I'm sorry I wasn't and I don't quite know what happened. I knew that big things were happening, but unlike Peggy's experience, it all seemed very gradual to me and finally anti-climactic. It seemed like something that was gradually sliding into place. I credit that to two things. One was that I was working in a Manhattan law firm, and completely...
The New York Times reports on budget season at the UN and various battles hotting up. It's a good piece by Neil MacFarquhar, dated November 7, 2009. As the article says, that fact that it costs the United Nations an average of $2,473 per page to create every single document in its six official languages, while outside contractors complete the same...
I'm slightly embarrassed to interrupt the flow of the serious academic discussion underway, but I found this a fascinating site. MarineTraffic.com, with a live GoogleEarth map of marine shipping worldwide. This distracted me for half an hour when I was supposed to be re-writing a chapter called ...
If you are going to be around the DC area this upcoming Tuesday morning, and are interested in the current discussion over the issues of the torture memos, my colleagues in the WCL program on law and government have organized a terrific program. Tuesday, November 3, 2009, at Washington College of Law: “The Torture Memos: Lawyers, Ethics, and the Rule of...
I can't make the swearing-in on account of classes, but I wanted to offer my public congratulations to Lee Feinstein, who is being sworn in tomorrow at DOS as US Ambassador to Poland. Lee is an old friend, someone who combines first rate brains with outstanding judgment, and he is a great pick to represent the United States to an...
H/T to Orin Kerr for pointing this out, but this week is national pro bono week. Being an international law blog, I wanted to invite readers to mention any international or transnational pro bono work they do. Me? I serve as the board chair of a nonprofit global media assistance organization, the Media Development Loan Fund. I've served in that capacity...
Reuter's reports on a speech given by Philip Alston at the UN, criticizing the US for its drone attacks or, at a minimum, for not being forthcoming on its drone attacks. Philip - a friend and well known to many OJ readers as an NYU law professor - is the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial execution. (I would be curious...
Just when you thought the global financial crisis was subsiding, with returns to growth in most leading economies, including the US, Europe, China, etc., we have a counter-indicator. The Financial Times reports today that McDonald's is closing its three outlets in Iceland, citing the difficult economic environment: Iceland edged further towards the margins of the global economy on Monday whenMcDonald’s announced...
An additional puzzle about the Alien Tort Statute is that there seems to be no satisfactory account, so far as I know, of the US government response to ATS cases. Sometimes the US government responds with a statement of interest; sometimes it does not. Even when it does offer a statement of interest, my anecdotal impression (if there was data collected,...
If I were to sit down and sketch out in a single sentence or two the current approaches ("theories" is way too strong for what I mean here) to corporate liability in the ATS, what would they be? I give it a shot as bullet points below; I welcome any additions, if you were trying to give a short but...
One of the pleasures of teaching at Washington College of Law is that so many of your colleagues are involved in so many real world public international law activities. They include our dean, Claudio Grossman, who in his capacity of chair of the UN committee against torture, today addressed the General Assembly. (I'll try to provide a webcast link; can't...
