Guess what this is. It's modern day international democracy at work, in this case Microsoft's winning effort to have the US vote "yes" to extending ISO approval to its OOXML file format as open-source software. Sounds arcane, but apparently tens of millions of dollars in government contracts are at stake with the question. Alas, Microsoft failed to...
ICJ president and sometime lawprof Rosalyn Higgins has been awarded one of four 2007 Balzan Prizes. The citation is here. The prize comes with a million Swiss francs (that's more than $800,000). Under a condition imposed in 2001, "prize winners must now destine half of their awards for research projects carried out preferably by young humanists and...
Seton Hall Law & The Whitehead School of Diplomacy in Newark, NJ are holding a major symposium on post-conflict reconstruction on November 2 entitled: When the Fighting Stops: Roles and Responsibilities in Post Conflict Reconstruction The event will compare and contrast American & multilateral approaches to post-conflict reconstruction. Speakers include: Clint Williamson, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, ...
The creation of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was one of the few tangible outcomes of the 2005 World Summit UN Reform process. The PBC was formed to "advise and propose integrated strategies for post-conflict recovery, focusing attention on reconstruction, institution-building and sustainable development, in countries emerging from conflict." To date, the Peacebuilding Commission has taken on two cases:...
BBC reports: A US judge has temporarily blocked the extradition to France of ex-Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega to allow his defence to present a new appeal. The judge told the lawyers to present on Thursday evidence to support their claim that France would not abide by a key part of the Geneva Conventions. I think the dispute here is over whether...
Peru's got bigger issues to deal with these days, like recovering from an enormous earthquake. But the government there is still determined to pursue its territorial sea dispute with Chile by bringing a case to the ICJ. (By the way, this would make it the first new case for the ICJ this year). Additionally, its minister of foreign affairs...
Those interested in a European perspective on public international law and EU law, may want to check out International Law Observer, a (relatively) new blog, with contributors from a number of Northern European law programs. For a sample, check out this post about the new EU identity. Hat Tip: Jacob Cogan at International Law Reporter. ...
Great article in the New York Times profiling Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith. His book the Terror Presidency is out later this month should be a bestseller on the Foreign Affairs bestsellers list. The article has some juicy excerpts of Goldsmith's confrontations with David Addington. Knowing Jack Goldsmith quite well, I have every reason to believe his...
Microcredit - providing small loans to individuals who would not normally qualify - is becoming tool of some consequence in economic reconstruction and disaster relief programs. The UN declared 2005 the year of micro-credit, and in 2006 Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen micro-credit Bank he created won the Nobel Peace Prize. Recent reports such as this...
Former NY governor and perennial presidential hopeful Mario Cuomo has a confusing and muddled editorial in the LA Times yesterdayclaiming that President Bush lacked the constitutional authority to start the war in Iraq, or to continue it. The war happened because when Bush first indicated his intention to go to war against Iraq, Congress refused to insist on enforcement...
A federal district court in Washington D.C. last week rendered a decision against Iran and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security for a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem that killed Marla Bennett. Details about the July 2002 terrorist attack on Hebrew University that killed nine are available at this moving victims memorial website. In Bennett v. Iran, Marla...
Argentine protesters have marched into Uruguay to protest the construction of a pulp mill that they believe will pollute downriver Argentina. As this dispute heats up, it seems more and more likely that litigation at the ICJ is not going to provide a solution, and that litigation at the ICJ is almost never preferable to bilateral arbitration in these...
