Slobodan Milosevic is dead. The final chapter in European liberation from Communist rule is over. If you must read the details of his death, go to the BBC here. But far more interesting is their insightful obituary of the butcher of the Balkins. Paddy Ashdown has it right, "There is no doubt that of the evil that stalked the...
As reported here, kidnapped pacifist Tom Fox was found slain in Iraq this week. He was one of four members of the organization called Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) who were held hostage by a militant Islamic group known as the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. The CPT released a statement yesterday that struck me as quite remarkable. Not a single negative...
On Wednesday the State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The full text is available here. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction: To be sure, violations of human rights and miscarriages of justice can and do occur in democratic countries. No governmental system is without flaws. Human rights conditions in democracies across...
A federal district court has issued an interesting decision on the status of Cuban refugees who made it to dry land on the coast of Florida. The question at issue in Movimiento Democracia v. Chertoff, 2006 WL 521558, was whether landing on the old Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys constituted "arrival" in the United States within the meaning...
As reported here, Larry Johnson has been named the United Nations Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, essentially one of the top lawyers at the U.N. Larry is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Visiting Professor of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Previously, Johnson was Visiting...
Ian Best at 3L Epiphany has just posted a list of legal blogs. It attempts to catalogue the entire universe of legal blogs, which number almost 500. I can't help but be amused by the titles of some of the law blogs, including "Brain Injury Lawyer" "Ernie the Attorney," "Indignant Indigent" and "Surfwax." ...
Here is the March report of the most popular law blogs. I applied the same criteria and qualifications as applied in the January report. If I missed an academic law blog, please email me. I will update throughout the day. 1. Volokh Conspiracy (#50) 2. How Appealing (#127) 3. ProfessorBainbridge (#162) 4. Tax Prof Blog (#294) 5. Leiter's Law School...
I just wanted to offer a few quick thoughts regarding the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in Rumsfeld v. FAIR. 1. Enumerated Powers. There is an interesting section in the opinion regarding the powers of Congress to raise and support armies. “The Constitution grants Congress the power to...
Milan Babic, a key player in the Serbian efforts to create Serb enclaves in Croatia, has committed suicide. He pled guilty in 2004 for persecuting non-Serbs and sentenced to 13 years. In so doing, he avoided four other charges for murder, cruelty, and wanton destruction of villages. He also testified against Milosevic in 2002. Details from the BBC are...
It is a curious aspect of American philanthropy that we focus almost exclusively on gifts to the needy rather than low-interest loans. That is beginning to change. There is a new movement toward community investment in which you can offer your money as an extraordinarily low-interest loan to meet core community needs. Calvert Foundation in Bethesda Maryland is a leading institution...
As reported here, during a particularly technical portion of the oral argument in the Texas redistricting case this week Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen dozing away. Both flanking Justices Souter and Alito looked at her sleeping but did nothing. I would suspect that Justice Alito was thinking something along these lines: Whose snores these are I...
President Bush was in India yesterday where he addressed the topic of outsourcing. Following a speech at the Hydrabad Indian School of Business, he had this to say: "People do lose jobs as a result of globalization, and it's painful for those who lose jobs. But the fundamental question is, how does a government or society react to that. And...
