Search: crossing lines
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...14 Jan All Quiet on UNCLOS
Notwithstanding its recent efforts to avoid recess appointments with 12 second sessions, the Senate will return in full next Monday. For international lawyers, the big question is whether UNCLOS finally gets a vote for the Senate’s advice and consent. As I noted here and here, the SFRC voted UNCLOS out of Committee last fall largely along party lines. But it’s been all quiet since. Indeed, I’ve heard from a couple of sources that the window for Senate A&C to accession is closing, if not closed. What I don’t know is...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...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....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...
09 May Let us Agree to Disagree: Reflections on Modirzadeh’s ‘Let us all Agree to Die a Little’
...referring by way of example to Eslava’s and Pahuja’s call to attune “the operation of international law to those sites and subjects that have traditionally been positioned as the ‘others of international law’”. This is a misreading of Eslava’s and Pahuja’s work. The usage of words “in the service of the Third World” in the paper has been used in a manner that it blurs the lines between ‘inclusion (and mainstreaming) of the sites and subjects of IL’ and ‘placing IL in the service of the Third World’ – reflecting...05 Apr Man Removed from Plane for Singing Along with The Clash
...singing along to The Clash’s 1979 anthem “London Calling,” which features the lyrics “Now war is declared — and battle come down” while other lines warn of a “meltdown expected.” [snip] “He didn’t like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don’t think there was any need to tell the police,” Mann told the Daily Mirror. Lucky for Mann he wasn’t listening to the Sex Pistol’s “Anarchy in the UK” or anything by Gang of Four. He’d be at a black site undergoing “interrogation” as we speak… Hat-tip: Daily Kos....19 Sep Quivering Before (International) Law: The Terrified Presidency
...constraint to some national security harm (see David Cole and Jules Lobel’s new book for the argument that it’s the violation of law, rather than conformity with it, that has done the damage). The argument is more along the lines of, anti-terror efforts require boldness; legalization results in timidity. I don’t buy it. Either this isn’t a war, in which case the rule of law as usual is presumptively a good thing; or we’ve been lacking the leadership that would overcome the timidity. Goldsmith recognizes the first possibility. “When a...22 Apr OPCD Report on Gaddafi’s Situation in Libya
...be any fixed telephone lines, from which he could call anyone to choose a lawyer. Although the visit did not take place in the particular room in which he is being detained, it is clear that he would not be able to keep privileged documents in a secure location. 37. When asked whether he would want someone, such as his family, to arrange for a Libyan lawyer for the domestic proceedings, he responded that he would. 38. Mr. Gaddafi has been interviewed by the Libyan authorities in connection with allegations...
30 Mar Symposium on Early Career International Law Academia: That Other Half of the Job – Getting Started on Teaching (International) Law
...Here are some tips in that vein: You must teach at least once during your PhD: even if you are fairly certain you do not want to have a career in academia afterwards, do it, just to be sure you do not like this part of the job. And, if you are potentially interested, you need to be able to establish a track record for when you do start applying for all those jobs. Take pedagogical theory seriously: in most disciplines, we train as academics without any training on how...