[Tai-Heng Cheng is Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School. His most recent book is State Succession and Commercial Obligations.] I am grateful to Roger Alford for inviting me to share some thoughts on the recent developments in Kosovo. On February 17, 2008, Kosovo’s parliament voted to declare independence from Serbia. This unilateral declaration accelerated the...
"Accidental" slurring of the Democrats -- not just for Fox News anymore: Hat-Tip: Crooks & Liars. ...
Who could have thought a tax case could be so ...
At a joint press conference with Paul Kagame yesterday, President Bush was asked whether he would be willing to send U.S. troops to Darfur to help stop the systematic violence that is being committed there. Here, in relevant part, was his response:I would say it's like — as I explained to this fellow here — that one of the...
Peter Spiro, who is not only our friend and colleague at Opinio Juris but ranks as one of the most-cited scholars of his generation, has a new book out: Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008). We will be hosting a full discussion of the book later this spring, but in the meantime you can...
Having already discussed the application of Security Council Resolution 1244, I will now turn to general principles of international law concerning secession and recognition. Thomas Franck, one of the five international law experts asked by the Canadian government to consider certain issues regarding a hypothesized secession of Quebec, wrote that:It cannot seriously be argued today that international law prohibits secession. It...
I cast my overseas primary ballot last week for Obama. If only I knew then what I know now -- that Obama is obviously the child of communists and may well be a communist himself. How do I know that? Because, as Lisa Schiffren at the ever-reliable National Review Online explains, he was born of mixed-race parents...
As the initial euphoria or anger (depending on your point of view) over the declaration of independence by Kosovo begins to subside, commentators are increasingly turning to the legal question: does international law support or impede Kosovo’s bid for independence? Too many times a quick and simple answer is given (International law denies Kosovo’s independence! Kosovo has a...
I am not really sure, but the erosion of the U.N. system and international law is something that is part of every Serbian and Russian government spokesman on this issue. And there is certainly some plausibility to this argument, as I understand it. U.N. member states are supposed to recognize the territorial sovereignty of other member states. (See,...
The press is loving the Defense Department’s recent disclosure of a decaying U.S. spy satellite that’s falling out of orbit, and U.S. plans to shoot it down before the school-bus-sized object crashes to earth. The latest news suggests that the U.S. Navy will take its first shot at the satellite this Thursday. Most of the ensuing discussion has...
Kosovo's declaration of independence and the subsequent reaction by various countries is obviously a quickly changing situation. There are two new Wikipedia pages that attempt to collate the latest information. See the Wikipedia page on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence, and especially the Wikipedia page on International Reactions to Kosovo's Declaration. Hat Tip: Catholicgauze ...
It takes little courage to be a blogger in the United States. Perhaps professional reputation is at risk if things go badly, but there is little more to fear than that. Sure, every intellectual community has its village idiot, and the blogosphere is one of the easiest places to find people who crave attention and lack discretion. ...
