General

Chambers Lists Top Public International Law Firms

Chambers and Partners has published their list of the top law firms for public international law. The top tier (or "band 1" as they call it): Clifford Chance Debevoise and Plimpton Eversheds Frere Cholmeley Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Latham and Watkins Shearman and Sterling White and Case The full post also includes a list of top PIL attorneys who are not affiliated with the top ranking firms. Chambers' description...

Serbia Threatens ICJ Litigation Over Kosovo Independence

This month, Kosovo is planning to declare independence with the support of the EU and the United States. Russia and Serbia are dead-set opposed and Russia in particular is making all sorts of ugly noises about any potential Security Council resolutions on this topic. Serbia is also getting ready to try to block independence, although it seems like they...

The WTO Director-General’s Speech on Trade and Climate Change

[We are pleased to have the following contribution from Steve Charnovitz of George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC. Prof. Charnovitz is a well-known expert on international trade. Some of his many publications are available here. ] On December 9, 2007, Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), gave a thoughtful speech on trade and climate...

Science, Civil Society, and the Nobel Peace Prize

Today Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. You can read the Nobel Committee's presentation speech here, Al Gore's Nobel Lecture here, and the IPCC's Nobel Lecture here. A few quick thoughts on the award. First, scientists have become increasingly common recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. ...

I’ve just returned from a week in Brussels where I gave a public presentation concerning the Transnistrian conflict in Moldova, with reference to the various other so-called “frozen” conflicts such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. But the word I heard time and again was: “Kosovo.” Monday, December 10th, is the deadline for the negotiations on Kosovo’s final...

Using Wiki to Draft Laws

Now this story from the New York Times Magazine is what I call an innovative idea for lawmaking: When the New Zealand police force said they were open to suggestions about how to rewrite national policing laws, they meant it. In September, they posted the 1958 Police Act online and invited Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike to visit the site and type...

The Hunger for Books

Doris Lessing received the Nobel Prize in Literature yesterday. Her Nobel Lecture is a joy to read. It's so easy to take for granted how much books enrich our lives. Lessing helps us imagine a world without them, a world that is a reality for many in Africa today. Here is a taste: Not long ago I...

Does the Writ of Habeas Corpus Extend to U.S. Citizens Held by Multinational Forces?

The U.S. Supreme Court seems to want to answer that question, or at least some aspects of that question, by agreeing to hear two petitions from U.S. citizen detainees being held in Iraq by multinational forces. The consolidated cases arise from two lower court appellate decisions, both from the D.C. Circuit: MUNAF V. GEREN, SEC. OF ARMY and GEREN,...

What Law Governs the International Space Station?

Like many other geeky lawyer types, I have been scanning the arguments in the Supreme Court today for cluses about the ultimate result in Boumediene. But I couldn't resist posting about this neat article about legal questions arising out of European participation on the International Space Station. The space station currently exists as a legal patchwork of about...

Justice Kennedy in Boumediene Oral Argument

In reading the transcript of the oral argument in Boumediene today, I spent some time looking for clues about Justice Kennedy. If you look at the transcript, he asked only a handful of questions and almost all focused on the D.C. Circuit’s review as an adequate substitute for habeas. Other than one joke (p. 30) and one question...

Annapolis and the Road Map

[Charlie Martel is an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. His most recent article (available on SSRN here) examines the implications of Oslo and Road Map obligations on the legality of the Israeli security barrier, and was published last month at 17 Duke J. Comp. & Int'l Law 305] First, thanks to Roger for offering me...

State Department Falls Short on Gay Rights

Professional life in the national security agencies is much better for gays and lesbians today than it was twenty years ago. The old rule that homosexuality would alone disqualify an individual from receiving a security clearance has been abolished. However, on a range of benefits and equal treatment -- including adequate security training for same-sex partners -- there...