In association with the International Commission of Jurists

OECD Study on Income Distribution, Poverty, and Relative Tax Burdens of Members, Released October 2008

30 Oct

The OECD has released a very interesting new study of relative income distribution, poverty, inequality, and tax burdens and progressivity of the tax burden, comparing the OECD member states.  "Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries."   The study is sure to produce a number of discussions about the relative position of the US in relation to the OECD...

|
30 Oct

Okay, now I'm confused.  The Republicans keep telling me that Obama is a socialist, a Marxist, and a communist all rolled into one tasty expropriation-minded morsel.  So why is The Economist, center-right at best, endorsing him for President?  Has the left infiltrated that august journal, as well?  Call in Michelle Bachmann! Read the endorsement here....

|
30 Oct

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of news stories on Iraqi political resistance to the "final" text of a U.S.-Iraqi status of forces agreement ("SOFA").  Last week, the main storyline was that the Iraqi Parliament had better accept the agreed text or else, while the Iraqi Parliament gave every indication they would delay any decision till after U.S. and Iraqi elections.  This week the new...

|
29 Oct

The Czech Republic is set to become the 109th member of the ICC.  The lower house of the Czech parliament recently voted 140-6 in favor of ratifying the Rome Statute, which the country signed in 1999.  The upper house voted to ratify the Statute in July. Kudos to the Czech Republic!...

|
29 Oct

It's a little late in the Bush administration to be creating new foreign policy doctrines, but the NYT suggests that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates did just that in his speech yesterday at the Carnegie Endowment.  According to the NYT, this is the key sentence is the most expansive articulation yet of the nuclear deterrence policy: Today we also make clear...

|
29 Oct

Sure, some kind of important event will happen on November 4th involving the coronation of some guy named Barack, but international economic law geeks will have their eyes focused on a different date: November 15th.  On that day, G-20 industrial leaders will gather at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. to try to come up with a global response to the global financial...

|
28 Oct

While the Bush Administration may have reconciled itself to leaving office with the detention center at Guantanamo Bay still up and running, the U.S. federal courts continue pushing the detainees’ cases ahead toward resolution. After briefing by the parties on their competing definitions of “enemy combatant,” U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon yesterday announced a ruling: Enemy combatant’ shall mean an...

|
28 Oct

So asks Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation, in his interesting piece about the recent U.S. cross-border raids into Pakistan and Syria, with Iran looming (see this NYT article for background).  Dreyfuss is very worried about this doctrine, and suggests that its acceptance could result in the "end of international law."  I wouldn't go that far, but it is definitely a challenge to traditional norms...

|
28 Oct

With all the attention being paid to the pending genocide charges against Bashir, the media has largely ignored Moreno-Ocampo's recent announcement that he intends to seek an arrest warrant against rebel commanders in Darfur who are believed to be responsible for a vicious attack on AU peacekeepers in 2007: "In a couple of weeks I will present my third case against...

|
28 Oct

 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice has found that the West African state of Niger has violated its obligations to protect its citizens for slavery.  Specifically, Niger failed to prevent  Hadijatou Mani, who was sold into slavery at the age of 12 in 1996 for about £300 and regularly beaten and sexually abused.  The Court...

|
27 Oct

In honor of Ken, I wanted to post a quick heads-up to this post by Tom James at Futurismic, which has the excellent title "I, For One, Welcome Our New Robodog Overlords."  Money quote: According to Prof Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University: “What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack...

|
27 Oct

A couple of months ago, I blogged about the possibility that Blackwater would support the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur.  That hasn't happened yet, but the company seems to have found another line of work -- fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia: Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms — some with a reputation for being quick on the...

|