I am watching with fascination the Iranian protesters respond to the apparent election fraud in Iran. There are so many wonderful new media sources that it is difficult to keep up with the developments. Here's one old media outlet that provides a good list of new media sources. President Obama is in a pickle. ...
President Obama’s speech in Cairo was nothing short of remarkable. The issue of interfaith dialogue is dear to my heart, and his speech deserves to be studied and discussed far and wide. I cannot think of a more important message about the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world in American history. If you have...
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s student note in the 1979 Yale Law Journal is a piece of work. It makes an extravagant case for Puerto Rican statehood based on terms of accession that are more favorable to Puerto Rico than any other state in the Union. Her proposal is a sort of affirmative action plan for what she describes as...
Readers will note that today Opinio Juris has incorporated a new comment feature that allows our readers to help regulate the quality of comments. The comment rating feature allows readers to vote “Yea” or “Nay” to any comment that is posted. After a certain number of negative votes are cast to a comment (we are still testing the...
Former State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger, who is now at Arnold & Porter and also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an interesting op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. The U.S. government can and should be a strong voice for redress of human-rights abuses around the world. But these lawsuits, which are being brought under...
Could anything be more contradictory than the lives of our soldiers? They love America, so they spend long years in foreign lands far from her shores. They revere freedom, so they sacrifice their own that we may be free. They defend our right to live as individuals, yet yield their individuality in that cause. Perhaps most paradoxically of all, they...
Judge Thomas Buergenthal has recently published a memoir of his life as a child surviving Auschwitz. The book was originally published in German (where it was a bestseller) and is now out in English. The book, A Lucky Child, is absolutely wonderful and inspiring. He describes in wonderful detail his slow, painful descent into the hell of...
Deniz Aydiner wins the honors for one of the dumbest murderers ever. He was indicted for aggravated murder in 2003 and while the investigation was pending he returned to Turkey. The state of Oregon subsequently indicted him and sought to impose the death penalty. But Aydiner missed his wife so much that he just had to return...
Lately I have been doing extensive historical research on the development of international law and I came across this remarkable quote from the 1921 edition of Lassa Oppenheim's International Law: “A constant increase of population must in the end force upon a State the necessity of acquiring more territory, and if it cannot be acquired by peaceable means, acquisition by conquest...
I continue to read stories of law firms who are encouraging their associates to take a paid leave-of-absence next year. As reported here, Skadden is offering associates $80,000 to take a year off. Morrison & Foerster reportedly will pay incoming associates approximately $85,000 if they will defer their start date until January 2011. Many other firms, including...
The Eleventh Circuit earlier this month ruled that Manuel Noriega could be extradited to France following the completion of his sentence in Florida. In Noriega v. Pastrana, Noriega argued that under the Third Geneva Convention he was entitled to automatic and immediate repatriation to Panama as soon as his criminal sentence was complete. However, Section 5 of the...
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided Iran v. Elahi, a case that appears to fall within a data set of one. As I reported earlier, the case is extraordinarily complex, focusing on whether a terrorist victim judgment creditor can attach a confirmed arbitration award rendered in Iran’s favor. Although it involves exotic issues relating to international terrorism, military...
