In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Regions

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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14 Nov

Friends often ask me what my favorite treaty is (OK, none of my friends ask me this, but they should).  I'd have to say the 1909 U.S.-Canada International Boundary Treaty (BWT) ranks right up there -- for nearly a century it has dealt, mostly successfully, with all sorts of questions relating to the shared water resources of the U.S. and Canada,...

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14 Nov

I have often argued that suspending the ICC's investigation of Bashir in the name of "peace" would be a mistake, because Bashir has taken peace seriously only when faced with the prospect of significant international sanctions. Today Michelle F. at Stop Genocide makes that argument far better than I ever could.  Here is a taste: Yes, we are talking about millions...

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13 Nov

[caption id="attachment_5503" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Malé, Maldives"][/caption] This week's news out of the Maldives is the sort of story that makes international lawyers salivate. It has something for everyone, bringing together issues of democracy, transitional justice, climate change, the law of the sea, not to mention good, old-fashioned sovereignty.  On Tuesday, Mohamed Nasheed was sworn in as the archipelago's new President, ending...

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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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11 Nov

Awesome: Jews are no strangers to the idea of persecution and for years, Jewish groups have been at the forefront of the movement to save Darfur save Darfur, a region in western Sudan, which is awash in cultural genocide. Today, they join with Tents of Hope on the National Mall to show solidarity with the refugees of Janjaweed aggression. Sixth & I...

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10 Nov

As discussions of a(nother) bailout for Detroit automakers continue, one question that intrigues me is whether any Opinio Juris readers drive Detroit-made cars - i.e., cars made by the Big Three US automakers?  Please feel free to indicate in the comments. My wife and I own two Hondas, one of them a 1993 Honda Civic that we bought used from the...

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10 Nov

Two items of Sudan news to report.  First, the Sudanese government has lawyered up, hiring the prominent British firm Eversheds LLP to represent it at the ICC.  I wonder if that means Bashir is expecting the Pre-Trial Chamber to issue the arrest warrant; although Article 19 of the Rome Statute is not the picture of clarity, it seems to allow...

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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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09 Nov

Something that my international business law students often have trouble grasping is that the Chinese economy remains enormously dependent upon exports to the rest of the world and to the US in particular.  On account of so much attention, often in undergraduate political science classes and elsewhere, I suspect, to the "rise of China and India," my students, and perhaps...

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09 Nov

The Butare trial is the ICTR's largest and longest -- it began in June 2001, involves six defendants accused of genocide, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon.  The trial is likely to go on even longer because two of the defendants, former Governor Alphonse Nteziryayo and ex-Mayor Elie Ndayambaje, are ill.  And that comes not long after one...

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