In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Remember Harold Koh? Full Senate Expected to Vote on His Nomination on Wednesday

21 Jun

Saree Makdisi, a professor of comparative literature at UCLA and an old friend from the literature program at Duke, has a superb editorial in today's Los Angeles Times about the media's -- and thus our -- use of language concerning Israel and Palestine.  Here's a taste: In the U.S., discussion of Palestinian politicians and political movements often relies on a spectrum...

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21 Jun

With the number of the exonerated now at 240, giving prisoners the right to prove their innocence through DNA testing would risk “unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice.” It might lead to a reasonably accurate one....

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19 Jun

As most people probably know by now, the Washington Post, completely overburdened by liberals like Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, George Will, Jim Hoagland, Michael Gerson, Robert Kagan, Fred Hiatt, David Broder, Richard Cohen, John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, and Douglas Feith, has fired Dan Froomkin, author of the wonderful blog White House Watch.  Froomkin has yet to say anything about his firing, other than that...

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16 Jun

In the latest chapter of its attempt to consolidate its power over Georgia regarding the South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia has vetoed the continuation of the UN mission in the region. According to the AP: Russia has exercised its veto power in the U.N. Security Council and brought an end to the nearly 16-year-old U.N. observer mission in Georgia and breakaway...

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16 Jun

David Bernstein is back with another attack on Human Rights Watch.  This time, he's up in arms that an HRW official had the temerity to criticize Israel in Saudi Arabia during a fundraising dinner: A delegation from Human Rights Watch was recently in Saudi Arabia. To investigate the mistreatment of women under Saudi Law? To campaign for the rights of homosexuals,...

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16 Jun

Scott Horton has a typically must-read post today at Harpers.com on Jose Padilla's lawsuit against John Yoo, which, happily, just survived a motion to dismiss and appears to be headed to trial.  Scott takes apart the state-secrets defense advanced by both Yoo and -- predictably -- the secrecy-obsessed Obama administration.  Here's a taste: In seeking dismissal, Yoo argued that the case...

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15 Jun

Next month is the 40th anniversary of the so-called "Soccer War" between El Salvador and Honduras, made famous by an elegaic essay by Ryszard Kapuscinski. (See also this clip, in Spanish Catalan.) In the midst of heated disputes over immigration, trade, border delineation and other issues, the two countries played each other in three qualifying games for the World Cup, one held in each...

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15 Jun

Florence Hartmann's contempt trial began today at the ICTY.  Hartmann, a celebrated journalist who served as the Tribunal's spokesperson from 2000-2006, is charged with knowingly disclosing confidential Tribunal information: On 10 September 2007, a book entitled Paix et Châtiment, authored for publication by Florence Hartmann, was published by Flammarion. Pages 120-122 of the book Paix et Châtiment in particular disclose information...

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14 Jun

Maybe it's too soon after finals for some of you, but for those still willing to undergo examination, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has a short on-line quiz on international humanitarian law (IHL).  You can access it here.  It's issued in concert with a major conference the Center is hosting later this week on Hamas, the Gaza War, and Accountability...

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12 Jun

[Nigel Purvis is the President of Climate Advisers] Climate change presents a clear and growth threat to the United States and the world.  America now has an important opportunity to lead.  Congress is moving toward enacting comprehensive climate legislation.  The House Energy and Commerce committee recently approved a “cap-and-trade” bill (Waxman-Markey) that would reduce U.S. emissions 17% below 2005 levels by...

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11 Jun

[Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School] The argument for “The Inevitable Globalization of Constitutional Law” identifies two general processes – top-down and bottom-up – pushing toward convergence of basic constitutional principles in a rather large number of jurisdictions, those that participate in world-wide markets requiring significant cross-border flows of investment and human capital.  We...

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