The verdict has been delivered in the Anfal trial -- and not surprisingly, "Chemical Ali" and his highest-ranking co-defendants have been convicted and sentenced to death:Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and the former head of the Baath Party's Northern Bureau Command, earned his nickname for his alleged use of chemical weapons against the ethnic minority during efforts to crush a...
Though it didn't get much media play, the US Helsinki Commission held hearings yesterday on Guantanamo Bay. I don't think it was particularly notable on the substance, though Legal Adviser John Bellinger did allow that the Administration is "working to move to the day that Guantánamo could be closed." What's more interesting is the genealogy of the hearings....
My daily commute takes me from one edge of New York City to another edge. While sitting in traffic, it’s hard not to think about urban sprawl, congestion pricing, and so on. But, as recent news reports and scholarship have re-emphasized, the evolution of cities should be thought of not only as a purely local matter, but rather...
It's not every day that international law scholars show up on the Comedy Channel, but here's a clip of Anne-Marie Slaughter on the Colbert Report. (Thanks to Ed Swaine for the pointer.) Slaughter's new book, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World, appears to be getting more than the usual push...
Recent meetings in Germany of the G4 (the EU, the United States, India and Brazil) failed to bridge the necessary gaps in the positions of the key representatives for the developed and developing countries. If there was any doubt before, it definitely appears that Doha is dead. You can read the press statements from the US here and...
The Special Court for Sierra Leone has convicted three men of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war. The convictions include, apparently for the first time, a conviction for child recruitment. Here is the Court's press release. These are the Court's first judgments since it was jointly established by the United Nations...
In one of the more remarkable posts I have read, Brian Tamanaha over at Balkinization loudly protests against the virtues of patriotism: For many reasons, I feel fortunate to have been born in the United States, but I don’t love my country. It has no love for any of us. A cold, manipulative, object of affection, the state fans patriotism, then...
Okay, no sucha thing, as my five-year-old boy would say. It's part of the marvelous counter-historical backdrop to Michael Chabon's new novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. The premise is that several million Jews were extended "Ickes passports" early in the war (thus reducing the toll of the Holocaust by two-thirds), a population thereafter swollen by the defeat of...
If you want entry-level work in England, you best polish your Polish. According to this news report, some British citizens allegedly are being turned away from agricultural and factory work in England because they don't speak Polish. "The influx of Eastern European workers means the language is now vital for jobs in agriculture, says MP Malcolm Moss. His...
Vanity Fair has a special issue devoted to the subject. The issue is guest-edited by Bono, with 20 different covers at the newstand featuring evryone from Brad Pitt to Condi Rice to Madonna. I took the $4.50 hit for Opinio Juris readers (our crossover audience is probably in the single digits). What can you say, it's an...
As regular readers know, Julian and I disagree about whether international law promotes or impedes the peacemaking process in war-torn countries. I do not believe that international law is an end in itself, and I acknowledge that in some situations the involvement of international organizations like the ICC can have negative consequences. But I question Julian's assumption that...
The case of Powerex v. Reliant Energy Services presents a delicate procedural question regarding appellate jurisdiction and the FSIA immunity protections. Bottom line: Do federal appellate courts have jurisdiction over FSIA questions (i.e., whether a corporation is a foreign state entity) when an appeal is jurisdictionally barred? The answer from the Supreme Court today is no. The case...
