"Chucky" Taylor, son of former Liberian President (and current war crimes defendant) Charles Taylor, was convicted Friday in Florida federal court of committing torture when he was with his father in Liberia. What makes Taylor's conviction news (although only news overseas, apparently, since it didn't make any of the leading U.S. newspapers) is that it is the first conviction under the...
Interested in how popular culture constructs narratives about torture? Fascinated by the ticking time-bomb scenario? Like Battlestar Galactica and/or 24? Then do I have an essay for you, written by my friend and colleague John Ip: This article is about two different narratives or accounts of torture. Each narrative signifies a certain view about the legality and wisdom of employing torture...
As part of its ongoing efforts to educate Americans about the national shame that is Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International is touring the country with a replica of David Hicks' cell: AIUSA’s prison cell replica includes a steel toilet, florescent lights and a sliding metal door. In addition, visitors may record a 30-second reaction video that will be posted on youtube.com and...
I have posted a substantially rewritten version of my essay "Situational Gravity Under the Rome Statute" on SSRN. Here, again, is the abstract: The ICC is often derided as the "African Criminal Court." That criticism cannot easily be dismissed: all of the Office of the Prosecutor's (OTP) current investigations focus on African states -- Uganda, the Central African Republic, the Democratic...
Today is Halloween in the U.S. and some kids will be going door to door dressed as norm entrepreneurs. Not that they will be dressed up as Nobel laureates (though some may...
As I predicted a few weeks ago, Judge Allred has refused to reconsider Hamdan's sentence in light of the Bush administration's argument that he was not entitled to credit for the time he served as an enemy combatant: A military judge has refused to reconsider the sentence of Osama bin Laden's former driver, forcing the Bush administration to either release a...
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...
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....
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...
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!...
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...
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...
