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06 Feb ICC and Palestine Symposium: The (Non) Effects of Oslo on Rights and Status
[Jeff Handmaker teaches law, human rights and development and conducts research on legal mobilisation at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in the Netherlands and is a senior research fellow in the School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Alaa Tartir is a Research Associate at Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, Switzerland and is a Program Advisor to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.] The Oslo Process / Accords was a core focus of the Office of the ICC Prosecutor (OTP) in its...29 Aug How should the IMF’s Managing Director be Chosen?
...have certain professional qualifications (distinguished record in economic policymaking, capable of providing strategic vision, etc.) and (2) nominees may be nationals of any of the Fund’s members, rejecting the European convention. This followed a July 2007 report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the IMF’s nomination process, and canvassing the search practices of other international organizations and businesses, including CEOs. Given the debacle surrounding Wolfowitz earlier this summer,, the IMF’s move may presage new thinking in other institutions as well. But the end results...02 Apr HILJ Online Symposium: Is There Really Judgment Arbitrage?
...of settlements by defendants fearing the strategy. But that is speculation. Calls for federal legislation should be backed by evidence—and plenty of it. As discussed above, I suspect that the more likely answer for the lack of real-world examples of judgment arbitrage is that the incentives for it are in fact very mixed and the existing legal barriers quite formidable. For these reasons, Shill’s proposed federal legislation seems to be a solution in search of a problem. It may also be a potentially harmful solution. Because of existing barriers to...
09 Aug Doing Justice to History Symposium: Doing Justice Through History
...mass violence” (p. 312). It is easy to write about what one disagrees with. It is much harder to write about what one not only agrees, but finds particularly engaging and innovative. I don’t think I have much in terms of criticism, but I would like to offer some thoughts that were inspired by reading the book. One thing that kept me thinking as I read was the idea of court-constructed history as the result of choices. Which prosecutorial targets are chosen, which crimes are prosecuted, how is culpability approached,...29 Mar Follow-up to NYU JILP Symposium on LGBT Asylum and Refugee Law
...immigration judges. I have found that the interpretation of the law, rather than the law itself, is what matters most in asylum cases.[2] It matters most because it determines the outcome of a case. Some scholars argue that one’s adjudicator is the sole determining factor in the outcome of an asylum case in the U.S. asylum offices and immigration courts.[3] This body of research supports Goodman’s conclusion that “adjudicators in refugee determinations will retain considerable leeway to develop their interpretations of the law.”[4] Goodman’s uneasiness about individual decision-makers’ subjective interpretations...25 Jun Morrison and Extraterritoriality: More Thoughts
...the relationship of the courts to the legislature than anything peculiar to extraterritoriality. Justice Scalia, applying a robust presumption against extraterritoriality, embraces a clear statement rule: the court should not presume that Congress intends to regulate the overseas conduct of foreigners absent clear and unmistakable evidence of Congressional intent. The concurrence, written by Stevens, in contrast reflects a greater willingness to engage in a broader search for legislative intent. While conflicting rationales may exist behind the decision, the Court as a whole is nervous over broadly expanding the geographic reach...20 Dec Fujimori’s Month to Forget…
It’s been a tough December for Alberto Fujimori, the former President of Peru. Two weeks ago, a Peruvian court sentenced him to six years in prison for ordering an illegal warrantless search of an apartment owned by the wife of his murderous intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos — the first time a former Peruvian head of state has been convicted of crimes committed while in office. And he is currently being prosecuted for murder and kidnapping, charges that could carry a 30-year prison sentence: Fujimori is accused in the killings of...
27 Apr Symposium on Boyd van Dijk’s Preparing for War: People Count
...“Geneva Law.” By replicating this deceptive justification as the reason Geneva had stayed “silent” on the matter of, especially, air-atomic warfare, scholarship has created a form of historical silence, relegating to oblivion the enormous struggle that took place to prevent the diplomatic conference from regulating indiscriminate warfare, with critical consequences for how we understand the Conventions today.’ (p. 201). The key manoeuvre is detailed in the Chapter: there would be a prohibition on the extermination of ‘individual protected persons’ but not ‘the civilian population as a whole’. ‘Nazi-style extermination of...09 Oct Omit Needless Words
...are not encouraging. (Alas, I too plead guilty in my own scholarship). A ten-year search of the number of occurrences “the fact that” appeared in the flagship journals of the top law schools reveals the following: Harvard Law Review: 869 Michigan Law Review: 496 Yale Law Journal: 459 Columbia Law Review: 436 Chicago Law Review: 431 NYU Law Review: 428 Penn Law Review: 408 California Law Review: 406 Stanford Law Review: 388 Virginia Law Review: 364 So on average the top journals misuse this phrase almost fifty times a year,...28 Mar The Opacity of Transparency International
There is an important story developing in Germany about bloggers acting as “whistleblowers” for corporate misconduct. The issue has captured the German blogosphore, with the offending organization, Transparency International, now the top search request on Technorati. The story has been ignored in the MSM and the English blogosphere, but the details are available here. The short version is that a single mom was hired by Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO, to work part time on a probationary basis. She was then offered a permanent job for 30 hours a week...