This shouldn't be news, but it might be worth noting that the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution today condemning denials of the Holocaust and calling such denials "tantamount to approval of genocide in all its forms." The resolution was adopted by consensus, which actually is kind of silly because one of the goals of the resolution is to...
To no one's surprise, the International Criminal Court's Pre-Trial Chamber has referred its very first case, The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to trial. Lubanga Dyilo has been charged with recruiting child soldiers to commit atrocities in a civil conflict within the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2002 to 2003 (see...
Father Robert Drinan, Catholic priest, former member of Congress, human rights activist, author, and law professor, died on Sunday from complications relating to pneumonia. He was 86. Father Drinan will be remembered for having been the first priest to be elected as a voting member to Congress (Michigan, then a territory, sent a priest as a non-voting delegate in the 1830’s)....
I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank John Bellinger and our guest respondents for engaging our readers in such a serious way. While there has been much disagreement the past two weeks, there has been virtually unanimous expressions of sincere appreciation to Bellinger for his willingness to participate in this discussion. The blogosphere certainly took notice...
With his final wrap up post, John Bellinger's guest stint here has come to an end. On behalf of all of us here at Opinio Juris, I want to offer a sincere thank you to John for expending so much time and effort on providing significant, extensive and thoughtful posts and respsonses to comments over the past two weeks....
This post marks the end of my stint as guest-blogger. Although I have a few bruises to show for it, I have nonetheless appreciated the opportunity to have an in-depth dialogue with all of you regarding what I believe are very difficult legal issues, and hope that this dialogue will continue on this forum and others over the weeks...
The Wall Street Journal has a provocative editorial today about the role of Congress in the war in Iraq. They argue that Congress is acting unconstitutionally in the manner in which it is attempting to micromanage the war effort. Here is a flavor: To understand why the Founders put war powers in the hands of the Presidency, look no...
Here's something I didn't realize: Manuel Noriega will be released from prison in September, after serving a little more than half of his 30-year sentence:Noriega has been in U.S. custody since surrendering 17 years ago during the U.S. invasion of Panama. He is currently serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering. "He has now come to the point where...
The D.C. Circuit last week rendered an important ruling in an ATS case regarding appellate jurisdiction over political questions. In Doe v. Exxon, the Court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the appeal. The case sounds similar to the Unocal-Burma case with allegations that Exxon retained government soldiers as guards for their natural gas facility and these security...
The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum begins tomorrow in Davos, the small chalet town that has now become synonomous with power in the era of globalization, a sort of latter-day collective Versailles. It does seem that the lead-up to this year's meeting is getting less attention than in recent years (though we now have daily blogging from...
Here's what I see up on the web by way of spring IL colloquiua. Jeff Dunoff and I are convening one here at Temple, with a terrific line-up including Paul Schiff Berman, Bill Burke-White, David Zaring, Oona Hathaway, David Luban, Joost Pauwelyn, David Luban, and Catherine Powell. Duke (Curt Bradley, Ralf Michaels, Joost Pauwelyn) Georgetown (Carlos Vazquez) University of Georgia (Dan Bodansky...
[Opinio Juris welcomes Deborah Pearlstein as a guest respondent. She will spend the coming year as an Associate Research Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. For the past three years, she has directed the Law and Security Program at Human Rights First.] With thanks to Opinio Juris for inviting me to engage...
