This morning the Supreme Court will hear Morse v. Frederick, a case about a high school student who held up a banner advocating “Bong Hits for Jesus” at a school function associated with the passing of the Olympic torch through Juneau, Alaska. The school principal, Deborah Morse, refused to allow Joseph Frederick to display the banner, and he was...
According to the AP, Sudan announced yesterday that it will suspend all cooperation with the International Criminal Court following that the ICC prosecutor's charges of war crimes against a Sudan government minister. "We had extended our cooperation with the ICC for some time, but now the situation is completely different," Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardi told The Associated Press on...
Der Spiegel has an interesting article today about Germany's decision to forward to Interpol arrest warrants for 10 CIA agents involved in the kidnapping and extraordinary rendition of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen. Not surprisingly, the U.S. is unhappy about the decision, which means that the agents will now be hunted internationally:The German investigation into what exactly happened to...
Debating Darfur Battle to Block New Report: The assessment mission created by the Council in December and led by Nobel Laureate Jody Williams presented its report finding "large-scale international crimes" in Darfur. Sudan and its supporters--the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League, almost all of the Council's Asian Group, Russia and Cuba--rejected the report as "invalid"...
As I noted last week, the hybrid international-domestic court set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders has been teetering on the edge of disbanding due to disputes between the international and local Cambodian lawyers on a variety of matters. According to this Financial Times report, almost all the problems have been ironed out, except one: the fee charged by...
[Greg Castanias and Victoria Dorfman are attorneys with the law firm of Jones Day in Washington, D.C. They represented Sinochem before the Supreme Court, which last week ruled unanimously in favor of Sinochem.] We’re grateful to have the opportunity to give you some preliminary views on the Sinochem decision issued last week—Sinochem International Co., Ltd. v. Malaysia International Shipping Corp.,...
I know absolutely nothing about intellectual property, but Bolivia's current efforts to trademark "coca" strike me as rather odd:Companies such as Coca-Cola Co. could be barred from using the word "coca" in their brand names under a measure endorsed by a panel that is helping rewrite the Bolivian constitution. The coca committee of the assembly that is overhauling the constitution has...
Ever wonder whether blogs have become mainstream? Typically one has no easy answer to the question of whether blogs have become an acceptable medium for academic discourse. We rely on anecdotes, intuition or hunches. I thought it might be interesting to add yet another unscientific reference point to determine whether blogs have become mainstream. How? ...
As has been widely reported, Chiquita Brands International has been fined $25 million for paying designated terrorist groups in Colombia not to attack its workers:US authorities charged Chiquita Wednesday with paying 1.7 million dollars between 1997-2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group on the US list of terrorists. Chiquita, through its subsidiary C.I. Bananos de...
If there is any lingering doubt about whether we are engaged in a global war on terror, the transcript from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should dispel those doubts. Call it whatever you want, but the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed unequivocally describes it as war. There are two significant portions of the transcript. First, is Mohammed's enumeration of various...
Today’s New York Times has a fascinating story about efforts among the parties to the Montreal Protocol to accelerate the phase-out of HCFCs, chemicals which it turns out not only deplete the ozone layer, but may have a far greater impact on climate change than carbon dioxide emissions. The story references a report published last week under the auspices...
In a welcome move, Egypt has named its first female judges:Mukbil Shakir, the head of the Supreme Judicial Council, appointed 31 women to judge or chief judge positions in Egypt's courts, the official Middle East News Agency said, quoting Shakir's decree. The move is expected to give a boost to President Hosni Mubarak's political and social reforms that have been widely...
