Charles "Cully" Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, gave a radio interview on Thursday in which he attacked law firms that give pro bono assitance to Guantanamo detainees and suggested a boycott of such firms by American companies may be in order. Thankfully, the Pentagon is distancing itself from DASD Stimson's remarks. CNN has the story....
Or so to speak. The standard narrative about the law of expropriation is that there was a wave of nationalizations (and subsequent arbitrations) in the 1960's and 1970's, then a wave or privatizations in the 1980's and 1990's. Today's disputes about expropriation, so the story goes, are about regulatory expropriation--how different types of regulations (environmental, health, tax, etc.) can actually...
According to the Sunday Times of London:Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources...
When I took an introduction to international relations course in college, one of the texts we focused on was Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War. In particular, we spent alot of time on the Melian Dialogue and that realist bumper-sticker: "The strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.” That dialogue has returned again and again in my education...
Donald Donovan of Debevoise & Plimpton represented Mexico before the ICJ in the Avena case concerning 51 Mexican nationals on death row in the U.S. He subsequently sought compliance with teh ICJ's Avena decision in the Medellin case that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Donovan also litigated Breard, the first Vienna Convention on Consular Relations case...
CNN is reporting that Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, is likely to be nominated to be the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN. ...
Edge, an online salon of public intellectuals with a scientific bent, posed a question to its contributors: “What are you optimistic about? Why?” They received 160 short essays in response. Open Source Radio hosted a few of the contributors for an on-air discussion. I was hoping for something about life on Mars but what I got was probably better:...
John Negroponte, the National Intelligence Director, will become the new Deputy Secretary of State, the Department’s number 2 position. CNN has the story here. No word yet on who will take his place overseeing intelligence. ...
The American Society of International Law has started a new fellowship program in international and/or comparative law. While it may be of particular interest to academics on sabbatical, a university position is not a requirement. Actually, I would especially encourage lawyers planning to enter the academic job market to look at this fellowship as a way to focus on...
New UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has started making new appointments and agenda setting at the United Nations. The NY Times reports thatVijay Nambiar of India, a special adviser to Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, will be his chief of staff, and Michèle Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcaster, will head the spokesman’s division, replacing Stéphane Dujarric of France, a...
The stroke of midnight not only heralded the New Year, but also the entrance of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU. The BBC story is here. The EU has now grown to 27 countries with a population of half a billion people. See a time-lapse map of EU expansion here. As the borders of “Europe” move eastward, the question...
David Kaye and K. Russell LaMotte (along with illustrator Peter Hoey) argue in a recent NY Times op-ed that one way the new Congress can attempt to gain back some of the international good-will that the U.S. has lost is to approve some of the many treaties that have been submitted by a President but are currently languishing. They explain:The...
