There was an interesting radio interview earlier this week with Father Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University and also a student and close friend of Pope Benedict XVI on the subject of Islam in Europe. Particularly interesting is that Father Fessio participated in a September 2005 seminar with the Pope to discuss the topic of Western Civilization and Islam....
Disturbing news coming out of China that Microsoft has shut down a blog in China because of its political reporting. The blog is run by Zhao Jing under the blog name An Ti. If you go to An Ti's blog now here is what it says: "The space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."So what was the offense? As...
In my estimation President Clinton's greatest economic achievement was securing the passage of the WTO and NAFTA. By contrast, to many trade experts the Bush Administration has not been a forceful proponent of free trade. Steel safeguards and Canadian softwood lumber are exhibits one and two for the case that, when necessary, this administration will sacrifice free trade for other...
The Supreme Court has granted the U.S. government's request to transfer Padilla to civilian custody in Miami. The one-page order is here. The key language is the following:"The Solicitor General has now filed with this Court an Application Respecting Custody and Transfer of Jose Padilla, seeking the same authorization previously sought from the Court of Appeals. Padilla has filed...
The Second Circuit last week rendered an important decision on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in the context of a deportation proceeding of an illegal alien. In Oliva v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, available here, the Second Circuit was faced with the question of whether the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child had achieved...
Special thanks to Seth and Duncan for excellent guest blogging in December. We greatly enjoyed the quality (and quantity) of your posts. Duncan's background at the State Department and Seth's IR background provided real depth and insights to your posts.We are now pleased to welcome Geoffrey Corn as a guest blogger. Geoffrey is an Assistant Professor of Law at South...
In the traditional Message for the World Day of Peace message, Pope Benedict XVI had a number of important things to say about international institutions, nuclear disarmament, and armed conflict. He is extraordinarily critical of nuclear arms, describing governments that rely on nuclear arms for security as adopting a "baneful" and "fallacious" point of view. He appears to single out...
If you go to Amazon and do a seach for "international law" and sort by "bestselling" you can quickly get a sense of what the public is buying in the field of international law. It appears the rankings change dramatically from day-to-day, (and the ranking function does not work perfectly) so this is just a snapshot. Without filtering for books...
One of the more innovative and irreverent law blogs is now back online. As of yesterday, Underneath Their Robes is back up and running. The blog was taken offline abruptly in mid-November after it was revealed in The New Yorker that the blogger, David Lat, was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey. According to this report, he...
My vote for the most important international law case in December is the ECHR's decision in Xenides-Arestis v. Turkey. The decision is available here and the official press release is here.Arestis involved the deprivation of property rights as a result of the continuing division of Cyprus and the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Arestis is a Greek-Cypriot who lives in...
As reported here, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, a.k.a. "Serpico" or the "Angel of Death" can be tried in Spain for alleged torture committed over twenty-five years ago in Argentina. "The National Audience ruled that it has jurisdiction to try Cavallo for the crimes he allegedly committed under the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) ...
I saw Munich over the weekend and found it quite an astounding achievement by Steven Spielberg. One of the most complex and engaging movies he has produced in years. It certainly ranks up there with Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. There are plenty of good reviews of the movie. The New York Times has two reviews here...
