John Bellinger has been legal adviser to the State Department for the past four years. In this speech to the International Law Weekend (October 17, 2008), he offers some reflections on his experience. (We here at OJ were privileged to have John guest blog here in a unique and highly successful experiment in 'blogging with the Legal Adviser'.) I excerpt...
Hope springs eternal in the Sudan -- at least on the part of the government. Apparently, Khartoum has managed to convince itself that the Pre-Trial Chamber's recent request for additional information concerning the charges against Bashir means that it intends to dismiss those charges: The Sudanese government hailed a decision by the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requesting more...
For the last several years, I have been watching with fascination and admiration as my friend and Washington College of Law colleague, Daniel Bradlow, has been developing more or less from scratch an innovative tool in development finance for his native South Africa, what he has titled "Reconciliation and Development Bonds." Professor Bradlow heads the international legal studies program at...
[Professor Diane Ring is Professor of Law at Boston College Law School] The international tax problems of today are typically beyond the scope of a single nation to solve. However, the prospect of multinational problem solving, often under the auspices of an international organization, unleashes objections grounded in sovereignty. Despite widespread reliance on sovereignty arguments, little attention has been directed at...
Everyone knows about the Nobel Peace Prize, but virtually no one studies it. We all assume that Nobel Laureates are influential, but seldom do we try to gauge that influence. My article does both, arguing that Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have been influential norm entrepreneurs who have dramatically shaped the face of modern international law. The foundation...
[Professor David Kyle is Associate Professor of Sociology at University of California, Davis] Professor James Hathaway has adeptly exposed the Janus-faced agendas of the Trafficking and Smuggling Protocols, revealing a human rights deficit as the sum effect of these transnational codes. At the core of his argument lies an assertion that stricter border controls and legal constraints on labor migrants and...
[Professor James Hathaway is Dean and William Hearn Chair of Law at the Melbourne Law School] It is doubtful that the advent of the Trafficking Protocol deserves anything approaching the nearly unanimous support it has received from those committed to the promotion of international human rights. To the contrary, the Trafficking Protocol has enabled governments to hive off a tiny part...
This weekend the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Martti Ahtisaari for his role as an international mediator assisting in the resolution of international conflicts. The press release emphasized that throughout Ahtisaari's life he has worked for peace and reconciliation, with particular emphasis on his work in Namibia, Indonesia, Kosovo, and Iraq. Compared to last year's prize to...
The Virginia Journal of International Law is delighted to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris this week in this online symposium featuring three articles recently published by VJIL in Vol. 49:1, available here. On Tuesday, James Hathaway, Dean of the Melbourne Law School, will discuss his article, The Human Rights Quagmire of “Human Trafficking”. Dean Hathaway’s article takes...
Following up on Peter’s earlier post on the foreign policy views of Sarah Palin, I note this letter that she wrote in September 2007 to Senators Stevens and Murkowski expressing her “strong support” for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). She also seems to advocate the use of the International Tribunal for the...
I have spent a fair bit of time the past couple days reviewing the Supreme Court's docket for the upcoming term with an eye for any cases that might be of particular interest to our readers. Here is my list of the most important cases that are germane to our discipline. The big issues are (1) senior government...
The Daily Monitor Online, the web presence of one of Uganda's leading independent newspapers, has an interesting article today suggesting that the newly-enacted Child Soldiers Accountabilty Act could be used against senior officials in the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) -- the armed forces of Uganda -- if they traveled to the US: While no senior officer in the UPDF has...
