Organizations

Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner have an interesting op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal (November 25, 2008), "Does Europe Believe in International Law?"  I believe it is behind the subscriber wall, but it offers a series of instances in which, in effect, Europe says one thing and does another.  In fact, Europe's commitment to international law is largely rhetorical. Like the...

Anyone who still doubts that the ICC's pursuit of Bashir is unnerving the Sudanese government should take a gander at this article: An interview with published by Sudan official news agency (SUNA) with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband yesterday is fabricated, according to a statement by the British embassy in Khartoum. “The statements that SUNA news agency attributed to the Foreign Secretary...

The AP is reporting that the Trial Chamber lifted the stay "after the prosecution agreed to let judges review confidential material it received from the United Nations."  No additional information is available yet; it will be interesting to see what the Chamber does about the documents that are still protected by confidentiality agreements -- an issue I discussed here. UPDATE: According...

John has kindly agreed to let me post his private response to my previous post about his speech at the Fletcher School.  Before I do, though, I want to reiterate how important it is to not let the US's refusal to join the ICC blind us to the many significant contributions the US has made, and continues to make, to...

The State Department has posted John Bellinger's recent speech at the Fletcher School on international criminal justice.  It is well worth a read, because it quite rightly highlights the US's many important contributions -- past and present -- to international criminal justice.  That said, the speech regrettably dusts off all of the US's tired objections to the ICC: not giving...

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,...

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...

[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...

At the SMU conference last week on transnational governance networks, splendidly organized by Prof. Jenia Turner, a question that was much on my mind was one that was - what's the word? - obviated by the topic of the conference itself: what role for global civil society in, so to speak, running the planet?  For that matter, what role for...