Search: {search_term_string}
06 Jun The Onion on George Washington and the Iraq War
This is priceless — and uncannily insightful about the demonization of anyone who has the temerity to question the Bush administration’s policies: WASHINGTON, DC — Breaking a 211-year media silence, retired Army Gen. George Washington appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday to speak out against many aspects of the way the Iraq war has been waged. Washington, whose appearance marked the first time the military leader and statesman had spoken publicly since his 1796 farewell address in Philadelphia, is the latest in a string of retired generals stepping forward...
26 Aug Is the Principio de Legalidad a Malleable Commodity for FDIs in Mexico? A TWAIL Critique
...Hernandez mentioned the RE was a direct violation of vulnerable groups’ human rights. The liberalisation of the MES occurred, according to a research done by Fundar , under a weaker fiscal regime of the contracts ‘than the one that applied to PEMEX until then and, above all, it remains to be defined in each contracting process and not by law.’ While under this neoliberal legality, the Executive Power had discretionary powers to determine the amounts to be paid by PPs. In addition, lax transparency and a weak accountability legal framework...09 Jun Weekly News Wrap: Monday, June 9, 2014
...Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced a wide-ranging amnesty on Monday, less than a week after he was re-elected to another seven-year term in the midst of civil war. Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, has said Turkey and Iran are determined to stand against violence and extremism in the Middle East during a trip to Ankara. Americas Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have agreed to set up a truth commission that addresses the deaths of thousands of people in five decades of the country’s conflict. The...01 May Initial Reaction to Brennan’s Speech
At least from the text, John Brennan seems to have positioned the speech that he delivered yesterday at the Wilson Center (that Marty linked to) as the capstone of the Obama Administration’s transparency campaign on drones and targeted killings in the conflict with al Qaeda. He made a point of referencing the string of other Administration figures that have addressed various aspects of this issue (Koh, Johnson, Holder and Preston) before expanding (albeit marginally) upon what had gone before. There was little truly new in this speech, but it did...19 Oct The Brexit Case and the Foreign Man on the Clapham Omnibus
...Province of Jurisprudence Determined, spoke about a “sovereign” as being the electorate; in this case, indeed can the “sovereign” be seen as majority of UK people who voted for Brexit in the 2015 Referendum instead of the UK Parliament? However Chambers goes on to say that the electorate may be the political sovereign and not the legal sovereign even in Austin’s terminology- the latter which remains the UK Parliament. There have been a string of other legal cases of course in the past which have examined the dance between Parliament...15 Jun Weekend Roundup: June 8-15, 2013
...in terms of the legal framework restricting US intervention in Syria. Neomi Rao contributed a guest post on the implications of the Syria crisis for the R2P doctrine. As announced by Julian here, Neomi will continue to blog on R2P next week, so stay tuned! Other internationally relevant news can be found in the weekday news wraps. First in string of guest posts, Michael Lewis argued that Pakistan has withdrawn its consent to US drone strikes in its territory . James Stewart then responded to Kevin’s defence last week of...14 Apr Baseball, Doping and International Law
...performance-enhancing drugs. Of course, the steroid crisis in baseball is only the latest (and some would say long-overdue) story in a long string of tales about steroid use in sports. Just yesterday, a French court dismissed a defamation case against Lance Armstrong that emerged out of charges involving steroid use in cycling. The Olympic Movement has also spent much of the last decade wrestling with questions of doping. Thus, my parochial interests in baseball aside, doping has become a problem of global dimensions. And once a problem gains global attention,...09 Feb The Strange Case of Luis Posada Carriles
President Bush has often insisted that “if you harbor a terrorist, you’re equally as guilty as the terrorists.” In that regard, it’s instructive to consider the ongoing extradition battle between Venezuela and the United States over Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently being held in federal detention in Texas. By any definition, Posada richly deserves the description “terrorist,” yet the Bush administration continues to protect him. Here are a few highlights of his long and varied career, most culled from declassified CIA documents: In October, 1976, Posada masterminded the bombing...