"War is only a regrettable expedient for asserting one's rights by force within a state of nature, where no court of justice is available to judge with legal authority." Immanuel Kant Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch Do you agree or disagree with Kant's statement about war?I agreeI disagreeDon't know Free polls from Pollhost.com ...
The Ninth Circuit recently issued an opinion in United States v. Smiskin interpreting a treaty with a certain Indian tribe that included an unusual reference to rules of treaty interpretation. The case involved a potential conflict between a treaty right and a statutory prohibition on transporting "unstamped cigarettes" (i.e., untaxed cigarettes). The Yakama Treaty of 1855 guarantees the following...
The World Bank has a wonderful website called Doing Business that tracks the ease of doing business throughout the world. There is a tremendous amount of useful information that is worth perusing. For example, the top ten easiest places to do business in the world are Singapore, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Denmark,...
The Council on Foreign Relations has launched Campaign 2008, which is "engineered to track the campaign through the prism of foreign policy, trade, international economics, and national and homeland security issues...
Carmen Cisneros and Michael Aragon were married in 1987, when Cisneros was 15 and Aragon was 19. They were married for 13 years. Following their divorce, Cisneros (a Mexican national) filed suit against Aragon for statutory rape. But rather than rely simply on domestic law, Cisneros includes a claim for a violation of international law under the...
There are over 75 members of the press who are here at Pepperdine Law School covering the Floyd Landis doping arbitration. They include the BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, AP, RAI, Reuters, ESPN, LA Times, NY Times, Sports Illustrated, the Guardian, USA Today, Velonews, Road Magazine, and Cycling News. But there is one group of reporters sitting...
Former President Carter’s criticism of the Bush Administration is the big news of the weekend. You can listen to the interview here. This is what Carter said in the interview: Carter: “I interrelate my condemnation and criticism of this unnecessary invasion with the ministry of Christ as the Prince of Peace. So that’s what I try...
The Floyd Landis doping arbitration that is being held at Pepperdine Law School in Malibu, California took a bizarre turn yesterday, with allegations of criminal witness tampering by the Landis camp. You can read the summary by ESPN here, from Velonews here, and detailed blog commentary here. As most of our readers know, Floyd Landis is under investigation for doping...
There is an amazing story posted over at Harvard Law School's Global Voices about how park rangers in the Congo are partnering with elementary school children in Colorado Springs, Colorado to raise money and awareness to protect endangered gorillas from poachers. The rangers blog about their experiences and the children sell pickles (50 cents each) as part of their...
Richard Posner has an interesting but unconvincing post asking the question why there have been no violent, disruptive protests against the war in Iraq, as there were in 1968 over the Vietnam War. He suggests that in addition to "[t]he obvious answer that there is no longer a draft", that there are five contributing factors that explain the absence...
There is a thoughtful piece in the New Republic by David Fontana, Alex Massie, and Oliver Kamm on the legacy of Tony Blair. I think it adds some real insights on Blair's contributions that were neglected in my previous post. Here is a key excerpt: What, exactly, is Tony Blair's legacy? With Iraq at the center of the news,...
In commemoration of Mother’s Day, I wanted to review a wonderful play I saw in London over the weekend. The play Kindertransport by Diane Samuels personalizes the story of almost ten thousand unaccompanied Jewish children who traveled from Germany to England in 1938. But really the play is about a refugee child and her mother, and the struggle...
