In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

14 Jan

Global philanthropy is a topic that invites examination across disciplines, including law, ethics, economics, sociology, political science and more — particularly as activity in the field grows in a globalized world.  So I’d like to welcome a new volume of essays, Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, edited by Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, and Leif Wenar (Oxford 2011). Although the title is philanthropy generally, the essays in the book tend to emphasize global and cross border philanthropy, with all the attendant issues of cosmopolitanism, community, etc.  The contributors include major figures such as Jon Elster, Peter Singer, and Alex de Waal.  Like many readers, I  resist edited books, but this one is finely edited and the contributions fit together well.  It would make, for example, a useful book of readings in courses in international relations, law, economics, etc.  I think general readers would find it a coherent volume. I have a contribution in the volume, “Global Philanthropy and Global Governance: The Problematic Moral Legitimacy Relationship Between Global Civil Society and the United Nations.”  I’m afraid it is the outlier essay in the book with respect to the admirable coherence otherwise noted above — the one that least connects to the topic of philanthropy in a specific sense of philanthropists and their ethics.  It is an essay instead fundamentally about the role of NGOs in the global political space, and a challenge to some of the legitimating roles assumed even at this late date for NGOs.  I’ve been making this critique for a long time, of course. Cover flap description, below the fold.
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06 Jan

If as expected Southern Sudan votes to secede in this weekend's referendum, territorial boundaries should be drawn neatly enough.  Boundaries of human community may be more difficult. At issue is the status of southerners resident in the north and vice versa.  The risk is that these individuals won't end up with citizenship in their place of residence, making them vulnerable to...

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04 Jan

As of early 2009, it's officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia.  (Okay, news travels slowly to Philadelphia; perhaps to your town, too?)  That may seem like a technical change, but Stanford geographer Martin W. Lewis makes the case that it gives the lie to the very concept of nationhood as we conventionally understand it: The idea of the nation-state has become...

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03 Jan

Julia Preston's lead story in yesterday's NYT Times highlighted the shift to state governments as immigration battlegrounds.  Several are looking to be SB 1070 copycats.  I don't think those will go anywhere in the face of quiet but intense opposition from the business community, who want the cheap labor and who don't want to be in the cross-hairs of the...

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31 Dec

We've been light on blogging with the holidays this week.  So, as 2010 comes to a close, I thought I'd open a comment thread for those readers still trolling the blogosphere this week to note your favorite Opinio Juris post of the year.  For me, it turns out I'm fond of bird dung, at least when it becomes grounds for exploring...

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25 Dec

To all OJers everywhere who celebrate it, Merry Christmas, and to everyone a joyous holiday season.  It is snowing large wet flakes here in DC on Christmas morning.  In my case, my wife and I drove down on Thursday to Chapel Hill, North Carolina and drove my wife's elderly parents up to DC to join us.  Other family have arrived...

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23 Dec

Another Indian diplomat gets the treatment, this time in Austin.  Colum Lynch has this useful wrap in WaPo on the issue of diplomats and security screening, see also my post about another recent incident in Mississippi. I don't get it:  Why don't diplomats get a pass, like crew?  Has there ever been a terrorist attack undertaken by an accredited diplomat?  It...

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21 Dec

From a new pamphlet, Why Does Sovereignty Matter to America? Merry Christmas from the folks at the Heritage Foundation: [T]oday, our sovereignty faces new threats. International organizations and courts seek to reshape the international system. Nations are to give up their sovereignty and be governed by a “global consensus.” Independent, sovereign nations will be replaced by “transnational” organizations that reject national...

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19 Dec

Consider three different takes within the last two weeks on the rise of China and impliedly American decline, with different preoccupations.  The first is historian Paul Kennedy’s take in TNR.  It’s a puzzling admixture of “don’t worry, it’s just a rebalancing that was bound to happen if you take the long view,” and “do worry, because the moves the US is...

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16 Dec

Secretary Clinton yesterday released the much-awaited first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.  It's an important document, and if implemented (a big if, given the shift in Congress and threats to cut State's funding) it would have important consequences on the ground.  The central theme of "civilian power" has a nice ring to it in the context of situating diplomacy, a...

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16 Dec

Video here.  (Downfall producers seem to have unblocked these parodies, which had been taken down some time ago for copyright reasons.  Lawprofs might be entertained by this one, clearly composed by someone in our ranks -- the mindset of someone who's taught for a while is perfectly satirized in a way that no outsider could, ever.)...

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16 Dec

Having received a number of emails complaining about how I counted the size of various faculties, I have decided to remove both posts.  As I made clear in the original post, my count was not designed to be scientific and excluded -- rightly or wrongly -- a number of categories of scholars that some might believe should have been included. ...

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