Following the UN’s rejection of a demand for compensation for Haiti Cholera victims earlier this spring, the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti challenged the interpretation and application of Article 29 of the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities, and formally requested a meeting with UN officials to discuss Petitioners’ claims. The Plaintiffs asked for the UN to respond within 60...
ICRC and ASIL's Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict are hosting what looks to be a great event celebrating the 150th anniversary of the ICRC and the Lieber Code, Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 3:00 p.m. at the American Red Cross historical building, 430 17th Street NW, Washington DC. The event features John Fabian Witt, author of the...
International lawyers are used to explaining to skeptics the functional case for diplomatic immunity by emphasizing the benefits it provides. Here's the 5 second version: we want our diplomats to be able to communicate with their host States since the alternative to communication is often (and certainly used to be) conflict. To ensure open communication we need diplomats who feel...
Bosnia is set to bury the bodies of 409 newly discovered victims of the Srebrenica massacre, including a baby boy, on the 18th anniversary of the atrocity in which about 8,000 Muslims were slaughtered. The US Navy has tested a new kind of drone, an autonomous model that flew and landed on an aircraft carrier without human intervention. Japan's nuclear regulator says it...
Russia has presented evidence to the UN it says shows Syrian rebels attacked regime forces with sarin gas. Foreign Policy discusses a trend of European residents flocking to Syria to take up arms against Bashar al-Assad's regime. US spying whistleblower Edward Snowden is likely to accept asylum in Venezuela to escape prosecution in his home country, according to Glenn Greenwald. IntLawGrrls has...
The Open Society Foundations, the Global Political Trends Center (GPoT) of the Istanbul Kultur University in collaboration with Moldova’s Foreign Policy Association and the East East Beyond Borders Program of the Soros Foundation-Moldova recently completed a project comparing and contrasting the separatist conflicts over Northern Cyprus and Transnistria. The project team included policy experts from Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Moldova, and me. My...
China has banned its trawlers from fishing in waters off the eastern coast of North Korea, due to a dispute over fuel supplies. South Korea has "strongly" protested against a Japanese defense report for describing South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan as Japanese territory. Corruption has worsened in most Arab countries since their 2011 revolutions, even though anger with corrupt officials was a...
My thanks to Brad Roth for pointing me to a recent New York Times article on activists in Okinawa seeking secession from Japan. Okinawa is part of the Ryukyu island chain. The Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent or semi-independent state until annexed by Japan and renamed the Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. It was occupied by the Allies in World War...
Brazil's foreign minister has said his government is worried by a report that the US has collected data on millions of telephone and email conversations in his country and promised to push for international protection of internet privacy. Bolivia offered asylum to former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, joining leftist allies Venezuela and Nicaragua in defiance of Washington, which is...
This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin posted how there will be no golden arches in the West Bank, kept track of the latest episode of Crossing Lines, and wondered about the anonymity of an ICTY witness whose name was made public by the ICTY. Ken turned the spotlight back to the Chevron/Ecuador dispute. A Washington Post profile on the dispute led him to inquire about...
Congratulations to Julian and his co-author, George Conway, on their op ed this morning in the Wall Street Journal, "When Corporate Defendants Go On Offense." I commented a few days ago here at OJ on a long profile in the Washington Post on the involvement of the DC lobbying-law firm Patton Boggs on the side of the plaintiffs in the...
The Egyptian army has overthrown President Mohamed Morsi and suspended the constitution, announcing a roadmap for the country’s political future that will be implemented by a national reconciliation committee. Al Jazeera has a collection of international reactions to the news and Foreign Policy introduces us to Adly Mansour, "the judge who is now (sort of) running Egypt." Tunisian opposition activists are taking cues...
