I was shocked — to say the least — when I read Roger's post on the extremely important Khulumani case. With due respect to the Second Circuit, Judge Katzman's analysis of the mens rea of aiding and abetting under customary international law is completely incorrect. Although I can see how a judge who is not familiar with international...
Just in case our readers missed it, the Second Circuit in Khulumani v. Barclay National Bank rendered an extremely important award earlier this month on the subject of corporate aiding-and-abetting liability under the ATS. The decision, which involved alleged corporate assistance to the South African government during apartheid, is quite complicated and fractured. But the key part of...
We would like to invite our readers to join us for a drink this Friday evening at the Opinio Juris Reception at International Law Weekend. The reception, sponsored by Oxford University Press, will be from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm in the Lobby Bar of the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street (across the street from the New York...
The government of Iraq has decided to formally revoke CPA Order 17, a move that would open the door to prosecuting Blackwater employees in Iraqi courts for killing 17 civilians last month:"The cabinet held a meeting yesterday and decided to scrap the article pertaining to security companies operating in Iraq that was issued by the CPA (Coalition Provision Authority) in...
The European Council on Foreign Relations has just published a fascinating world survey and global "love/hate map." The "love map" and the "hate map" are especially fascinating because they identify which countries receive the highest approval and disapproval ratings in 52 countries. The survey results revealed the following: The largest survey of public opinion in the world shows...
Then try out this online International Law Quiz. Or this International Legal History Quiz. Let's drive up some of the numbers. Hat Tip: The aforementioned Space Law Probe ...
Even though it is a burgeoning field, Space Law doesn't always get the "air time" or recognition it deserves. Here are three blogs that make up for that. First, we at Opinio Juris want to welcome Res Communis, a new blog that is run by the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi...
As has been widely reported, a second Congolese warlord has been transferred to the ICC to stand trial:Germain Katanga, who led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance (FRPI) in Ituri, was flown from the capital, Kinshasa. Prosecutors say Mr Katanga - known as Simba - led the FRPI in Ituri in north-eastern DR Congo in 2003. He was arrested two years ago. He...
Last month the Seventh Circuit, per Judge Posner, rendered an especially ill-informed and badly written decision upholding a Illinois statute that banned the export or import of horsemeat for human consumption. In the case of Cavel International v. Madigan, the Seventh Circuit ruled that there was only incidental discrimination to foreign commerce and there was a rational basis to...
Okay, so it’s not easy to connect these dots, and I certainly wouldn’t pretend to have a generalizable theory here. But there’s a plausible story to be told in John Yoo’s ascent and the pretty clear damage done by his post-9/11 work at the Office of Legal Counsel. One can take Jack Goldsmith’s critique of Yoo’s OLC work...
My colleague Tim Zick has a post over at Co-Op about the "cyber protest" in Second Life in response to the crackdown in Burma. Admittedly skeptical about such cyber-activism at the outset, Tim writes about whether "virtual world" protests "will lead to greater social and political activism in existing 'meatspace.'" Another aspect of cyber-activism is how "virtual world" protests...
The Intlawgrrls bloggers have given up on their experiment with blogging under pseudonyms. The details are here. Notwithstanding that the pseudonyms had an initial educational value--highlighting the contributions of various historical figures--the fact that the postings were not truly anonymous always had me trying to click through to identify a post's actual author. As such, I...
