This little gem of a story from a local paper in Annapolis, Maryland is an amusing profile of a guy who cons people by talking, in a self-important way, about international law and international organizations. Here is the opening: At least one thing about Daniel Besser is clear: He's a hell of a storyteller. Ever since the stocky Australian started...
I am procrastinating. Instead of grading exams or providing some substantive post on international law, I’ve been looking at Opinio Juris’ site statistics. Now, it’s no secret that law bloggers, like politicians, are constantly looking for affirmation of their popularity, usually in terms of how many “daily hits” a site receives. My co-blogger Roger Alford has already done some heavy...
Certain events seem to lose impact with time, or are simply not known to younger generations. The massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam war may be one of them. For those of us too young to remember the incident and the subesquent military trial of Lt. William Calley — the officer held repsonsible for the massacre —...
The European Court of Justice today ruled against the European Council and European Commission in a case brought by members of the European Parliament challenging the Council agreement to share airline data with the United States. The Commission had earlier issued a decision declaring the agreement on data-sharing complied with EU retstrictions on dissemination of private data; this decision...
As Kevin has noted, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has annoyed the current government of Rwanda in a variety of cases, most recently from its decision to plea bargain a defendant charged with genocide. This recent commentary from East Africa (HT: War Crimes Prosecution Watch) sums up some of the local frustration with the ICTR, which is planning...
The American Society of International Law has named Betsy Andersen as their new Executive Director to replace Charlotte Ku. Kudos to Betsy, who will ably serve one of the most important international law societies in the world. Details here. ...
Today I had the good fortune to have a private tour of the Alabama Room at the Hôtel de Ville in Geneva, Switzerland, one of the most famous rooms in the history of international law. Two parts of the room were particularly interesting. One was the prominent display of a sculpture of a plowshare made from swords. The other were...
The Washington Post has just launched a new law blog called Bench Conference by Andrew Cohen of CBS News. The Washington Post now has over twenty blogs that it sponsors, and they even include comments. Kudos to the Washington Post for embracing the blogosphere in such a serious way. Here is an excerpt from his first post entitled...
As Peggy noted below, a group of Israeli diplomats and Holocaust survivors is lobbying Israel to bring a case against Iran in the International Court of Justice under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. As Roger has forcefully noted in previous posts, Iran's President has made some pretty hostile comments about Israel saying it should be...
Australian military forces have taken control of security in Dili, the capital of the troubled nation of East Timor. The Australian forces are there at the invitation of the East Timor government, which is struggling with violence within its own military forces. Although Australia is at pains to emphasize its limited role in East Timor, Australia is clearly going to...
Faisal Kutty of York University has recently published a paper on the role of Shari'a law in international commercial arbitration. You can download the paper here. Here is the abstract: The world has witnessed a phenomenal growth in commercial disputes transcending national borders due to our increasingly interrelated and globalized world economy. In addition to issues in interpretation of...
If you were commissioned to design a museum to memorialize war, how would you design it? You can easily imagine how a Museum of Tolerance, or a Holocaust Memorial Museum, or an Air and Space Museum should be designed. But what emphasis would you give to a museum about war? Would it be pro-war or anti-war? Would it lament the...
