This is an odd item on today's AP wires: A list of recent incidents of US diplomats who have gone off the administration talking points without permission. It includes UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad's appearance at Davos on the same stage as the Iranian Foreign Minister. I wonder, is there someone in the public affairs office at State...
Our friend and colleague Ken Anderson is hosting a timely and important conference at American University Washington College of Law this Friday: "Terrorists and Detainees: Do We Need a New National Security Court?" Ken and his co-sponsors at Brookings have put together a terrific line-up of speakers and commentators (including Opinio Juris alums John Bellinger and Bobby Chesney)....
Matt Yglesias picks up on this piece in yesterday's LA Times by UN Dispatch blogger, Mark Leon Goldberg. Seems part of the problem in Darfur is a lack of helicopters: On Nov. 27, Reuters reported that shortages of helicopters are hobbling U.N. missions all over the world. "A shortage of top-end machines needed for tropical conditions plus a reluctance of...
Someone at the UN thinks so. Marvel Comics is collaborating with the UN on a series of Spider-Man and other superhero stories that will show "the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease . . . . The comic, initially to be distributed free to 1 million U.S. schoolchildren, will be...
There are too many fast-breaking reactions and early analyses of today's assassination of Benazir Bhutto to summarize adequately at this stage. But I was struck that Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued his own statement, focusing on the connection between New Yorkers -- in particular the 100,000 Pakistani-Americans who call New York home -- and the violence and threats to democracy...
NPR (radio, how quaint!) is running a terrific series on their morning show marking the tenth anniversary of blogging. Check out this timeline of the blog, which includes details of how the word "weblog" morphed to "we blog," to just "blog," both a noun and a verb. The part airing this morning (listen here) focuses on blogs and...
The WaPo reports here on the UN task force report that has uncovered "a pervasive pattern of corruption and mismanagement involving hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for fuel, food, construction and other materials and services used by U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are in the midst of their largest expansion in 15 years." The Task Force, which was created...
Governor Corzine's statement today as he signed the NJ death penalty ban: Thank you all for being here. Today, December 17th 2007, is a momentous day - a day of progress - for the State of New Jersey and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical...
If you are looking for evidence that a) the world is paying attention to death penalty practices in the United States, and b) states in this country are active participants in the international human rights system, this week's vote by the New Jersey state legislature to abolish the death penalty is a great example. Today's NY Times editorial framed...
Chambers and Partners has published their list of the top law firms for public international law. The top tier (or "band 1" as they call it): Clifford Chance Debevoise and Plimpton Eversheds Frere Cholmeley Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Latham and Watkins Shearman and Sterling White and Case The full post also includes a list of top PIL attorneys who are not affiliated with the top ranking firms. Chambers' description...
Professional life in the national security agencies is much better for gays and lesbians today than it was twenty years ago. The old rule that homosexuality would alone disqualify an individual from receiving a security clearance has been abolished. However, on a range of benefits and equal treatment -- including adequate security training for same-sex partners -- there...
As I blogged about here, Adam Liptak has a terrific occasional series ("American Exception") in the NYTimes examining common features of the US criminal justice system that are quite at odds with the approaches of other democracies. Liptak's piece today examines the felony murder rule — a rule we adopted from the English common law, but which has in...
