Economics Professor William Easterly of NYU has launched "Aid Watch," a new blog that is "just asking that aid benefit the poor." Check out Easterly's inaugural post in which he takes on World Bank President Robert Zoelleck's recent request for a stimulus package for the world. Whether you agree or disagree with Easterly's "tough love" approach to international aid and...
I have not been following the work of the Cambodia special chambers, which is probably why I found these views by James Bair (blogger, loyal OJ reader and soon-to-be JD from Northeastern Law School) all the more informative and interesting. Bair is a former legal intern at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and has followed the...
Are we seeing a new media template? There looks to be a trend of established, well-respected (but in some cases, relatively low circulation) print journals teaming up with bloggers to create online content that joins timely reportage and commentary with traditional longer essays and reported articles. Even the New Yorker (the New Yorker!) has added blogs to its site. (Steve...
Medecins Sans Frontieres has published their list and report of the top-ten humanitarian disasters of 2008. Africa suffers its disproportionate share: Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world,...
Over at the Harper's blog, Scott Horton has posted a Q& A with Mary Ellen O'Connell about her book "The Power & Purpose of International Law." (OJ hosted a discussion of Professor O'Connell's book last month, accessible here.) Among the interesting exchanges is this discussion of the U.S. relationship to the ICJ and rejoining the Optional Protocol of the...
Michael Goldhaber at the Amlaw Daily is unconvinced. Drawing from some of the data discussed at last week's ASIL-Harvard Law School conference on Globalization of the Legal Profession, Golhaber summarizes the presentations at HLS, crunches the numbers, and looks at the dangers lurking (or already arrived) for firms staking their futures on emerging markets: James Jones, who chairs the Hildebrandt Institute,...
The Asian Society of International Law announces the "Second Biennial General Conference of the Asian Society of International Law," at the University of Tokyo, August 1-2, 2009, which takes up the important issue of Asia’s relationship with the international legal order under the main theme of “International Law in a Multi-polar and Multi-civilizational World – Asian Perspectives, Challenges and Contributions.” The...
The celebrations in Africa (in particular in Obama's father's homeland of Kenya, where scores of newborns have been named Barack or Michelle) have left some introspective: Why has democracy continued to evolve and progress is the U.S., but not here? Mark Leon Goldberg at UN Dispatch links to this letter to the editor from the Guardian in Lagos, Nigeria: What has happened in United States...
As Peter notes here, yesterday’s historic American election felt, in many ways, like a global event. Measured by how the election affects the lives of people around the world, it is not too much of an exaggeration. For months now, pundits have also seized on the overwhelming support of Obama all over the world as evidence that Obama’s election – in and of...
I have been a big fan of Andrew Sullivan's writing for a couple of decades (since his TNR days), and have read his blog pretty regularly for the past four years. He has an interesting essay up at The Atlantic's newly redesigned site, "Why I Blog." From the intro: This form of instant and global self-publishing, made possible by technology widely...
For interested readers, our friend and colleague Bobby Ahdieh sends along the following information about fellowships with the Princeton University Program in Law and Public Affairs. The fellows program has typically hosted at least one or two public international law scholars (several of them are OJ alums!). Past fellows rave about the experience -- the time to focus on a...
Friends and readers of Opinio Juris pass along the following conference announcements from Southern Methodist University/Dedman Law School (11/7: "The Rise of Transnational Networks") and Washburn University Law School (11/13-14 "Rule of Law and the Global War on Terrorism: Detainees, Interrogations, and Military Commissions"). They both look terrific (one even features one OJ blogger and several OJ alums!) so check...
