A lawsuit filed yesterday in California federal court seeks the removal of a statue in a Glendale, California public park honoring women victimized by the Japanese military during World War II. The placement of the statue was approved by the local city council with the strong support of Korean and Korean-Americans who want to recognize the suffering of the "comfort...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Nigeria has closed its northern border with Cameroon to block the movement of Boko Haram members who use the area as a launch-pad for attacks. French troops may stay much longer than originally planned in the Central African Republic. Civilians in South Sudan have been the main target of...
Weekend again, time for a roundup of the blog! This week, Rogier Bartels provided a guest post in two parts on the temporal scope of application of IHL, asking when a non-international armed conflict ends. Chris followed the situation in Ukraine closely with a post on the background of the conflict and the country's long road to stability. He also wrote...
The recent altercation between members of Pussy Riot and Cossack militia that was caught on video is a red flag signalling a broader issue in the Russian Federation: the resurgent power of the Cossacks and their relation to the Russian state, especially to keep politically-disfavored groups in check. But who are the Cossacks? A paramilitary organization? A political party? An ethnic...
The BBC is reporting that dozens of people have died today in new fighting between police and protestors in Ukraine. For a background to what is underlying the protests, see these posts concerning the struggle over the norms that will define Ukraine, how Ukraine's domestic disputes interact with Russian and European regional strategies, and the significance of the eastward spread...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa At least 90 people have been killed in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state by suspected members of Boko Haram. The EU and West Africa have reached a compromise on an Economic Partnership Agreement, following over a decade of negotiations. Asia North and South Korea have agreed in a rare high-level meeting...
The heavy dumping of snow on the US East Coast made for a light dusting of posts this week. Kevin found the ICTR's recent acquittal of Augustin Ndindiliyimana after 11 years of pre-trial detention a stain on the tribunal's reputation. He also was not convinced by Eugene Kontorovich's use of Belgium's extension of the right to die to terminally ill minors as...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa A Red Cross spokesman says a vehicle carrying five people has gone missing in northern Mali and an official from the group known as the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa said that an al-Qaeda-linked group in Mali has kidnapped them. The Office of the Prosecutor for...
I had the great pleasure the last several months to serve on ASIL's Book Awards Committee (along with Jutta Brunnée, Jean d’Aspremont, Saira Mohamed, and a very well organized chair in Jacob Cogan). I'm pleased to announce that the Society's Executive Council has selected three winners for 2014 based on our nominations. The winners (plus the Committee's accompanying citation) are as follows: Certificate...
The year is now officially in full swing on Opinio Juris with our first symposium of 2014. Up for discussion were both lead articles of the latest AJIL issue. The first article, on the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, was introduced here by Karen Alter, Larry Helfer and Jacky McAllister and was followed by comments by Solomon Ebobrah, Kofi Kufuor, and...
[Julian Davis Mortenson is Assistant Professor of Law at Michigan Law.] I am most grateful for the thoughtful comments offered by Bart, Richard, and Ulf. Their observations are well-informed, generous, and extremely useful in advancing the conversation about treaty interpretation. So first and foremost, sincerest thanks to each of them. In my response, I hope (1) to clarify the question that seems principally...
I have a piece up on Slate arguing that the Olympics should no longer require competitors to have the nationality of the country for which they compete. A journalist friend of mine once told me, "Don't ever read the comments. Just don't." Misguidedly thinking that Slate readers were somehow exempt from the laws of the internet, I made that mistake. Maybe 10 to 1...
