In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Asia-Pacific

15 May

Like thousands of other high school kids, today is AP Comparative Government exam day in the Alford household. According to the AP College Board, "The course aims to illustrate the rich diversity of political life, to show available institutional alternatives, to explain differences in processes and policy outcomes, and to communicate to students the importance of global political and economic changes." But in order to move the discussion from the abstract to the concrete, AP Comp. Gov. students are required to study six--and only six--representative countries. Can you guess the six countries chosen as suitable for comparison? And could you answer the short- or long-essay questions these high school whiz kids are required to answer? Details after the jump:
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03 May

The Chen Guangcheng saga is not yet completed, and indeed, as the NYT puts it, "what briefly looked like a deft diplomatic achievement for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton [has] turned into a potential debacle."  I do hope Mr. Chen will find safety and justice soon, but I am not optimistic. Until we discover his final fate, I thought I'd...

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17 Apr

I've been following the standoff between the Philippines Navy and Chinese "surveillance" ships in the South China Sea (or West Philippines Sea) with some concern. As I noted here, China has some rather expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea that countries like the Philippines are resisting.  But given the relative sizes of their navies, it is obvious that...

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01 Apr

I think it's safe to say that the ECCC is in serious trouble, despite having an excellent International Co-Prosecutor in Andrew Cayley and many intelligent, dedicated staff.  As readers probably know, the international reserve co-investigating judge, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, is resigning his position because interference by the Cambodian government is making it impossible for the Tribunal to investigate new cases.  Kasper-Ansermet...

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05 Mar

Maybe, says M. Taylor Fravel at the Diplomat. In a recent press conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared to take an important step towards clarifying China’s claims in the South China Sea – and suggesting what the line might not mean. First, the spokesperson, Hong Lei, distinguished between disputes over “territorial sovereignty of the islands and reefs of the Spratly Islands” and...

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02 Mar

The ABA Journal has a cover story about the threat posed to island states by climate change. This is a topic we have discussed on Opinio Juris at various times. Duncan wrote at length about the Maldives; I had a shorter piece here, and there are various references in the midst of other blog posts. The Journal article is long and...

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02 Mar

Like many readers, I never miss FP's online "Morning Brief," which provides links to numerous interesting international developments.  It's an incredibly useful and erudite feature -- which is why I was so surprised to see the following headline this morning: A U.S. court dismissed charges against the president of Sri Lanka for war crimes. Um, no.  The case did not involve war...

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15 Sep

Something I learned about while I was in China is that China claims, as a matter of international law, that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the (oil-rich) South China Sea. This graphic illustrates the scope of China's sovereignty claims. China hasn't had a navy that could enforce this claim, until now.  So Vietnam and the Philippines have been...

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