My vote for the most important international law case for the month of July is Azurix v. Argentina. The decision is available here and nice summaries of the decision can be found here, here, and here. This ICSID arbitration is, at its essence, a case about water politics. Or as the locals might say, una problema de agua mala en...
This article in the New York Times by Thom Shanker raises a critically important question for the current conflict in the Middle East. Shanker writes, Hezbollah, with the sophistication of a national army (it almost sank an Israeli warship with a cruise missile) and the lethal invisibility of a guerrilla army, is a hybrid. Old labels, and old planning,...
According to this website: "In 2002, 53 million people in the world lived in households in receipt of US$200 purchasing power parity (PPP) per day. Of these high earners, 58% lived in the United States. Western Europe and South America are also home to quite large populations of high earners. Within Western Europe the most very high earners live in...
The increasing intersection of IP [intellectual property] and human rights appears inevitable, and it will alter the shape and the trajectory of new legal rules in both camps. To understand the future of both IP and human rights law we must think systematically about how the rising density of the international system affects the process of rulemaking. At...
In the case of Andersen v. King County, the Washington State Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the state's Defense of Marriage Act was not unconstitutional. The court’s majority opinion and the concurring and dissenting opinions are available here. I just wanted to offer a quick comment about comparativism. It is noteworthy that the court embraces living constitutionalism,...
The New York Times is reporting that under the proposed changes to the military commissions, hearsay evidence may be admitted in criminal prosecution of detainees. It seems the article paints a picture of this being a problem under Hamdan. Here is an excerpt from the article: Legislation drafted by the Bush administration setting out new rules on bringing terror...
Last week I suggested in this post that the philosophical underpinnings for human rights norms represents a synthesis of positivism and natural law. It embraces the prevailing view that international law is a secular discipline that requires positive evidence for its source material, but also reclaims elements of the Grotian tradition that recognize that in a pluralistic society natural...
I find Kevin's post to be quite illuminating as it focuses proportionality on the question on whether Israel's conduct is clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated. Which raises the question of whether we should view this conflict as narrowly focused or part of a broader struggle. The question of proportionality cannot...
Professor Edward Swaine at the University of Pennsylvania has just posted a great article on treaty reservations entitled Reserving. It is available for download here. His central thesis is that treaty reservations benefit non-reserving states, often in ways that are unappreciated. Here is the abstract: The law of treaty reservations - which enables states to ask that their...
As mentioned yesterday, my colleague Naomi Goodno has just returned from Kenya where she was training Kenyan, Ugandan, and Zambian lawyers with the human rights organization International Justice Mission. IJM is an unusual among human rights organization in that it focuses on partnering with attorneys in countries throughout the world to help enforce human rights norms reflected in domestic...
On Wednesday, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour warned of criminal responsibility that may arise from the war in the Middle East (HT: Dave Hoffman at Concurring Opinions). Here is the key language from her statement: The High Commissioner recalled that parties to a conflict have the obligation to exercise precaution and respect the principle of proportionality in all...
My colleague Professor Naomi Goodno just returned from Kenya where she working with staff attorneys at the human rights organization, International Justice Mission. She was training Kenyan, Ugandan, and Zambian lawyers in oral advocacy skills to enhance their human rights litigation work on the ground in Africa. I wanted to post two experiences she had in Kenya this...
