The Wall Street Journal has an article today, February 6, 2009, front page, on the rush by states to enact new trade barriers in all sorts of ways. The WTO is expressing great concern, indeed saying that it is unable even to keep up with tracking the barriers being erected. The landscape is moving so fast that officials at the WTO,...
Sometimes reporters and their editors get caught up in a narrative, and forget to check facts. In the case of Obama and Bush, every Obama pronouncement is presumed to represent a reversal of Bush policy. But this is simply not true (see, e.g., the predictable and apparently uncontroversial Obama retention of Bush policies on "extraordinary rendition" and airstrikes in Pakistan). And so it...
I found this article in the Yale Alumni Magazine about Tony Blair's new Faith Foundation absolutely fascinating. Tony Blair is now teaching a course at Yale with the eminent theologian Miroslav Volf on the subject of "Faith and Globalization." According to the article, Blair is trying to use this foundation to encourage interfaith tolerance and dialogue. Given...
The ICJ has issued a judgment in the case Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine). At first glance the issue may seem relatively dry: whether Serpents' Island in the Black Sea is an inhabited island or just a rocky outcropping. But the answer to this question affects maritime delimitation lines, which in turn resolves which country has the right to...
I rarely like – if that is even the right word – movies about the Holocaust. Such movies almost invariably invite us to identify with a small number of Jews imprisoned in the concentration camps, turning the millions of others (unintentionally, to be sure) into a nameless, faceless backdrop of suffering that makes the fate of “our” Jews all the...
The Second Circuit last week rendered another important ATS decision addressing some of the most troublesome issues relating to human rights litigation against corporate defendants. In the case of Abdullahi v. Pfizer, the Second Circuit was faced with the question of whether involuntary medical testing on humans violates international law. Perhaps the most significant part of the decision was the...
Although prospects of a marriage remain somewhat fanciful, if the ASIL Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court has its way, the Obama Administration will take steps to engage with the ICC in a much more positive way than the Bush Administration. The Task Force issued a press release today, proposing several significant shifts in U.S. policy. ...
John Yoo has been hitting the op-ed pages alot, lately. The most recent one (that I know of) being this piece in the Wall Street Journal that attempts a critique of President Obama's order to close Gitmo. While the piece is ostensibly about why closing Gitmo is a bad idea, some have argued that the real money shot is here: What such...
Every law professor has that one edited book to which they wish they had contributed. This one is mine. The contributors read like a Who's Who of international criminal law: A. Major Problems of International Criminal Justice Part I. How to Face International Crimes Collective Violence and International Crimes, A. Ceretti State Responsibility and Criminal Liability of Individuals, ...
[Patrick Keenan is Associate Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law] I’m grateful to the folks from VJIL and here at Opinio Juris for the chance to share a few thoughts about my article. My aim in this article is to try to broaden the way that scholars and policymakers think about sovereign wealth funds. The standard fear about...
[Salil Mehra is Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law and Meng Yanbei is Associate Professor at Renmin (People’s) University in Beijing, China] Thanks to the Virginia Journal of International Law and Opinio Juris for hosting this discussion. Since this is our first time doing a blog posting for an article, apologies for any failure we may...
Economics Professor William Easterly of NYU has launched "Aid Watch," a new blog that is "just asking that aid benefit the poor." Check out Easterly's inaugural post in which he takes on World Bank President Robert Zoelleck's recent request for a stimulus package for the world. Whether you agree or disagree with Easterly's "tough love" approach to international aid and...
