Search: crossing lines
25 Jun Out of Place? Being Anti-Colonial in Law School
...Eurocentric legality, or at least European epistemology, a critique that cannot be subversive. Despite our anti-colonial credentials, we’ve practically essentialised international law, implying throughout our scholarship that even colouring within the lines is emancipatory. In those moments of doubt, I reorient myself to the subject of the critique. Mainstream international law itself is inchoate, but not in the same way as TWAIL. The critique has been around for a little over a generation, ignored for much of its early years and only now taking shape. I describe TWAIL as embryonic...23 Aug Report: Ukraine Willing to “Compromise” on a Non-Ukrainian Internationalized Tribunal
...the Ukrainian side, it is important that after the “Hague Tribunal” is established, it receives the “blessing” of the UN General Assembly , approval of its action by a separate decision. And if, say, 100 states support the work of such a court and its tasks, then this body will de facto become international. Much of the discussion to date, whether about an international or internationalized tribunal, has been based on the idea that a tribunal would be created by UN/Ukraine agreement following UNGA endorsement, along the lines of the...24 Nov Reply to Professor Waxman
...Third, the detainee must be informed of the factual basis for detention and be given a genuine opportunity to respond. Even if the international standard on judicial review is developed along those lines, however, states would have some discretion on how best to implement it within their domestic legal systems. In other words, the standard would continue to permit some variance, and whether a particular detention scheme satisfies the standard would be assessed on the facts. Yet, in my view, that variance would not by itself demonstrate a lack of...02 Jan The End of the United States – Coming in 2010
OK, I know the blogosphere has chewed over this article from the Wall Street Journal, and spit it out already, but I still can’t resist posting this WSJ graphic describing a Russian professor’s prediction about the end of the Union sometime in the middle of Obama’s first term (in which case he would be the reverse-Lincoln). I can see disunion in the future, but not quite along the lines here. Utah and Idaho going with California to join China? Alabama and Georgia joining Mexico? Kentucky in the E.U.?...
16 Jul The “Cienfuegos Affair” and the Proposal for a New Regional Transnational Criminal Court in Latin America (COPLA)
...permanent transnational criminal court established by treaty between all Caribbean and Latin American signatories of the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime 2000 (and its protocols). A Draft Statute has been produced and circulated which provides for a permanent independent court modelled, somewhat, along the same lines of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In other words, a permanent, independent organisation with international legal personality, that boasts an independent Prosecutor, and which is founded on the principle of complementary (for an overview, see Rob Currie and Jacob Leon). It is...
18 Dec Digital Accountability Symposium: Social Media Accountability or Privacy? A Socio-Political Perspective from India
...accountability, along with privacy and free speech/censorship issues, have to be seen within broader socio-political contexts. Indian society suffers deep social fractures related to divisions along caste, religion, gender and class lines. After the post-independence decades when a broad socialist vision guided government planning and anti-discrimination laws began to threaten centuries of male and Brahmin privilege, a political backlash has ensured that discrimination and inequality are not only practised but upheld through various wings of the state. The privatisation of core public sector units and the gradual shift from an...12 Jun Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, June 12, 2012
...former was ordered to target Iran’s nuclear program last week by President Obama. NPR posts an op-ed about the troubling hypocrisy in the US’ recent leaks about its targeted killings and cyber warfare programs while prosecuting more government officials under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all previous administrations combined. Inter Press Service reports that the US has halted talks with Pakistan on NATO supply lines. North Korea has denied any plans for a third nuclear test. Thousands are reportedly showing up in Moscow for the first mass protests against...10 Dec Rice’s Strategic Vision – A Democratic Peace, But What About International Law?
...is imprudent and impractical. The goal of our statecraft is to help create a world of democratic, well-governed states that can meet the needs of their citizens and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system. Attempting to draw neat, clean lines between our security interests and our democratic ideals does not reflect the reality of today’s world. Supporting the growth of democratic institutions in all nations is not some moralistic flight of fancy; it is the only realistic response to our present challenges. This is all very well and good,...
08 Jul The Sum of Four Fears: African States and the International Criminal Court in Retrospect–Part II
...Panel took a measured approach in its recommendations, which concerned both peace and justice. It set out in detail its proposal for the establishment of a Hybrid Court (along the lines of the existing Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal established to try Hissene Habre and others that came later), despite the objections of supporters of the Government, and noted that under the principle of complementarity the ICC would be ‘obliged to take consideration’ of its establishment (along with other local ‘effective justice measures’),...20 Sep Adult Conversation on the Emergency Constitution
...their resolution are ultimately more about politics than law (in the current episode, low politics rather than high, lacking the attributes of “adult conversation” — Levinson’s term — that has accompanied historical analogues). Kevin offers up the survival rule as the more analytic measure of extra-constitutional action; Paulsen works from the same sort of premise, though on a much less exacting basis, drawing straight lines between the Emancipation Proclamation and the Bush Administration’s terrorist detention policies by way of legitimizing the latter. The exchange between Paulsen on the one hand...