General

[Odette Murray is a Legal Officer at the Office of International Law, Attorney-General's Department, Australia. David Kinley is a Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Sydney. Chip Pitts is a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School. The views expressed in these posts are those of the authors, and not of the Attorney-General's department or the Australian Government] The decision...

(Update: On a more serious note, Stuart Benjamin at Volokh discusses whether Gingrich saying he would appoint Bolton as Secretary of State violated any law, as has been argued around the blogosphere; Benjamin says no law violated.) One of my Business Associations students asked me what a "black swan event" is - I think she read it in a Wall Street...

I'm so saddened to report that Professor David J Bederman has passed away at the age of 50 after a lengthy illness. Emory has a tribute to David here. I still vividly remember my first encounter with David's work when I was a new attorney in the Legal Adviser's Office and read his concise, witty and simply wonderfully written introductory text,...

Not exactly, especially since the "blockade", is based on Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.  Still, depending on where the vessels were "boarded", (e.g. in the alleged EEZ?), there might be some problem here. In any event, something like economic harassment seems to be going on. Argentine patrol vessels have boarded 12 Spanish boats, operating under fishing licences issued...

News of the U.S. Postal Service’s struggles has been circulating for months, if not years. Today, the news is of distribution center closings, layoffs, and the end of next-day mail. The end of Saturday delivery may not be far behind. Obviously, a large part of the story is increased competition from independent parcel carriers – UPS, FedEx,...

The Melbourne Journal of International Law is delighted to be continuing our partnership with Opinio Juris. This week will feature three articles from issue 12(1) of the Journal. The full issue is available for download here. On Monday, our discussion kicks off with Karen Scott's article 'International Environmental Governance: Managing Fragmentation through Institutional Connection'. Scott examines how multilateral environmental agreements have sought to...

Austen Parrish is a Professor of Law and the Vice Dean at Southwestern Law School. I’m grateful to Opinio Juris for inviting me to comment on Marko Milanovic’s book on the Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties. The book makes a meaningful contribution to an increasingly important issue of treaty interpretation, and the book’s sweeping treatment of how different courts and...

Marko Milanovic’s impressive treatment of the rapidly evolving jurisprudence of extraterritoriality of human rights treaties is a must read for anyone teaching or thinking about the international human rights system.  What is most significant for me is Marko’s systematic effort to put doctrinal and policy meat on the bones of the argument that has been developing over the last decade...

On February 10, 2012, the University of Georgia is going to have the honor of hosting the Annual Meeting of the Junior International Law Scholars Association (JILSA).  JILSA is a U.S.-based informal support network and community for untenured international law scholars.  With almost 200 scholars on the email list, JILSA facilitates syllabi exchanges, summer brown bags, and informal dinners and...

My general view is that critical book reviews are much more interesting than positive ones (unless it is of my own book, that is).  And so I read with great interest George Mason Law Professor Jeremy Rabkin's takedown of Kathryn Sikkink's new book "The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics."  The Sikkink book argues, through an...

Opinio Juris and EJIL: Talk! are happy to announce that over the next few days we will both be hosting a discussion of Marko Milanovic’s recently published book: Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties: Law, Principles and Policy (Oxford Univ Press).  Marko's book examines the question when a State owes human rights obligations under a treaty to persons located outside...