Whatever one may think about the presidency of Gerald Ford, he lived up to his self-description as a committed internationalist. And if one were to name his most significant international achievement, the Helsinki Accords would be high on the list. Indeed, Daniel Thomas in his book The Helsinki Effect argues that the Helsinki Accords contributed directly to the...
If you have any interest in Second Life, you should check out the transcript of Richard Posner's presentation in the virtual world earlier this month. It includes substantive discussion on topics such as terrorism, torture, intellectual property, and the virtual economy. He also suggests that we are not too far from an "international law of virtual worlds." But...
In news worthy of the Onion, here are a few stories circulating around the world about the global perils of Christmas: 1. According to a recent survey of Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, just under one-third of all Santas have been urinated on by children, 60 percent have been coughed and sneezed on, and close to 90 percent have...
I must say I was a bit taken aback by Time's selection of "You" for Person of the Year Award. Here is how they put it in their cover story. "...
The D.C. Circuit rendered an interesting decision in The Fund for Animals, Inc. v. Kempthorne on the interpretation of a federal statute regulating mute swans, a non-native species of migratory birds. At issue is whether the statute and relevant treaties prohibit the hunting and killing of mute swans. The State of Maryland wishes to reduce the population of...
Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman have just published an interesting article, The Jeffersonian Treaty Clause, in the University of Illinois Law Review. In a direct, originalist challenge to Missouri v. Holland, the article argues that the treaty power is limited by inherent structural limitations on executive power. Here is the abstract: The Treaty Clause of the federal Constitution declares that...
Here is the text of the speech by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. There are a few good lines from the speech, such as the following: Member States need a dynamic and courageous Secretariat, not one that is passive and risk-averse. The time has come for a new day in relations between the Secretariat and Member States. The...
The D.C. District Court recently issued a very thoughtful opinion in the recent case of Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation. The case concerns claims by the Jewish organization Chabad that Russia had expropriated an invaluable collection of Jewish religious books and manuscripts maintained since 1775 from the first Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, (pictured at left)...
The BBC has a good news clip on the scandalous Iranian Holocaust Conference. As reported, Iran is trying to break the Holocaust denial taboo and the video has blurbs from the likes of David Duke and Frederick Toben who are in Iran for the conference. Holocaust deniers are reported as saying that "President Ahmadinejad's government has given them...
Which of following South American countries is among the least corrupt countries in the world: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, or Peru? Which of the following Middle East/North African countries is among the most corrupt countries in the world: Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, or Syria? (Continue Reading) According to Transparency International's recently published corruption index for 2006, the correct answer is Chile...
One of the more interesting sidebar comments that occurred during the ASIL Interest Group meeting in San Diego yesterday came from Bill Dodge regarding the MCA. With his permission, I will post the gist of it. If I understood him correctly, he essentially suggested that the ex post facto provision of the MCA included an interesting reference that...
Several OJ contributors (Peter, Duncan, Julian and Roger) are in San Diego today as part of an ASIL Interest Group meeting. Right now we are discussing with John McGinnis and a couple dozen other prominent internatioal law scholars this provocative article by John McGinnis and Ilya Somin, in which they argue that customary international law is fundamentally defective because...
