This week on Opinio Juris, it was too early for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but we certainly talked a lot about pirates. The reason of course was the Ninth Circuit's decision to agree with Japanese whalers that the Sea Shepherd's activities amount to piracy. Julian wasn't fully confident that "private ends" are broader than financial enrichment, and Kevin strongly...
My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have explained why Judge Kozinski's opinion in the Sea Shepherd case wrongly considers a political end to be a private end. In this post I want to highlight what is ironic -- though not technically incorrect -- about Judge Kozinski's conclusion that Sea Shepherd committed an act of piracy on "the...
As part of my new research interest in China and its relationship with the international legal system, I opened a Sina Weibo account a couple of weeks ago. And it has been quite an adventure. Weibo is China's version of Twitter and Facebook. Since both Twitter and Facebook are blocked within China, Weibo is the main social media platform for users...
If you're interested, the Duke Law, Ethics, and National Security Center is holding its annual conference - it's being livestreamed over the web, if you go to the webpage and click the link. The Chief Prosecutor, the Military Commissions, is giving the lunch talk at this moment. I'll be on a panel later today on autonomous weapons, Bill Banks moderating,...
“It is widely thought that the rapid growth of the international human rights regime has profoundly influenced the practice of written constitutionalism at the national level,” writes David Law and Mila Versteeg in their brilliant article recently published in the NYU Law Review. But is there empirical support for such an assumption? Much to my surprise, their answer is a...
Back in December, Peggy noted with sadness the shuttering of IntLawGrrls and the wonderful insights and coverage it had brought to the field of international law during its five-plus year run. Happily, it seems reports of IntLawGrrls' death were a bit exaggerated. Beginning this Sunday, IntLawGrrls will return to full activity, albeit with a new editorial structure (including my friend and colleague Jaya...
Ex-Yugoslav army leader Momcilo Perisic was acquitted on appeal at the ICTY yesterday. After the sentencing to death of Jamaat e-Islami in Bangladesh, deadly clashes broke out, where at least 30 were killed and more than 200 injured. The UN is accused of a cover-up in a humanitarian mission for a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe in 2008 that cost some 4,000 lives;...
Eugene Kontorovich has responded at Volokh Conspiracy to my previous post about politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas. I invite interested readers to examine for themselves the various documents Eugene and I discuss; in this final post I simply want to correct a fundamental error on Eugene's part concerning the Harvard Draft Convention on Piracy -- an error...
I have just posted on SSRN my latest article published in the Ohio State Law Journal. Through the lens of the broken windows theory of community policing, the Article examines the connection between corruption and other social goods in society, as well as the relationship between U.S. enforcement efforts and those of other OECD countries. It is incredible how much empirical...
The ICTY is scheduled to release the appeals decision in the Momčilo Perišić case at 3:00 p.m. Hague time today. The European Parliament's Environment Committee has approved the European Commission's proposal to "stop the clock" on the inclusion of aviation in the EU ETS. The EU has agreed to cap banker bonuses at a maximum of one-year's basic annual salary. China has arrested five Tibetans for...
[Jennifer Trahan is associate clinical professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs (NYU-SCPS). She is also chair of the American Branch of the International Law Association International Criminal Court Committee and was a member of the American Bar Association’s 2010 International Criminal Court Task Force.] A little-noticed event has taken place. Before he returned to Yale Law School, top State Department...
Both Eugene and Maggie disagree with my claim that politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas were not traditionally considered piracy under international law, but were instead simply criminal acts that the offended state could prosecute as it saw fit. Here is Eugene (my emphasis; combining two comments): The rule is clear as both a matter of customary international law...
