In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Kenneth Anderson

04 Nov

The New York Times ran a front page story from its lead Guantanamo reporter yesterday.   (William Glaberson and Margot Williams, research assistance Andrei Scheinkman, "Next President Will Face Test on Detainees: Some at Guantanamo Called Serious Risks," NYT, Monday, November 3, 2008 (behind reg. user wall), A1; plus a referenced data base of detainees used to analyze the detainee...

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02 Nov

At risk of exhibiting the same cynicism of which Stendhal himself was accused, a famous passage on politics and newspapers and literature from The Red and the Black, Book Two, chapter 52, "The Discussion": Here the author would have liked to insert a page of dots. 'That will not look pretty,' says the publisher, 'and for so frivolous a work not...

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30 Oct

The OECD has released a very interesting new study of relative income distribution, poverty, inequality, and tax burdens and progressivity of the tax burden, comparing the OECD member states.  "Growing Unequal? Income Distribution and Poverty in OECD Countries."   The study is sure to produce a number of discussions about the relative position of the US in relation to the OECD...

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30 Oct

TaxProfBlog has posted a chart with the visitor and page view ranks for law professor blogs for the last quarter.  Our Very Own Opinio Juris is ranked number 19th in visitors.  Of course, we like to think that it is the quality, rather than the quantity, of our visitors that matters.  And we do thank you for coming by. However, I...

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29 Oct

I have no idea whether this report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is accurate: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel's government.  Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate...

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26 Oct

Sundays are a bit slow around OJ, so I thought I might offer (unless my confreres think it too far off topic) a series of indeterminate run, Sundays with Stendhal, featuring quotes from various works of the master.  Stendhal was a diplomat in much of his career, a figure of a transborder European elite culture, and is also a figure...

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25 Oct

Of course law school associate deans and admissions people are focused on the internals of this data, but even in the midst of crashing law school endowments, lowered giving, and so on, can we assume at least that law school itself is counter-cyclical to the economy overall?  When the economy tanks, students and recent grads take refuge in professional schools?...

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24 Oct

Today, Friday, October 24, is United Nations Day.  If you are in the United States, however, your reaction is more likely to be - huh?  What United Nations Day?  This is not a feature of a right-wing blackout to prevent takeover by the 'black helicopters' - neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post (I checked the paper copies,...

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20 Oct

Paul Kennedy, distinguished Yale historian and author of many works, including most recently his history of the United Nations, The Parliament of Man, had a striking opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on October 17, 2008, "Weak States and Scofflaws Have No Business on the Security Council."  At issue was which countries would take up the rotating memberships on...

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20 Oct

John Bellinger has been legal adviser to the State Department for the past four years.  In this speech to the International Law Weekend (October 17, 2008), he offers some reflections on his experience.  (We here at OJ were privileged to have John guest blog here in a unique and highly successful experiment in 'blogging with the Legal Adviser'.)  I excerpt...

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