I have posted a new essay on SSRN, "A Poisoned Chalice: The Substantive and Procedural Defects of the Iraqi High Tribunal." Here is the abstract:Scholars and human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized Saddam Hussein's initial trial for violating the basic requirements of international due process. Although those criticisms are justified, they are only half the story. A trial is...
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the first and largest group of its kind, has given letter grades to every Representative and Senator based on their voting history on issues that affect soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, war veterans, and military families. The methodolgy used by the non-profit and non-partisan group was straightforward: To calculate the Ratings, IAVA reviewed...
An outfit called the Better World Campaign is circulating a survey seeking to get U.S. senatorial and congressional candidates to commit to support of the United Nations. They seem to have very little participation so far, except from candidates in very safe seats like Carolyn Maloney from NY's Upper East Side. Check for your congressional candidate's views here....
For almost two centuries, rationality has been a central postulate of social sciences. There are various ways to determine whether a certain behavior is “rational”, but, in general and at least since Enlightenment, we think one is acting “rationally” if one tries to maximize one’s own “utility”. Like Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, this highly rational being, the homo economicus, free from...
Here is the latest from InTrade on the likely continued GOP control of the Senate and House. Both graphs (click to enlarge) reflect the buy/sell price from 10/05/05 to 10/24/06 for continued GOP control following the mid-term elections. The money appears to favor continued Republican control of the Senate, but strongly favor Democratic control of the House. ...
Phil Carter, who contributes to one of the smartest military blogs over at Intel-Dump, speculated about the recent announcements regarding possible changes to the security situation in Iraq. Here is what Carter suggests: I'm still trying to figure out why, after so many statements that we were succeeding, the U.S. would decide to say that we needed a course correction....
Today October 24th is United Nations Day, the anniversary of the United Nations Charter entering into force in 1945. I have to admit I was ignorant of this holiday until just now. I might support it if we can get the day off, but I am unaware of any events around here that mark this date. In any event, here...
An increasingly common IL curricular offering in law schools comes in the form of a workshop series, with students enrolled for credit. This is a great format, around for probably a decade now but proliferating in the last two or three years. I co-hosted one last year at UGA with Dan Bodansky (the line-up here), and will be...
The blogosphere is abuzz about the Republicans' latest attempt at fearmongering, an homage to LBJ's classic "Daisy" advertisement. Here's how CNN describes the ad, which is entitled "The Stakes": The ad features al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri, speaking, but the only sound is a ticking clock in the background. The terror leaders'...
Last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, John Dugard, presented his report to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the United Nations General Assembly (the Committee's account of his presentation can be found here and a draft if his report here). Dugard's mandate is somewhat odd....
The news that Jan Pronk, the UN Special Envoy for Sudan, was no longer welcome in Sudan raises important issues about the authority and wisdom of diplomats who give public expressions of their personal views. Jan Pronk's blog is quite good, and offers frank, personal insights about the ongoing crisis in Sudan. But on October 14, 2006 Pronk got...
Sticking with the munitions theme, Israel reversed course today and admitted that the Israeli Defense Forces have used white phosphorus against Hezbollah military targets. Previously, Israel had claimed that the IDF had used the weapon only to mark targets or territory, uses generally pemitted by international humanitarian law (IHL). Israel continues to deny allegations — made repeatedly...
