The first two and a half days at the ongoing Human Rights Council session are its "High Level Segment," speeches by the foreign affairs and other ministers who come to Geneva from far and wide for the occasion. These speeches usually are quite bland and polite, but sometimes there are fireworks. Yesterday's colorful quote came from the Cuban...
Various news items to report:As expected, the Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Saddam's Vice-President, Yassin Ramadan, to death last month. The IHT's re-sentencing hearing was as flawed as the trial itself; according to Human Rights Watch, "[t]he less than 30-minute hearing was held by a panel of five judges, three of whom had not previously participated in hearing evidence against...
In the discussion on the role of international relations in interpreting the Constitution there is one provision of the Bill of Rights that undoubtedly was drafted with foreign relations' considerations in mind. This amendment was constructed first and foremost to address international repercussions that would follow from a denial of this right. So what amendment was it? (Continue Reading) The...
Thanks, Peggy, for the welcome. UN Watch is glad to have the opportunity to participate in the always interesting discussions at Opinio Juris, and we will be posting updates on the Council over the next three weeks. But first, I’d like to provide some background on the Council and its performance in its three regular sessions and four special...
Opinio Juris is pleased to bring (almost live) blogging from the UN Human Rights Council session that opens today in Geneva. Our guest blogger is Elizabeth Kandravy Cassidy of UN Watch. Elizabeth is an American-trained lawyer whose prior experience includes teaching law in Africa and the United States. Prior to joining UN Watch, Elizabeth did a bit of...
The NYT has a depressing but somewhat predictable piece today pummelling the new U.N. Human Rights Council. As the article notes, the new Council has focused almost exclusively on condemning Israel while turning a blind eye to any other potential human rights violator. This debate is getting old. Rather than whining about the U.N., etc., a more interesting question whether...
What is the value in considering a body of work as a part of a new “school” of legal thought? Panelists Robert Ahdieh, Rosa Brooks, Ryan Goodman, and Derek Jinks were asked by moderators Laura Dickinson and Oona Hathaway to provide their perspectives on this question and to offer their opinions on the pros and cons of identifying their...
The third panel of the Young Scholars Conference presented student scholarship that applies the lessons of the New Haven School to current international legal problems. The student presenters offered empirical analyses of contemporary phenomena ranging from Geneva Convention compliance to the WTO Dispute Resolution Mechanism, with responses from moderators Paul Dubinsky, Noah Novogrodsky and Beth Van Schaack. Within...
The second panel of the Yale Young Scholars Conference gave four professors the opportunity to share their reflections on the New Haven School and its application to a range of international legal problems. REBECCA BRATSPIES Rebecca Bratspies of the City University of New York presented her paper, Rethinking Decisionmaking in International Environmental Law: A Process-Oriented Approach to Sustainable Development. Bratspies...
Seeking to examine historical perspectives on the New Haven School, the first panel of the Young Scholars Conference was a dialogue between two generations of international law scholars. In his opening remarks, moderator Michael Reisman cautioned scholars against consigning to history the set of tools employed in the New Haven School, finding a continued utility and intellectual value in...
During the 1790s, the Supreme Court decided numerous cases involving Article 17 of the 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce with France. These cases all arose in the context of an ongoing naval war that pitted France against England and Spain. France commissioned several privateers to attack British and Spanish merchant ships. The French privateers brought captured...
As I pointed out last week, there was an odd disconnect between the International Court of Justice's finding that Serbia did not commit genocide against Bosnia and judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia finding responsibility for genocide at the highest levels of the Serbia/Yugoslavia government. The IWPR, which has great coverage of this issue, further...
