Citizenship for sale schemes have become an increasingly common phenomenon as the rich from non-Western states look to upgrade their travel privileges. The likes of Malta, Cyprus, and St. Kitts have had some success selling citizenship to plutocrats from Russia, China and other non-visa waiver countries. The revenues supply a nice fiscal bump at low marginal cost to these small...
Congratulations to two new members of the bench of the International Court of Justice: James Crawford and Kirill Gevorgian. Also, congratulations to Joan Donoghue and Mohammed Bennouna on their reelection. The esteemed judges will commence 9 year terms starting in February 2016. The voting process and requirements for election under the ICJ statute are described here. Voting also took place for a...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa A suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum on Monday, a hospital official said. Opposition parties, civil society groups and religious leaders adopted a plan...
Call for Papers TDM will be publishing a Special Issue on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the European Union and Canada (CETA) and is hereby inviting contributions dealing with the Agreement and the issues raised by any of its chapters. Of particular interest in the investment chapter are clarifications brought to key substantive provisions such as fair and equitable...
This week on Opinio Juris, Peter continued his commentary on the Zivotofsky hearing and Kristen posted the transcript of the recent hearing in the Haiti Cholera case. Jens wrote about the DOD's plans for a Defense Clandestine Service, and welcomed the news that President Obama will seek congressional authorization for the ISIS campaign. Kevin discussed the passage in the OTP's Mavi Marmara decision where the OTP...
For those following the developments in the Haiti Cholera Case, the transcript of the October 23, 2014 Oral Argument is now available. It can be accessed here: Oral Argument_Cholera Case 10.23. For my takeaway on this important hearing, please see my recent blog here. Perhaps not surprisingly, the hearing garnered significant coverage in the main stream press. At least one article suggested...
Huge news coming from the White House last night and today: the President will ask Congress for specific authorization for military action against ISIS. This is a welcome development. The White House had previously argued that military action against ISIS was already authorized under the 9/11 AUMF, the Iraq AUMF, or some combination of both. None of these arguments was particularly convincing....
Here is the question: are there any norms governing how many potential supervisors a student looking to apply for a PhD can or should approach? I get a few emails expressing interest in my supervision each month, and they generally fall into three categories: (1) proposals that are clearly directed toward me, because they discuss my work and propose topics I've written about;...
Recent news reports indicate that the Defense Department is negotiating with members of Congress over plans to augment its Defense Intelligence Agency with a Defense Clandestine Service with about 500 undercover officers. The previous proposal had called for about 1000 officers in the clandestine service, but that proposal was met with substantial criticism. This is a major development. There are multiple...
Transcript of today's argument here. Scalia, Roberts, and Alito are siding with petitioner (and Congress), Kagan and Sotomoyor are with the Government. Breyer, Ginsburg, and Kennedy didn't tip their hands clearly one way or the other. A lot of speech-related framings. Zivotofsky's lawyer argued that allowing "Israel" as a choice for those born in Jerusalem is a matter of self-identification. Kagan...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa The army takeover in Burkina Faso after President Blaise Compaore's resignation has prompted protests in the capital and international condemnation. Burkina Faso's army cleared thousands of protesters from the capital and opened fire at state TV headquarters on Sunday, killing one person, as it sought to restore order...
This fortnight on Opinio Juris, Jens predicted that the Ebola crisis will become a Chapter VII issue at the UN. The theme of the UN and diseases continued in Kristen's update on a hearing on the UN’s Privileges and Immunities in the Haiti Cholera case. In other UN news, she summarized some of the issues discussed at a meeting on the Security Council's...
