Public international law concerns itself with topics ranging from the weighty issues of war and peace to the seemingly silly questions of whether foreign diplomats and consular officers should be exempt from paying parking tickets and bridge and tunnel tolls. But silly questions have a way of creating waves that can lead in unpredictable directions. The current US Ambassador to...
Opinio Juris welcomes our friend and colleague Professor David Zaring of Washington & Lee Law School as a guest blogger for a couple of weeks. Professor Zaring's scholarship focuses on adminisrative law, with a particular emphasis on transnational networks and intergovernmental regulation. His SSRN page is here. Some of you may know David's sharp and insightful blogging from guest...
Cesare Romano, currently of NYU (moving to Loyola-LA this summer) and the Project on International Courts and Tribunals, and Lenore Jones Peretto of Duke University have launched the African International Courts and Tribunals Website. Following the format of the amazingly comprehensive PICT website, this is a terrific resource for all transnational courts in the region, including the ICTR and...
Check out these current and historical photos over at Slate honoring International Workers Day, which, despite its origins in the US, is not celebrated here. But it is still a holiday in many countries. And it is no coincidence that today was chosen to be boycott day (El Gran Paro Americano) for US immigrants. Whether your sympathies lie...
As Chris notes, I am guest blogging over at PrawfsBlawg for a week or so, and will cross-post my musings there over here. At the AALS meeting back in January (yes, I am late catching up), Peter Strauss of Columbia Law School gave an interesting talk to kick-off the discussion of transnational legal education. Strauss compared the current discussions...
In his keynote address to the ASIL Annual Meeting today, Justice Kennedy focused on the international crime of genocide, all but calling on the world community to do something to stop the ongoing atrocities in Darfur. It was a stunning -- and I thought compelling -- speech for a sitting justice. As reported by the AP,...
I am blogging from the ASIL centennial Annual Meeting where we have just hosted the very successful (and fun!) Opinio Juris wine and cheese reception on international law blogging. A special thanks to ASIL Executive Director Charlotte Ku and Research and Outreach Director Andrew Solomon for helping make it happen. By my estimate, over 100 guests were in attendance, including...
A military jury today found SSgt Michael Smith guilty of six out of 12 counts: two counts of maltreatment, one count of conspiracy to make detainees urinate and defecate on themselves, dereliction of duty, assault and an indecent act. Full information is at the Human Rights First Trial Blog. Sentencing to follow. This is an important act of accountability in the grim...
Attorneys from Human Rights First have been liveblogging from the trial of Sgt. Michael Smith, which began this week at Fort Meade. The link is here. (Thanks to Amelia Field at HRF for the tip.) ...
Salon.com has posted this important and comprehensive archive of all the publicly available photos and videos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. The photos and videos were part of the US Army's own investigation into the abuses at the notorious prision, which the US recently announced it was shutting down. Salon has provided additional documentation that has to...
I have just posted on SSRN a symposium piece titled Exploring the Limits of International Human Rights Law, a comment to the book "The Limits of International Law," by Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner, which I discussed earlier here and here. My essay argues that the value of the rational choice/instrumentalist approach that Goldsmith and Posner set out as their...
As we relaunch Opinio Juris at our new site, we are all extremely pleased to welcome our newest permanent blog contributor, Professor Kevin Heller. Since we began our blog just over a year ago, Kevin has been a valuable commentator, informal adviser, and friend to Opino Juris. As our readers have noted, he has been a terrific guest writer...
