Treaties for the protection of investment are not just for less developed countries anymore. The United States has included chapters on investor protection in its free trade agreements with Canada (NAFTA) and Australia (AUSFTA), and likely will do so in its agreement with South Korea currently under negotiation. While Korean investment in the United States is nowhere near the scale...
Encouraging news out of Northern Ireland: according to the Independent Monitoring Commission, established by the British and Irish governments in early 2004 to help promote the creation...
As reported here, Larry Johnson has been named the United Nations Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, essentially one of the top lawyers at the U.N. Larry is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and Visiting Professor of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Previously, Johnson was Visiting...
On February 27th, the Algerian cabinet, with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika presiding, approved a “Decree Implementing the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation." The key provisions are Articles 44 and 45: Article 44: Citizens who, through their involvement or their determination, contributed to saving Algeria and protecting the nation’s institutions, performed acts of patriotism. Article 45: No legal proceedings may be...
Opinio Juris readers enjoy (or suffer) through my views on international law stuff on a near-daily basis. Today, readers of the LA Times get the same (questionable) benefit in the form of my op-ed about the Supreme Court's cases assessing whether the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations creates a judicially enforceable private right of action. (Unhappily, the headline for...
Last year the ACLU and Human Rights First sued Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for responsibility in the abuses at Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. After much legal wrangling, the parties have finally agreed on a forum (the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.). Monday, Rumsfeld filed this motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit. As I argued in...
On Friday, March 3, there was a workshop on territoriality at UCLA School of Law, organized by Professor Kal Raustiala. The workshop brought together law professors, political scientists, and others to discuss changing notions of territoriality. What became apparent to this participant is that territoriality is not, in the words of another participant, a “holistic concept.” Although territorial borders have...
Ian Best at 3L Epiphany has just posted a list of legal blogs. It attempts to catalogue the entire universe of legal blogs, which number almost 500. I can't help but be amused by the titles of some of the law blogs, including "Brain Injury Lawyer" "Ernie the Attorney," "Indignant Indigent" and "Surfwax." ...
While most attention at the Academy Awards was focused on the gowns and the ridiculous selection of "Crash" as best picture, most folks in China were probably focused on Taiwanese director Ang Lee's award for Best Director. Lee is, as far as I know, the first Asian director ever to with the Best Director Oscar, and certainly the first...
The BBC reports that Ali Farka Toure, the Malian bluesman whose work won two Grammys, has died. Farka Toure's death causes me great sadness; I've loved his music for more than a decade — ever since I first heard his remarkable collaboration with Ry Cooder, "Talking Timbuktu," for which he won his first Grammy. For any fan of...
On February 26th, Afghanistan's National Security Court sentenced Assadulah Sarwari, the former head of the Afghani secret police, to death for ordering the execution of hundreds of anti-communist prisoners during the 1970s. Sarwari is the first senior official to be held accountable for the communist regime's systematic human-rights abuses. Although many Afghanis were understandably overjoyed by Sarwari's...
Here is the March report of the most popular law blogs. I applied the same criteria and qualifications as applied in the January report. If I missed an academic law blog, please email me. I will update throughout the day. 1. Volokh Conspiracy (#50) 2. How Appealing (#127) 3. ProfessorBainbridge (#162) 4. Tax Prof Blog (#294) 5. Leiter's Law School...
