I am compiling a list of all the new and lateral international law professor hires for the coming academic year. If you have information please email me and I will include it in the list. (You can find my email on my profile to the right).In your email please include the new institutional affiliation, the name of the professor, specializations...
Last week a federal district court in Virginia issued an important decision in Bell v. True, available here, holding that the Vienna Convention does not create individual rights. Here is a key excerpt:[T]he ICJ in LaGrand did not go so far as to hold that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention creates individually enforceable legal rights that a detainee...
In a piece on Friday, Jack Shafer at Slate echoes my criticism here and here of Nicholas Kristof's attack on Bill O'Reilly. Here is a taste:Don't get me wrong. Bill O'Reilly deserves it in the shins—or even higher—at least two times a week. His bullying, grandstanding, and modern know-nothingism make him a plump target. But Kristof doesn't want to engage...
Last week in this post I told you I would report on interesting CAS arbitration cases coming out of the Winter Olympics. Well, we already have one. The USA Today has reported that Zach Lund of the United States was suspended from the Olympics for using a hair replacement product that contained an agent that masks steroids. The arbitrators concluded...
For Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad it's all about Israel. The cartoons were not an act of freedom, they were a desperate act of hostages. This week Ahmadinejad used the cartoon controversy to blame the United States and Europe for "being hostages of the Zionists." He then criticized the double-standard of the freedom to insult the prophet while imposing criminal sanctions...
Steven Calabresi and Stephanie Dotson Zimdahl have recently published in William & Mary Law Review an article on The Supreme Court and Foreign Sources of Law: Two Hundred Years Of Practice and the Juvenile Death Penalty Decision available at 47 William & Mary L. Rev. 743. An earlier version is available on SSRN here.Here is the summary from their...
Joel Tracthman of the International Economic Law and Policy Blog has a good summary of the GMO decision. I like the title: "From 800 pages to 1." Check it out. Rob Howse also adds his thoughts here.Also, I note with great enthusiasm the new list of contributors to that blog. They have recently added Joost Pauwelyn,...
With the Winter Olympic Games opening today in Torino, I thought you might be interested in knowing how athletic disputes arising during the Olympics will be resolved. Every Olympic Games has their share of legal disputes, and this year will be no exception.Essentially disputes are resolved by an ad hoc arbitral body that is on call to immediately adjudicate any...
Last week a NAFTA arbitration panel rendered an award in the case of International Thunderbird Gaming Corp. v. Mexico. The essential issue is whether an investment in certain gaming operations based on assurances given by Mexican authorities could give rise to a NAFTA claim when the government subsequently refused to permit such operations.The key facts are as follows: A written...
I received a thoughtful email from a reader yesterday on my post about Darfur, Kristof and O'Reilly. He writes: "Doesn't it beg the question as to 'the extent [to which] in attacking O'Reilly Kristof is attacking conservatives by proxy'? Mainstream media are indeed disturbing, not least because they set up these facile proxies, which figures like O'Reilly and Kristof are...
Here is a weird story. An eighth grader in Nevada entered a spelling bee but was eliminated despite spelling the word "discernible" correctly. The mother was livid and threatened legal action. "I'm a momma bear with her bear claws out. Spellers and academic children don't get all the accolades that the sports kids do. This is one of their few...
There is an angry debate going on right now between liberal columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and conservative television host Bill O'Reilly. Kristof has devoted an entire column yesterday to attacking Bill O'Reilly and launching a fund to pay for Bill O'Reilly to travel to Darfur. "[M]aybe Mr. O'Reilly's concern is cost, so I thought my readers...
