President Obama emerged from his campaign bunker to face the press, and he issued what the NYT seems to think is a pretty serious military threat against Syria. “We cannot have a situation in which chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people,” Mr. Obama said in response to questions at an impromptu news conference at...
I've been trapped in an August blogging-slump. But I am roused to my keyboard by the surge of territorial disputes in Asia. China has aggressively asserted ever stronger and more expansive claims in the South China Sea, sparking dissension amongst the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and serious protests in Vietnam and the Philippine. China, Taiwan, and Japan are...
Fresh off the failure of the Arms Trade Treaty -- aka The UN's Secret Plan to Disarm the Defenders of Freedom and Enslave Mankind -- Google has released an amazing new tool that maps global flows of light weapons and ammunition. Here is how the Huffington Post describes the tool: The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), a Norwegian initiative focused on...
Call for Papers The African International Economic Law Network has issued a call for papers for its upcoming conference taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa, March 7-8, 2013: "Trade Governance: Integrating Africa into the World Economy Through International Economic Law." The call can be found here; anonymous abstracts of no more than 300 words are due by September 7, 2012. The International Review...
A friend of mine asked me that question the other day. Imagine that a non-state actor (NSA) had both a legislative branch that enacted criminal laws and a functioning criminal-justice system that prosecuted violations of those laws. Could the NSA challenge the admissibility of a case pending at the ICC on the ground that it was already investigating or prosecuting...
For the love of God, is it really too much to ask for reporters to do five minutes of research before they write about international law? See if you can spot the mistake in this article about Britain's silly threat to invade the Ecuadorian embassy to arrest Julian Assange: Ecuador has said it may appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC)...
It's been a slow blogging week, so I think I can get away with a completely self-serving post about the awesomeness of Melbourne. And yes, Melbourne is awesome. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Livability Survey says so -- again: 1. Melbourne 2. Vienna 3. Vancouver 4. Toronto 5. Calgary 5. Adelaide 7. Sydney 8. Helsinki 9. Perth 10. Auckland The survey assesses 140 cities on factors in five categories: stability, healthcare,...
As I noted last week, I have just finished a long chapter critically assessing the work of the Human Rights Council-created International Commission of Inquiry on Libya (COI). My basic conclusion is that although the COI generally did an excellent job, particularly in terms of its fact-finding methodology, it seems clear that it was less interested in holding the rebels...
I am delighted to report that Oxford has just published my friend Sandy Sivakumaran's massive tome, The Law of Non-International Armed Conflict. Here is the publisher's description: This book brings together and critically analyses the disparate conventional, customary, and soft law relating to non-international armed conflict. All the relevant bodies of international law are considered, including international humanitarian law, international criminal...
Upcoming Events The Institute for Global Law and Policy is organizing its 4th Annual Workshop which will bring together 50-100 doctoral, post-doctoral scholars, and junior faculty in Doha, Qatar, from January 4-14, 2013. More information can be found here. Applications to participate should be submitted online by October 15, 2012. The event is intended to be cost-free for all selected participants. The ABA Section...
I honestly believed that the Libyan government couldn't make a public claim more ridiculous than the one about the Swatch with a hidden camera and GPS locator. Silly me for my lack of imagination! Mark Kersten, whose Justice in Conflict blog should be prominently featured in your newsreader, called my attention to this recent gem from the prosecutor in charge...
For you, dear reader, I risked life and limb to obtain the schematics of the video/GPS Swatch that the OPCD's interpreter used to undermine Libya's national security. After assuming deep cover, prowling some of the world's most dangerous locales, and making contact with too many shadowy characters to count, I finally succeeded. Here it is -- look at your own...
