Last week I had the good fortune to attend a reception in Washington D.C. with various arbitration luminaries announcing the inauguration of the Jerusalem Arbitration Center. With almost $5 billion in annual trade between Palestine and Israel, it is imperative to establish a neutral forum for resolving business disputes. JAC is established under the auspices of the...
As most readers probably know by now, the Office of the Prosecutor has finally -- after three inexcusable years of inaction -- officially rejected Palestine's attempt to accept the ICC's jurisdiction pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. Politically, I think the OTP has made the right decision; the ICC has enough problems without interjecting itself into one of...
President Obama is set to give a speech later today criticizing Paul Ryan's budget plan. That's all well and good -- the plan is a study in right-wing extremism. But one of Obama's historical references is more than a little problematic. From his prepared remarks (my emphasis): "In this country, broad-based prosperity has never trickled-down from the success of a...
Here is an excerpt from my report on the Chevron-Ecuador Panel at this year's ASIL meetings, published over at ASILcables.org: In my view, the best way to understand Chevron v. Ecuador is as a marriage gone horribly wrong, where, as usual, the children are the biggest losers. In this case, the “children” are theLago Agrio plaintiffs, most of whom are part...
I think it's safe to say that the ECCC is in serious trouble, despite having an excellent International Co-Prosecutor in Andrew Cayley and many intelligent, dedicated staff. As readers probably know, the international reserve co-investigating judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, is resigning his position because interference by the Cambodian government is making it impossible for the Tribunal to investigate new cases. Kasper-Ansermet...
Here are some choice quotes from the ASIL annual meeting, all taken out of context for maximum effect: The real problem with cyber-security is that Viagra is too expensive. ~ Christopher Soghoian International arbitration is like a Jackson Pollock painting. There is order, but it takes an expert in fractal geometry to see it. ...
[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State.] Statement Regarding Syria Harold Hongju Koh Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State American Society of International Law Annual Meeting March 30, 2012 It is my honor to speak here again at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law. A year ago, I spoke before this audience about...
Dawood Ismail Ahmed, a Pakistani lawyer and JSD candidate at the University of Chicago, has a very interesting article today at Foreign Policy on Pakistan's opposition to drone strikes. He argues that if Pakistan really wants to put an end to the strikes, which have killed hundreds of innocent Pakistani civilians, it needs to start taking advantage of its options...
Over at EJIL Talk!, Professors Joanna Harrington and Rene Provost note the passage of what Provost has dubbed "Canada's Alien Tort Statute." As for the details, the new Canadian law will now allow Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada who are victims of terrorism, as well as others if the action has a real and substantial connection to Canada, to...
With all of the attention we are devoting on Opinio Juris to Chevron's "rainforest Chernobyl" in Ecuador, it's important not to forget that Chevron's human and environmental destruction extends far beyond Ecuador's borders. Here are few of its other activities over the past month or so: 1. Five Chevron executives have been forbidden to leave Indonesia because of a remediation project...
[Eugene Kontorovich is a Professor of Law at Northwestern School of Law] One of the peculiarities of the Alien Tort Statute is its mix of cosmopolitan conceptions of justice with American exceptionalism. Under the ATS the U.S. has been the only nation in the world allowing for universal jurisdiction ("UJ") in civil suits. So while enforcing international law has been the...
I am not going to respond in depth to Professor Cassel's recent post on Chevron's responsibility for the "rainforest Chernobyl" caused by its predecessor's dumping of million gallons of crude oil and billion gallons of toxic waste into the Ecuadorian rainforest. The plaintiffs' attorneys have prepared a lengthy and thoroughly footnoted reply to his open letter; interested readers can find...
