced acronyms) is mostly about tax relief for service members and veterans. But there is also a...
Opinio Juris' good friend Bobby Chesney has dropped us a note to let everyone know that the National Security Advisors blog is being revived, with more content and new stuff. Check it out. And while I'm at it, thanks very much to Glenn Reynolds and Instapundit for the shout out about the new site! It's an Instalanche!...
Past and current presidents of the American Society of International Law today urged leaders in Congress to take legislative action to comply with the ICJ decision in Avena and halt the executions of Jose Medellin and the other affected death row inmates until the review required by the ICJ has been carried out. Full text of the letter is here. So, readers, is...
When international lawyers say that sovereignty is a social construction, I doubt any of us mean it as literally as does the Seasteading Institute, an organization founded by Patri Friedman, grandson of Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman, and Wayne Gramlich. Their goal is to foster a seasteading movement, people building structures on the high seas that would become independent and...
One of the most interesting aspects of the ICJ's recent order in Avena pertains to the Court's finding of jurisdiction under Article 60 of the Statute. Mexico filed the case as a request for interpretation about the meaning of the Avena judgment because the United States withdrew from the Optional Protocol. Thus, the only way for the ICJ to have jurisdiction is to find a dispute...
I noted a few days ago that the Security Council is unlikely to pass a resolution deferring the Prosecutor's investigation of Bashir, given the number of non-permanent and permanent members of the Council who are supporters of the ICC. I think that position is even more sound in light of the European Union's promise today -- on the 10th anniversary...
This item should take care of it, not the least because it appears on the op-ed page of the New York Times. The question of McCain's presidential eligibility, in light of his Canal Zone nativity, flared up again with the posting of this piece by Jack Chin (along with this report by Adam Liptak). Chin persuasively documents why McCain wasn't a citizen at...
There is one book that I have my classes in international business as well as public international law both read (actually, I read it aloud to them and later give them a pop quiz), If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It is the single finest book on incentives and moral hazard available, I believe: If you give a mouse a cookie,...
The following is a guest post by Aaron Zelinksy, a member of the Yale Law School Class of 2010. Wednesday marked the historic transfer of Israeli and Hezbollah prisoners at the Lebanese border. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, proclaimed that he was “very much encouraged by the exchange of prisoners” and that he hoped it would be...
Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG, has up two posts on sovereignty and geography. Quoting from Neal Ascherson, one post begins: There "may or may not have been," he writes, "something called the 'Akwizgran Discrepancy'." It's now just "a forgotten thread of diplomatic folklore." (Ascherson, by the way, is the author of Black Sea, an excellent history of the region.) The discrepancy may have been a small...
It looks like Duncan's analysis of the potential problem in the Betancourt hostage rescure was on target. Bloomberg reports: A Colombia soldier wore a Red Cross emblem during the rescue of 15 hostages earlier this month, President Alvaro Uribe said. Uribe, who apologized for the use of the symbol, said the move wasn't sanctioned by the government and the soldier did it...
In a both metaphorical and literal last gasp effort, Mexico has won an "indication of provisional measures" from the International Court of Justice ordering that the United States (and Texas in particular) take all necessary measures to stop the pending executions of Mexican nationals. The United States of America shall take all measures necessary to ensure that Messrs. José Ernesto Medellín Rojas, César...
