In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Europe

15 Nov

Today is the global financial crisis summit in Washington DC, with attendance by leaders of the G20.  Bloomberg reports that the most likely results are: agreement to a global fiscal stimulus aimed supporting aggregate demand while waiting for monetary stimulus (i.e., interest rate cuts by central banks) to take effect;  reform of the IMF to put it at the center of addressing...

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12 Nov

Julian has already written a cautionary note about expecting a new Bretton Woods out of the upcoming global economic summit.  I could not agree more, and note that the Washington Post agrees in an editorial yesterday - indeed, the Post takes Sarkozy to the proverbial woodshed for a whuppin': With the global economy in crisis, and his own tenure as temporary...

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09 Nov

Today is the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, during which 92 Jews were murdered, 25-30,000 Jews were arrested and deported to concentration camps, and more than 200 synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed. I was in Vienna for the 60th anniversary.  Late that night, I was walking through the Heldenplatz, where Hitler announced the...

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08 Nov

Amidst all the global celebration regarding the election of Barack Obama there is stark news that Moscow is emerging as a serious resurgent threat to the United States. Within hours of Obama's election Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the redeployment of missiles on the Polish border. A few United States papers are covering the story, but this report...

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24 Oct

Last week the ICJ issued an order for provisional measures  (pdf is here) in the Case Concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Georgia v. Russian Federation) . This case, along with the recent referral to the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the status of Kosovo, are the latest cases arising out of...

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23 Oct

I'm just back from 9 days in Madrid -- my first visit, and it was great.  Of course, while there I couldn't ignore the international law-related story of the day.  Judge Baltasar Garzón (of Pinochet, al Qaeda, and Eta fame) is at it again.  This time he's agreed to open a criminal investigation into thousands of disappearances and executions surrounding...

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09 Oct

Serbia might want the ICJ to opine on the legality of Kosovo's independence, but it seems that the horse is already out of the barn.  Even Macedonia and Montenegro have now recognized Kosovo, the latter particularly irking the Serbian government: Montenegro's announcement sparked outrage in Belgrade, which along with key ally Russia has been vehemently opposing the split. Serbia in a...

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21 Sep

Two interesting trials involving very old defendants began last week. The first, in Poland, involves General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who orchestrated the Polish government's brutal repression of Solidarity in 1981: The 85-year-old man, who was once the very symbol of communist repression, faces a possible ten-year jail sentence for “directing a criminal organisation” – a reference to the Military Council that imposed...

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15 Sep

Spiegel Online has posted a fascinating interview with Rafi Eitan, a former Mossad agent who is now a minister in the Israeli cabinet.  According to Eitan, Mengele was also in Buenos Aires when Eichmann was captured -- and would have shared Eichmann's fate but for the Mossad's lack of boots on the ground: SPIEGEL: Josef Mengele fled Germany for South America...

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