I have previously reported on the appalling decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Şahin v. Turkey that upheld the right of Turkey to prevent devout Muslim women from wearing headscarfs (hijabs) to graduate school.Last week the Chronicle of Higher Education had a very interesting article (subscription required) that highlights the brain drain of devout...
A couple of weeks ago I reported about the Abu Hamza trial for inciting murder in London. Earlier today Hamza was convicted of 11 of the 15 charges he faced. The verdicts were as follows:Guilty of six charges of soliciting to murder;Guilty of three charges relating to stirring up racial hatred;Guilty of one charge of owning recordings related to stirring...
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) has a post that provides useful links to cartoonists' perspectives on the Muhammad cartoon controversy. Here are some of the highlights:One Picture, A Thousand Outcries: "It’s been my experience that most groups are humor-impaired when outsiders make fun of them...
So how fast is international trade growing? For one clue, look at the traffic at U.S. ports. According to this report in the L.A. Times, U.S. ports are facing "cargo volume that is just beyond belief." And the growth is not limited to the top ports. "For more than 20 years, only three North American ports — Los...
The New York Times has an interesting graphic on the deaths in Iraq in January. According to their report there were 800 total civilian and military deaths in Iraq in January. If my math is correct, with Iraq's population of 26 million, that would be an annualized death rate of 36.9 deaths per 100,000. I was curious how that compared...
A Super Bowl commercial has highlighted government abuse by TSA personnel at our nations' airports. You cannot help but feel sorry for the guy who fell victim to this sort of unauthorized surveillance. Just go to this website and check out the first TV ad....
Chances of an airstrike on Iran by March 2007? About 35%, almost the same chances that the Seattle Seahawks will win the Super Bowl today. Compare the betting line here and here....
Iran's decision to resume uraniam enrichment is precisely what it threatened before the IAEA Board meeting last week. In a letter dated February 2, 2006, Iran firmly requested that the case not be submitted to the Security Council. It included the threat that "I am afraid to warn that if the interlocutors of Iran want to put pressure on the...
Last week the D.C. District Court ruled that the claims against Sudan for materially supporting the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya may go forward. In Owens v. Sudan, the court ruled that there were sufficient allegations that Sudan materially supported the terrorist attacks to overcome a motion to dismiss. The concise holding is that if you finance terrorism, in...
The flap over cartoons continues to rock the Muslim world. The BBC has great coverage with a dozen articles addressing the topic. The issue is particularly sensitive and reflects deep cultural and religious differences between Western values of freedom of expression and Islamic values of the holiness of the Prophet Muhammad. Obviously Western media should be more sensitive to depictions...
My vote for the most important international law case in January is the Ninth Circuit's decision in United States v. Clark. The case represents a rare and important instance of a court attempting to grapple with the scope of the Foreign Commerce Clause.Michael Clark was convicted of traveling to Cambodia to engage in commercial sex with a minor in violation...
If the FBI had a file on you, what would you do? Prominent international criminal law professor Cherif Bassiouni faced precisely such a dilemma. So what did Bassiouni do? Bassiouni, who teaches at Depaul School of Law and is well known in ICC circles, requested a copy of the files, found errors in the 50-page report, and demanded that they...
