A copy of the letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President George Bush is now available. A copy of it is here. Here is a short summary: President Bush you are a hypocrite. (page 1). You profess to be a Christian, present liberalism as a civilized model, oppose WMDs, and work toward a unified international community, but...
One of the new and exciting developments in technology is podcasting. So far the use of podcasting on academic blogs is in its infancy. Very few law blogs (Ann Althouse is an exception) include podcasting as part of their content. Significantly, the Council on Foreign Relations has just started a library of podcasting available here. ...
State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger concluded his response to the UN Committee Against Torture yesterday, addressing over 50 questions concerning the U.S. practice and policy relating to torture. The UN's summary of Friday's meeting is available here and Monday's meeting is available here. (The State Department has not yet issued summaries or transcripts). It is...
I had the opportunity to see United 93 over the weekend. Resist the doubters and go see this movie. It is more than worth the price of admission. It achieves one of its principal goals, which was to address the question, "What should be our response to terrorism?" In the words of Director Paul Greengrass, "the terrible dilemma those...
Nicholas Kristof has another good column on Darfur today. His focus turns to those who deserve credit for battling American indifference. His answer: bloggers, teenagers, and celebrities. They are the new grassroots citizens army in this battle against bystanding on the genocide in Darfur. "For three grueling years, Eric Reeves has been fighting for his life,...
State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger appeared before the U.N. Committee Against Torture in Geneva to discuss the U.S. policy and practice as it relates to torture. A transcript of Bellinger's remarks is not yet available. An eleven page questionnaire presented by the Committee Against Torture is available here. Some of the questions are extraordinarily interesting and,...
The Fifth Circuit recently rendered an important decision relating to international arbitration. The case of Bridas v. Turkmenistan (“Bridas II”) addressed the confirmation of an arbitration award. An Argentine corporation, Bridas, had contracted with a Turkmenistan government entity. The arbitrators rendered a $495 million award against the Turkmenistan government entity as well as against the Government of...
As Zacarias Moussaoui was escorted from the courtroom today following the jury’s verdict, he declared “America you lost, I won!” “America you lost, I won!” What an odd declaration. But in a strange way he is right. He won. But not what he thinks he won. What did he win? Well, he won...
Ken Anderson has an interesting article responding to Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner's book, The Limits of International Law. Anderson largely resonates with Goldsmith and Posner, but argues for the incorporation of values into the interest-based analysis. "In order for the Goldsmith and Posner theory to have content therefore, it requires some limit on the meaning of...
My vote for the most important international case for the month of April is the Canadian softwood lumber case. The case was one of the largest and oldest trade disputes in U.S. history, a dispute that spawned over 20 different litigations in multipla fora, spanned over two decades, and had over $5 billion at issue. The dispute threatened to dramatically...
Ian Best at 3L Epiphany has indexed all the posts (almost 50 of them!) about the Harvard Blogging Conference here. I had the good fortune of having lengthy discussions with Ian and have really grown to appreciate the service he is providing to the legal blogosphere. ...
Unlike any other blogger who attended the Harvard Blogging Conference on Friday, I also took the opportunity to attend another conference sponsored by the Harvard Project on Negotiation on the same day. The parallels between the two conferences were striking. The focus of the negotiation conference was to honor the life and work of...
