Well, sort of. Obama has racked up another impressive primary victory, this time among Democrats living abroad. The contest was held between February 5 and 12, and included Internet voting in addition to the more conventional mail balloting. Otherwise it's not a new phenomenon - Democrats Abroad has been holding primaries since 1976. Two things that are interesting...
This is a terrific read, a Big Book in all the good ways. I’m particularly struck by the way that Mead stretches The End of History out backwards as a persistent trait of Anglo-American culture. One can hardly not have heard of Norman Angell these days, as the herald of false dawns, but connecting the dots from him...
The Widener Law Review has posted its symposium issue on global democracy, along with a narrated and nicely edited documentary version of the companion conference (perhaps this will be the next generation to archived webcasts - a highlights approach to facilitate later viewing. Sort of an academic version of those old NFL Films recaps of the early Super Bowls....
Here you go. The idea: everything you need to know about really big issues in two pages or less (charts included). Say you are the CEO of Sara Lee or something and find yourself among the great minds of Davos, your KnowledgeConcierge (space intentionally omitted) will bring you up to speed so that you can take it all in....
A flurry of attention to the question of what form an agreement with Iraq would take in the wake of hearings yesterday before the House International Relations Committee: an unusually thorough segment on NPR, WaPo story here. Apparently the Administration is intent on pursuing this as a sole executive agreement, on the precedent of Status of Forces Agreements adopted...
You can insure against both. This piece from Sunday's NYT has the interesting details on liability insurance that covers more than 30,000 federal officials against the perils of work-related lawsuits. With a policy costing less than $300 a year (the government often picking up half the tab), mid-level officials can afford the likes of Clinton impeachment attorney Robert...
Bobby Fischer has died (NYT obit here). I'm old enough to remember how he made chess a cool sport (albeit temporarily) with his 1972 match-up with Boris Spassky in Iceland. More recently he was in the news on the lam from US authorities, after having been indicted for violating the US sanctions regime against Yugoslavia with a Spassky...
In case you missed it, Yoo had this op-ed in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer. The Padilla claim seems no more than a piece of lint on his suit, from the tone of the piece, which would seem to defeat up front the largely symbolic (declaratory) objective of the action. Yoo appears never to have let his guard down on...
Agee died on Monday in Havana (Times obit here), having lived out his days as a Havana travel agent (and apparently as a US citizen until the end). Among his legacies as a CIA renegade is the legal battle surrounding the revocation of his passport in 1979. In Haig v. Agee, the Supreme Court upheld the action against...
Nicholas Rostow has an interesting piece in the latest American Interest on why the next Administration should come around to international law ("Law Abiding: Restoring America's Global Reputation," teaser here but otherwise by subscription only). He argues that law -- including international law! -- "define who an American is," and for that reason the US "cannot long sustain foreign...
As most of you no doubt already know, David Wippman has been named dean at the University of Minnesota Law School. David is richly qualified for the position, with a strong background as both a scholar and an administrator. The question here is, how does the international law background of a decanal candidate play these days, relative to...
Bruce Ackerman has this piece in today's LA Times on whether Congress needs to participate in the approval of an agreement with Iraq to govern relations after a US withdrawal. You won't be surprised to hear that he thinks congressional action to be constitutionally required. The Administration is apparently pushing the line that the president can go it...
