The usual meeting of U.S. governors this year has an added wrinkle: the participation of premiers from Canadian provinces. Provincial leaders wrapped up three days of meetings with U.S. governors in Washington, D.C., on Sunday and Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said the unprecedented get-together paves the way for improved relations between Canada and the U.S. “It’s the first time the governors and...
Over at the Los Angeles Times opinion page today, Sunday, February 21, 2010, Marjorie Miller has lined up various folks to opine on targeted killing and the presumed Mossad hit in Dubai. The offerings are very short — a hundred or so words each — but I had no idea when approached I would be in such exalted company, including Philip Alston,...
Alan Dershowitz has a very short but persuasive assessment of the legal issues arising out of the alleged Israeli assassinations of a Hamas leader in Dubai. So if the Israeli Air Force had killed Mabhouh while he was in Gaza, there would be absolutely no doubt that their action would be lawful. It does not violate international law to kill a...
My former law firm colleague Natalie Klein (now a law prof at Macquarie) calls out aggressive anti-whaling protesters, suggesting they could be liable for piracy. WHEN Sea Shepherd Conservation Society member Pete Bethune climbed from his jet ski on to Japanese whaling ship the Shonan Maru 2 and presented a demand for money following weeks of hostile encounters between the whalers...
I don't know about this lawsuit, presumably filed under the Alien Tort Statute, but it should be interesting.* A Northwestern University law professor has sued the Hungarian State Railways on behalf of Jews deported to camps during World War II. Anthony D'Amato, who teaches international law, is seeking compensation for property stolen from Hungarian Jews, the Chicago Tribune reports. In a brief...
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans "cluster bombs," received its 30th ratification yesterday when Burkina Faso and Moldava deposited their ratifications. The treaty, which was signed back in 2008, set 30 as the number of nations needed for it to go into effect. It will now become active on August 1, 2010. Apparently, this treaty was spearheaded by New...
Conservatives and human rights groups have rightly pummeled the new UN Human Rights Council as a deeply problematic institution, characterized by a strange obsession with Israel. But the Obama Administration joined anyway, despite criticism, and they won a small payoff this week in Geneva. The HRC finally got tough (well, at least they focused on) someone other than Israel. The...
John Bellinger makes a solid observation in the NYT on the Obama Administration's general approach to international law. The bottom line: Obama is basically the same as Bush (at least during the second term) on international law. Last month marked the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s first signature foreign policy initiative: the issuance of three executive orders ordering the closure of the...
Not everyone in international law is quite so fascinated as I with CDS spreads on Greek sovereign debt. However, the issues raised by the Greek debt difficulties and the urgent discussions in the Eurozone over a possible bailout, attendant moral hazard, and the like are far more than merely fiscal or monetary questions. Rather, this crisis is one of those...
The UN special tribunal to investigate the murder of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri seemed like a good idea at the time it was established, back in 2005. Some folks claimed it vindicated the role of the UN in resolving this kinds of delicate political disputes. But the opposite has turned out to be the case. Half a decade later, however, the...
The Economist Intelligence Unit has just released its annual list of the world's most livable cities -- and my adopted home of Melbourne ranks third, behind only Vancouver and Vienna. It thus seems like an appropriate time to mention that Melbourne Law School is looking to hire new faculty at all levels, from Lecturer to Professor: This year we...
Professor Osofsky’s response to my article is convincing and her exploration of the gaps in my earlier discussion of climate reparations is welcome — in fact, it is encouraged. The hope in writing an article on climate reparations was to investigate seriously alternate avenues for remedy for the climate vulnerable and encourage creativity across scales, between novel claimants, and...
