I am blogging from the ASIL centennial Annual Meeting where we have just hosted the very successful (and fun!) Opinio Juris wine and cheese reception on international law blogging. A special thanks to ASIL Executive Director Charlotte Ku and Research and Outreach Director Andrew Solomon for helping make it happen. By my estimate, over 100 guests were in attendance, including...
I mis-blogged yesterday when I suggested the Security Council had agreed on a "resolution" threatening Iran about its nuclear program. Technically, the Council's President (currently held by Argentina's U.N. Rep) issued a presidential "statement." I assume the Council's statement took this kind of odd form to remove any lingering concerns that it would be seen as legal authorization...
The international arbitration community is abuzz with the news that Dr. Wang Sengchang, one of the top officials at the China International Economy and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) was arrested. CIETAC has a virtual monopoly on arbitrations that occur in China and it has had a checkered history of success in securing investor confidence in the dispute resolution mechanism. ...
In a strange game of "pass the war criminal", the Sierra Leone Special Court is now requesting that the International Criminal Court in the Hague provide a venue for the trial of alleged war criminal Charles Taylor. This request comes one day after the Sierra Leone Court acquired custody of Mr. Taylor from Liberia, which had only minutes before...
Yesterday the Executive Council of the ASIL passed the following resolution for consideration by the full membership at its annual general meeting later today. As a member of the Executive Council, I am privy to the details of the meeting yesterday. But I will refrain from providing the back story about a meeting that is not open to...
Any of us who have lived long enough know those rare moments when you are part of an event that is unusually special. I had that strong sense today as I watched the opening ceremony of the ASIL annual meeting. It featured Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, ICJ Judge Rosalyn Higgins, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor,...
John Bolton is at it again. After getting Security Council agreement on a resolution threatening Iran, he is preparing to push a plan to change the formula for paying U.N. dues. It would base U.N. dues on Purchasing Power Parity rather than gross national product. This sounds complicated, but it would essentially require Russia and China to start...
Although I'm obviously interested in the Court's argument today in Sanchez-Llamas/Bustillo (see related posts below) considering the private rights created by the Vienna Convention, I don't have any thing to add to this very useful account of oral argument by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSBlog. It sounds like the Court may avoid the self-executing treaty puzzle and impose a duty on...
Charles Taylor, the ex-Liberian leader wanted for war crimes by the Sierra Leone International Court, has been apprehended and transferred to Liberia, the BBC reports. This comes just after President Bush threatened to call off a meeting with the Nigerian leader. The politics of this is no doubt quite murky and will continue to be murky once he gets...
Read this interesting summary by Jeff Jarvis of a speech by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of The Guardian. In his speech, Rusbridger is questioning the very future of newspapers. “I love newspapers...
The relentless Ariel Lavinbuk files this report after spending the day at the Supreme Court observing the oral argument today in Hamdan (and then scrambling back up to New Haven to get back to school). The argument he made in Slate yesterday, the Pocket Part, and of course, here on Opinio Juris, was discussed at length today by the...
While I've been obsessively focused on the U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of Hamdan, the ICJ has continued plowing through its hearings on Bosnia's case alleging Serbia's responsibility for genocide. As I noted earlier, the ICJ had imposed a weird non-disclosure requirement on those attending its witness testimony this past week. That requirement was lifted today and the hearing...
