Less than six months after the Softwood Lumber Agreement was signed, the United States has invoked the dispute resolution provisions of the SLA to request formal consultations as a prelude to the filing of an arbitration claim. According to USTR, the dispute concerns application of the "surge" mechanism that is triggered when lumber prices fall below a certain threshold....
Word had it that Jose Alvarez would be not be offering up a conventional presidential address on Friday at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, and it lived up to the billing (good thing for the advance chatter; the general business session is usually skipable, unless you're winning an award, although I hear things were also...
The Australian has the complete text. Here are some of the juciest tidbits, with comments:b. I agree that I will not communicate with the media in any way regarding the illegal conduct alleged in the charge and the specifications or about the circumstances surrounding my capture and detention as an unlawful enemy combatant for a period of one (1)...
There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of the annual law school rankings published by US News & World Report. Law deans have long argued that the rankings are “arbitrary,” “inherently flawed,” and “unworthy of being an important influence on the choice” of law schools. But a law student in Washington D.C. has recently uncovered evidence indicating that it...
Just in case some of our readers missed our panel at the American Society of International Law Meeting yesterday on customary international law, I would recommend you check out a very impressive and interesting exchange in the new online version of the Virginia Law Review - In Brief. The lead piece is by Judge William Fletcher of the U.S. Court...
How happy is David Hicks today?A U.S. military tribunal sentenced Australian David Hicks Friday to seven years in prison but he will only have to serve nine months of the sentence. Hicks, who became the first war crimes convict among the hundreds of foreign captives held for years at the Guantanamo prison camp in Cuba, pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism in...
The UN Human Rights Council today concluded another session in which it failed to address the vast majority of human rights abuses occurring around the globe. It ignored such serious situations as repression in Burma and North Korea, denial of political rights in China, restrictions on women's rights in Saudi Arabia, and even the violent crackdown on opposition leaders in...
[Joost Pauwelyn is Professor of Law at Duke Law School and a discussant in the Opinio Juris On-line Symposium. He blogs regularly at the International Economic Law and Policy Blog] “Noncompliance is necessary to the effective functioning and the continued relevance of the international legal system”. That is Jacob Cogan’s main thesis. Applied to the United States – for...
[Jacob Cogan is Assitant Professor of Law at the University of Cincinnati and a contributor to the Opinio Juris On-line Symposium] My thanks to Professor Joost Pauwelyn for his thoughtful comments, to Opinio Juris for inviting me to participate in this online symposium, and to the Yale Journal of International Law for publishing my essay on Noncompliance and the International Rule...
[Mark Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law at Washington & Lee Law School and a discussant in the Opinio Juris On-line Symposium. He blogs regularly at AIDP Blog.] In Toward an International Criminal Procedure: Due Process Aspirations and Limitations, Professor Gregory Gordon inquires why international criminal procedure "has failed to achieve the level of due process offered...
[Gregory Gordon is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Dakota Law School and a conbributor to the Opinio Juris On-Line Symposium] I think Professor Mark Drumbl’s perceptive comments highlight some of the serious tensions underlying the creation of an inclusive, internally coherent international due process that dispenses justice efficiently while upholding the human rights principles on which it...
[Sean Murphy is Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School and a discussant in the Opinio Juris On-Line Symposium] For decades now, the global community has recognized that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems constitutes a major threat to international peace and security. Since the attacks of 9/11, there is broad recognition that...
