Search: crossing lines
29 Jan International Environmental Law as a 30% Solution
...role, but that is all. It is what I call a thirty percent solution. Solving a problem such as climate change depends on many other factors as well. Thus, my main thought leaving Copenhagen was exactly along the lines that Kal suggests — namely, to revisit the issue of geoengineering, which I last wrote about more than a decade ago. Geoengineering raises many questions and concerns. But if countries fail to limit their emissions significantly — and if severe climate change occurs as a result — then geoengineering may emerge...
10 May New Technologies Symposium: Concluding Thoughts
...that ought to engage the minds of lawyers and asking, inter alia, that those lawyers develop a better understanding of technology. As she correctly observes, the book may help to phrase the questions we should be asking about technological development. It is for all of us to engage across disciplines when considering possible answers. Markus Wagner looks at Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems and rightly comments that more could have been said in the book about the inherent difficulty in assigning responsibility in complex decision-making systems. He must be right that...17 May Book Discussion “Outsourcing War and Peace”: Too Much Jurisdiction? – Contractor Liability After Brehm and Ali
...than because it can. Thus, both Brehm and Ali raise the dark side of expansive calls for contractor liability—that, in the quest for accountability, we might tolerate departures from existing legal and prudential constraints on federal jurisdiction, and thereby blur lines that only serve their purpose when they are clear. To be sure, Brehm and Ali are outliers compared to the far more notorious cases that Professor Dickinson surveys (and over which the case for civil and/or criminal liability in U.S. courts is far stronger), but that’s exactly the point....12 Jan Autonomous Legal Reasoning: Legal and Ethical Issues in the Technologies of Conflict
...IHL regulate autonomous weapon systems? Are prohibitions better or worse than prescriptive authorities? Should IHL regulate via rules, standards, or principles? Finally, (6) why should IHL regulate autonomous weapons? How can IHL best prioritize among its foundations in military necessity, humanitarian values, and the practical reality that the development of such systems now appears inevitable. In asking these questions, my essay offers a critical lens for gauging the current scope (and state) of international legal discourse on this topic. In doing so, it sets the stage for new lines of...
25 Aug Latin America and the Caribbean in International Investment Law: The Price of Overestimating the Value of FDI
...settlement mechanisms, a number of Latin American and Caribbean countries have been thrust into the unenviable position of having to compensate investors to the tune of millions—much more than investors have injected into local economies. Argentina Argentina is one of the Latin American and Caribbean countries which has had to face the bitter truth that FDI is not as economically virtuous as touted by neoliberal proponents of this regime. In 1989, Argentina pursued an economic liberalisation programme in order to restructure its economy along the lines of the Washington Consensus...
20 May Re-discovering the Origins of Bilateral Investment Treaties
...could be used in combination with their more modern versions (viz. theBITs), to attract the latter’s dispute resolution mechanism, notably investor-State conciliation and arbitration. Such an operation would be in keeping with the 1978 ILC Draft Articles on MFN clause, the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and arbitral precedents. Synthesizing Article 10 of the Draft Articles on the MFN Clause, the ICJ’s take in Ambatielos I case, and arbitral tribunals’ findings along the lines of Ambatielos II case, an MFN clause of a treaty can attract the...
24 Aug Rohingya Symposium: Is Justice for the Rohingya Possible Within Myanmar?
...would also facilitate prosecution as a practical evidentiary matter. Needless to say, the conflict has exacerbated Rakhine-Bamar ethnic tensions and further undermine stability in the region (with respect to the Rohingya, tensions are dispersed along ethnic (Rohingya-Rakhine-Bamar) and religious (Muslim-Buddhist) lines). In the lead-up to the national elections on November 8, a Rohingya Muslim politician was not allowed to contest based on citizenship grounds. These developments weaken prospects for voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya. The saga of violence, persecution, and impunity also make it unlikely for the Rohingya to find...12 Sep Tenure & Promotion Timelines: An International Track?
...it’s 26 out of the 36 schools (those listed above, plus Berkeley, BYU, Cardozo, Hofstra, Minnesota, Penn State, Pitt, and Wake Forest). I’ve provided more detailed data at the end of the post. Comments, clarifications and, of course, corrections would be most welcome. But before we get there, here’s my question for international law professors out there — does this data accurately reflect the timelines facing those who specialize in our field? As collected, we asked for general information about timelines, and what is possible in terms of how quickly...07 Apr What Do a Top-Shelf Vodka and Illegal Immigrants Have In Common?
They’re both participants in the reconquista, illegal immigrants as the foot soldiers and now a vodka purveyor as its cartographer. Entertaining little dust-up over this ad from Absolut, depicting (very roughly) Mexico along the lines of its early 19th century boundaries. The ad was targeted at Mexican consumers, “based upon historical perspectives and … created with a Mexican sensibility,” according to the company’s blog. Did the folks at Absolut really think someone in El Norte wouldn’t get wind of it? The ad predictably played into “Aztlan” conspiracy theories. The company...