A terrific event is coming up in NYC Friday, March 10, 2017, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. at the New York City Bar. Ian Johnstone, Jacob Katz Cogan, Thomas G. Weiss, and Anjali Dayal will discuss the Future of International Organizations. The Moderator will be Mona Khalil of Independent Diplomat. The speakers are editors and contributors to the Oxford Handbook of International Organizations. This...
Seton Hall Law School (where I am a professor) organized an excellent panel on the travel ban and immigration restrictions last Thursday, Feb 2. For those who wish to learn more about the legal effects of the executive order, I encourage you to watch it here. You will see presentations by Professors Lori Nessel, Ed Hartnett and Jonathan Hafetz discussing the...
On December 1 in a meeting in the UN’s Trusteeship Council, the UN Secretary General apologized for not doing more in the UN Haiti Cholera affair, stating “"On behalf of the United Nations, I want to say very clearly: We apologize to the Haitian people … "we simply did not do enough with regard to the cholera outbreak and its...
Like most policy issues in his campaign, Trump’s references to the UN and multilateralism have been brief. If one searches for Trump & the UN, the main hit are statements made in 2005 that he could do a much better job renovating the UN than the UN itself! Apart from disparaging remarks about the Paris climate change agreement, the TPP, NATO...
Today, on the opening of the GA, and in his final such speech as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon indicated that a compensation package for victims of Cholera is forthcoming. Speaking in French (original here), he expressed regret over the recent peacekeeper sexual abuse scandals and the Cholera epidemic in Haiti, and promised a package of assistance and support for...
In case you haven't seen it, The High Commissioner for Human Rights' recent speech addressed to "populists, demagogues and political fantasists" is well worth reading. The speech can be viewed here, and a link to the video here. As Prince Zeid says: "The proposition of recovering a supposedly perfect past is fiction; its merchants are cheats. Clever cheats." ...
The Human Rights Advisory Panel has found UNMIK, the UN Mission in Kosovo, responsible for breach of a number of human rights provisions connected with lead poisoning of the Roma population following the 1999 conflict. Under Section 2 of UNMIK Regulation No. 2006/12, t the Panel has jurisdiction over complaints relating to alleged violations of human rights “that had...
Importantly, and for the first time, meetings will soon be held with all candidates for the post of UN Secretary General, enabling them to present their candidatures. Member States will also have the opportunity to ask questions. Mogen Lykketoft, president of the GA, has publicized his plans for these meetings in letters here and here. A current list of candidates (and...
A transcript is now available for the Haiti Cholera Appeal: Georges, et al. v. UN Oral Argument_ActiveUS(153242982)_ActiveUS(1)-Final In addition, the audio recording is available here. Of particular note were questions from the judges that addressed (i) whether domestic courts should have the right to determine the adequacy of remedies in tort actions involving the UN, (ii) why states parties have not...
In a surprise announcement late last week, the Second Circuit granted a hearing in the Haiti Cholera Case. The hearing will take place tomorrow, and the lawyers will have had only 4 days to prepare. While no reasons were given as to why the hearing was granted so suddenly, the speculation is that upon reading the papers, at least...
Chimene Keitner has revised and updated David Bederman’s 2006 treatise on International Law Frameworks. This highly readable (and short) text addresses key cases, core disputes, and essential treaties in international law. Following Professor Bederman's passing in 2011, Keitner was asked to step in and take over the production of a new edition. In the preface to this 4th edition, Chimene describes...
After attending a great panel at ESIL in 2014 on International Law and Film, I’ve been thinking about how to integrate film into my public international law class. I’ve compiled a list of international law films (with help from colleagues and fellow bloggers) that make for excellent viewing. In a subsequent post, I’ll offer some thoughts about teaching international law through...
