Reuters reports that Denmark-based Lego will soon be powered solely by the wind: The family firm that controls Denmark's Lego is buying almost a third of a German offshore wind power project in an unusual foray outside the toy business to showcase its green credentials to customers. Lego's parent company, Kirkbi A/S, will invest 3 billion crowns ($534...
The Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column yesterday made an interesting comparison between sovereign bonds and corporate bonds. It pointed out that although in ordinary times, developed country sovereign debt is typically considered safer than corporate bonds of the same jurisdiction - the risk free rate of return, and the sovereign power to be able to tax, etc....
Yesterday the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, has unanimously embraced the doctrine of foreign affairs field preemption. It will surely prove to be a controversial blockbuster case for foreign affairs law, with or without Supreme Court review. The case of Movsesian v. Munich Re addressed a California statute, section 354.4, that authorized California courts to entertain various insurance claims brought...
Readers interested in watching Ben Wittes desperately try to spin British condemnation of the U.S. approach to the war on terror need only check out his post today on Rahmatullah. As I discussed a couple of months ago, the British Court of Appeals held that Rahmatullah was entitled to be released from U.S. custody because the U.S. had rendered him...
Various right-wing commentators, Mitt Romney, and dozens of congressmen have demanded that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, be prosecuted for genocide for advocating (in one debatable translation) the destruction of Israel. I wonder if they will be quite so passionate about demanding a similar fate for Tucker Carlson, who earlier today openly advocated the destruction of Iran by the...
The New York Times Magazine has a story that is oddly depressing, on the one hand, and counter-intuitively optimistic, on the other - a report by Russell Shorto called simply, The Way Greeks Live Now (February 13, 2012). At the macro-level, things look unremittingly bleak; even if the latest deal reached last night holds, I don't think anyone believes it...
A fascinating chart, courtesy of Juan Cole at Informed Comment: I don't have any grand political points to make -- other than to point out that Canada better watch its back....
One issue I don't understand in the Greece-Eurozone crisis is the legal basis on which Greece can either be forced out of the Eurozone, or else can leave it voluntarily. I'd be grateful if someone knowledgeable could explain in the comments, and give the relevant treaty references, for how the process works. One reason I ask is that I thought...
The ICJ has asked us to post the following job announcement for law clerks at the ICJ -- which are, needless to say, among the very best positions available to a young international lawyer. Vacancy announcement Date of issuance: 8 February 2012 Deadline for applications: 10 April 2012 Post title: Law Clerk to Judges of the Court (Associate Legal Officer) (2 positions) Grade: P-2 Vacancy Announcement...
If you are around Washington DC this week on Wednesday and Thursday, you might want to (advance) register and attend a major human rights conference at my school, Washington College of Law, American University, "Forensic Evidence in the Fight Against Torture." My law school's dean, Claudio Grossman, is a major figure in UN and regional human rights bodies, and is...
[The following is a guest post by Dan Joyner, Professor of Law at the University of Alabama. Our thanks to him for contributing it.] So, as you probably guessed from the title of this post, it’s going to be a bit of a rant. But this has been festering inside me for the past five years and I want to get...
My friend Dapo Akande takes me to task today at EJIL: Talk! for my position on drone strikes directed at combatants attending a funeral or helping the wounded. I will address his curious reluctance to address the text of the Rome Statute in Part II of my response; in this post, I want to address his arguments concerning IHL. Here...
