Another clothing factory has caught fire in Bangladesh, killing eight; this news comes after a recent factory collapse with a death toll now over 900, with both tragedies putting international safety standards in the spotlight. In other Bangladesh news, the war crimes tribunal is poised to hand down its fourth verdict today over a senior member of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party;...
Internet communications companies have reported that Syria has been cut off of "internet communication with the rest of the world." The World Trade Organization has a new Director General: Roberto Azevedo. The ICC postponed Kenyan Vice President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang's trial as the Prosecutor is seeking to add five witnesses and the Defense has requested to vacate the...
Senegal Justice Minister Aminate Toure and Chadian Justice Minister Jean-Bernard Badare agreed to allow Senegalese judges to investigate various situations in Chad ahead of the prosecution of former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre. Fifty countries and organisations are gathered in London for an international conference aimed at preventing Somalia from slipping back into abject lawlessness. North Korea has removed two missiles from launch...
South Korea has dismissed the plan from North Korea to reopen the joint industrial complex shared by the two countries, calling the demands from Pyongyang "incomprehensible" and urging North Korea to come forward for dialogue rather than making such demands. The Mannheim Regional Court in Germany ruled in favor of Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Google, against Microsoft in a patent dispute. Nawaz Sharif,...
North Korea has sentenced US citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years' hard labor for "crimes against the state." In a clash on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan that lasted more than two hours, one Pakistani policeman was killed and two Afghani soldiers wounded. The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the government has been failing to meet EU air quality standards and...
US President Barack Obama is making a new push to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying Gitmo is damaging US interests. Chile will be Latin America's only representative in the 2014-2015 UN Security Council. The ECHR has ruled that Ukraine violated former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's rights by detaining her for politically motivated reasons. The genocide trial against Guatemalan dictator...
The Syrian Prime Minister has survived a car bomb in Damascus, an event UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon labelled a "terrorist attack." Ban Ki-Moon also urged Syria to allow international experts access in order to establish whether chemical weapons were used. Meanwhile, in a phone call to President Putin, President Obama has expressed his concern over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The European...
For the procrastinators among us, here's another friendly reminder about our New Voices Symposium coming up in July and August. As a recap, this July, we are planning to launch a new feature called New Voices: a two-month online symposium to run alongside our regular posts. Our goal is to give students, new practitioners and emerging scholars a chance to profile...
According to a recent report, tens of millions of dollars from the CIA were delivered to the office of Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai over the course of decades, meant to buy US influence in Afghanistan. Syria's neighbors are wary of a US-led intervention, should the US decide to take military action in the face of new evidence of chemical weapon use by...
Calls for Papers We have launched our own call for papers aimed at LL.M, Ph.D and S.J.D. students as well as those practitioners/academics within the first five years post-degree to participate in our New Voices symposium starting in July. The deadline for 200-word abstract submissions is in only two short days: May 1, 2013!! This serves as a reminder for the call for papers for...
In the wake of a factory building collapse in Bangladesh, in which at least 273 lives have been claimed, many are calling for reform by Western high-street brands that rely on cheap labor as the accident reignited questions about the often lethal conditions in the country's garment industry. The Atlantic offers a piece about how garment workers are pushing for...
French President Hollande is receiving a warm welcome during his visit to Beijing, which according to the Financial Times is a snub to the UK government which has not been high on China's welcome list after David Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama last year. US Treasury officials appeared before the House Appropriations subcommittee to push for a different allocation in US contributions...
