Search: crossing lines
27 Nov Why Should the UN “Govern AI for Humanity”: What is at Stake and What is the Urgency?
...these have been typically slow paced. Nonetheless, due to the exponential evolution of the technology in the last year, an amplified sense of urgency has grown, which is reflected in the increasing number of governance initiatives. Currently, there is a rich yet diverse ecosystem of multiple regional and multilateral efforts towards the governance of AI lato sensu, including the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI (UN-HLAB); the G7 Hiroshima Process; the G20’s Guidelines; the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and...05 Apr The Situation in Palestine
...organisations). Thus the correct statement that the Prosecutor could have included at this point should have been along the lines that ‘the current status granted to Palestine by the General Assembly is that of ‘entity’, not as a ‘non-member State’. Is this a pedantic and pointless criticism? Does what the Prosecutor says even matter anyway? I’m not too sure at this stage, but I do know that it is a statement that I would require a student to clarify, and would have pointed them in the direction of the UN’s...21 Mar Normative Distinctions vs. Executive Flexibility in Treaty-Making
The wide-ranging responses to Oona’s work are a testament to its ambition and importance. In the interest of keeping the discussion manageable, I’d like to offer two additional comments on Oona’s piece even though I could easily pursue a half dozen other lines of inquiry. First, I wanted to comment on the subtitle of the article—“The Past, Present and Future of International Lawmaking in the United States.” I wonder about the use of the term “lawmaking” here. Is it true that when we talk about treaties we’re always talking about...10 Oct Shilling for the C-Pen 20 Scanner
...angle takes a bit of trial-and-error to get right, but once you get the hang of it, its scanning is remarkably accurate — I average around 95-100% accuracy per paragraph of text. The pen is also smart: if you are scanning multiple lines of text, it automatically eliminates the hyphens that break up words that extend over two lines, avoiding the need to go back and eliminate them manually. I could go on, but you get the picture. The C-Pen 20 is a remarkable device, and I highly recommend it...24 Aug Emerging Voices: Strength and Legitimacy of Control Mechanisms in International Human Rights Treaties: The Moderation Effect
...Czechoslovakia and the CSFR are both displayed on the “Czech” line.) During the communist era, the number of commitments fell significantly behind the general rise in the number of existing international HR treaties (red and yellow lines), but after 1989 the two countries caught up and their commitment curves rose extremely quickly (the first two dotted lines mark the years 1990-1992). Figure 2: Human rights commitments of Czechoslovakia, the CSFR, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic over time (Source: authors) As shown in Figure 2, a boom in commitments is noticeable...11 Jun Commentary on Katharine G. Young’s article: The Minimum Core of Economic and Social Rights – A Concept in Search of Content
...were neutralising the inter-state rivalries of yesteryear. Briefly, vertically and horizontally integrated multinational firms were supplanting the nation-state as ‘the primary form of political organization of world capitalism’ thus reducing instances of cross-border strife. Building on and possibly even supplanting the work of Arrighi, Robinson and Harris detailed in an important article the ways in which neoliberalism was further transforming the existing capitalist order: through widespread integration of national economies in the world trading system and a restructuring of finance and production systems along global lines. Combined – and despite...25 Jun So Far, the “Apology” Hasn’t Helped
...After all, it was he who insisted that Libya would release Taylor if the ICC “apologized” for her actions. Either Libya lied to him and he took its representations at face value or he simply assumed that an apology would lead to Taylor’s release. Neither scenario makes him look very good. Nor, unfortunately, is that all. Reading between the lines of a recent Sky News report, it seems that Taylor is still under the control of the Zintan rebels, not the Libyan government: Despite repeated requests, Ms Taylor has not...14 Apr Transparency and the Closure of Gaza
...that it would harm Israeli security to reveal what is certainly an embarrassing policy but one that has little to do with weapons or specialized defense systems. The court ordered the Defense Ministry to undo its redaction identifying the officials in charge of the policy and to release the “Red Lines” document purportedly used to calculate how much food should be permitted to enter Gaza under the policy in place from June 2007 to June 2010. Yesterday, we at Gisha received the un-redacted documents showing that approval by the most...15 Oct Kavanaugh Appointment Foreshadows Looming Crisis for the Rule of Law
...Bar Association, which had previously rated Justice Kavanaugh “well qualified” felt it necessary to re-open its evaluation in light of the issues of “temperament” raised by the Senate hearing; the Senate did not wait for the outcome of this re-evaluation before moving to a final vote. This most recent spectacle illustrates a longer trend through which votes on Supreme Court appointments have over the years generally tended to become more and more divided on party lines (see: here and here.) In some cases, this has been due to party politics...14 Feb Justice Scalia’s Rule of Law Efforts
Justice Scalia’s passing comes as a shock and is generating tributes across ideological lines. Indeed, whether you agreed with his opinions or not (and I was not a fan of his thinking on cases like Sosa or Bond), Justice Scalia’s opinions deserved to be read. Lines like “never-say-never jurisprudence” and “oh-so-close-to-relevant cases” are some of my personal favorites. Readers should feel free to add their own in the comment section. In the meantime, I wanted to pay tribute to a side of Justice Scalia that has garnered relatively little attention...