In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

25 Mar

[Emilie M. Hafner-Burton is a Professor at the School of International Relationship and Pacific Studies, IR/PS, at the University of California San Diego and Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation. David G. Victor is a Professor at the School of International Relationship and Pacific Studies, IR/PS, at the University of California San Diego and Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation.] Over the last decade there has been a surge in scholarship on the economics of international law (see Goldsmith & Posner, Posner & Sykes, Guzman and Pauwelyn). On almost every topic in international law—from the practical import of customary law to the repayment of “odious debt” to the laws of war—the economic perspective offers important insights into how international law actually works. At last there’s one book to introduce the basic concepts and illustrate their utility.  Law students and academics, alike, will welcome Eric Posner and Alan Sykes’ Economic Foundations of International Law. This new book will likely gain most of its readership in law schools, but for scholars the book’s greatest value may lie in helping to deepen communication between political scientists and lawyers who have been part of the “empirical turn” in research on international law. Posner and Sykes—and the method of economic analysis of law—will help political scientists disentangle the many ways that law affects behavior and actually measure those effects.  While quantitative empirical research will never reveal the full color of why states create and honor international law, this line of collaboration between lawyers and political scientists can help reveal exactly which types of international laws actually help states advance their interests and solve collective policy problems.
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25 Mar

The EU has approved a new bailout for Cyprus. The leader of Syria's opposition has resigned. The Syrian crisis has also triggered a political crisis in neighboring Lebanon, as this article in the FT explains. The UN has reported that at least 35 have been killed over the weekend in Lubumbashi in southeast Congo when militia attacked the city before surrendering to UN troops. Violence in Mali continues as the army battles...

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23 Mar

This week on Opinio Juris, CIA drone strikes remained in the spotlight. Continuing on last week's post, Kevin tried to get to the bottom of the CIA's involvement in drone strikes and whether it is sufficient to trigger criminal liability, which sparked a long discussion in the comments with John C. Dehn. Deborah welcomed news reports about a possible transfer of the...

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22 Mar

Italy has promised India that the two Italian marines facing murder charges over the killing of two Indian fishermen mistaken for pirates will return to India today, after promises were made that the special court set up to rule on their case will respect their fundamental rights. Ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia, President Putin has said that the two...

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21 Mar

Jhesus-Maria, King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the Kingdom of France, you, Guillaume de la Poule, count of Suffort, Jean, sire of Talbot, and you, Thomas, sire of Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the Duke of Bedford, acknowledge the summons of the King of Heaven.  Render to the Maid here sent by...

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21 Mar

NATO and the Afghan government have reached an agreement on the phased withdrawal of US special forces from Wardak province, near Kabul. A Zimbabwean court has denied bail to a high profile human rights lawyer arrested over the weekend on charges of obstruction of justice during police searches. After reaffirming ties with Israel, US President Barack Obama faced Palestinian discontent while visiting the occupied West Bank,...

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20 Mar

From Dan Klaidman of the publication formerly known as Newsweek, here’s what I’d call good news: “Three senior U.S. officials tell The Daily Beast that the White House is poised to sign off on a plan to shift the CIA’s lethal targeting program to the Defense Department.” There’ve been hints in the press before that new CIA Director John Brennan in particular favored this approach, but this makes it sound as though it may soon become a reality. Why do I think it’s good news, at least on the relative scale of U.S. targeting operations? A combination of reasons, both legal and organizational, which tend to persuade me that Defense Department (DOD) targeting authority is better constrained than CIA.
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20 Mar

For those of you who are trying to decide where to publish your article during this submission cycle, my friend and former colleague Rob Anderson has identified an interesting Google metric for measuring the most-cited international law journals. As he notes: "The rankings are based on Jorge Hirsch's "h-index," which is an alternative to impact factor as a...

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20 Mar

For more on M23 leader Bosco Ntaganda's surrender to the US Embassy in Rwanda Monday, the Armed Groups and International Law blog has a background piece here, Justice in Conflict talks about it at length here, the BBC coverage of the ICC's welcoming his surrender is here and Reuters talks about the US' efforts in transferring him to the ICC here.  In...

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19 Mar

I got my first taste of international law some 25 years ago when I joined my high school's model UN team.  So, what does it says that today's high school students have model cyberwar teams?  The link's a bit short on details, but, I wonder whether they have a student playing the lawyer on each team?  I'd imagine any cyberwar scenario must...

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19 Mar

Bosco Ntaganda, the leader of the M23 rebel group in the DRC, turned himself into the US Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda yesterday. Ntaganda is wanted by the ICC for charges including recruiting and using child soldiers, murder, rape and sexual slavery, and persecution. Counsel for Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta asked the ICC yesterday to drop charges against his client for a lack of...

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