In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

08 Jan

Earlier I posted on Microsoft's major ethical lapse of aiding and abetting the infringement of basic civil liberties in China. Most recently, as reported in the New York Times, without warning Microsoft shut down a blog for reporting breaking news without commentary regarding the firing of an editor at Beijing News.Microsoft's response is that "As a multi-national business, Microsoft operates...

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07 Jan

In a recent Der Spiegel interview, on the eve of her first visit to the United States, newly elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo must be shut down. According to Merkel, although she had no plans to demand such an action during her visit to Washington, she would...

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07 Jan

There was an interesting radio interview earlier this week with Father Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University and also a student and close friend of Pope Benedict XVI on the subject of Islam in Europe. Particularly interesting is that Father Fessio participated in a September 2005 seminar with the Pope to discuss the topic of Western Civilization and Islam....

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06 Jan

Disturbing news coming out of China that Microsoft has shut down a blog in China because of its political reporting. The blog is run by Zhao Jing under the blog name An Ti. If you go to An Ti's blog now here is what it says: "The space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."So what was the offense? As...

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06 Jan

In my estimation President Clinton's greatest economic achievement was securing the passage of the WTO and NAFTA. By contrast, to many trade experts the Bush Administration has not been a forceful proponent of free trade. Steel safeguards and Canadian softwood lumber are exhibits one and two for the case that, when necessary, this administration will sacrifice free trade for other...

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05 Jan

The Supreme Court has granted the U.S. government's request to transfer Padilla to civilian custody in Miami. The one-page order is here. The key language is the following:"The Solicitor General has now filed with this Court an Application Respecting Custody and Transfer of Jose Padilla, seeking the same authorization previously sought from the Court of Appeals. Padilla has filed...

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04 Jan

When addressing the treatment of individuals captured or detained in relation to the War on Terror, the Bush administration routinely emphasizes the United States commitment to respect the “principles” of the Geneva Conventions. The most recent example of this came during the recent visit by the Secretary of State Rice to Europe, where she reassured her European counterparts that the...

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04 Jan

The Second Circuit last week rendered an important decision on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in the context of a deportation proceeding of an illegal alien. In Oliva v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, available here, the Second Circuit was faced with the question of whether the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child had achieved...

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03 Jan

I want to follow up on Chris's great post summing up our past year, but there's a lot there. So in the meantime, I thought I'd point out one definitely non-top 25 IL event for 2005 or 2006. The NYT reports that the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora has suspended...

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03 Jan

Seth has finished his very successful tenure as a guest-blogger here at Opinio Juris and his legacy goes on. One of his posts on the potential for universal human rights deeply intrigued a colleague of mine at Hofstra, Bernard Jacobs, a professor of constitutional law and a classics scholar. His thoughtful and interesting response to Seth's post is below:I read...

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