I am grateful to Roger Alford and Duncan Hollis for inviting me to provide several blog entries on matters of particular interest to my office. Along with many of my colleagues in the Office of the Legal Adviser, I enjoy reading the blog and believe it provides a useful forum to discuss and debate important matters relating to international...
With the rush of so many events—the War in Iraq and the “surge,” Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, the Sudan, the Global War on Terror, Guantanamo, you name it—I just wanted to pause for a minute in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As is the custom each year, the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC (online audio stream here)...
The following is from the Times of London, via Talking Points Memo (emphasis mine):Frederick Kagan, 36, is the author of Choosing Victory, a blueprint for the surge adopted by President George W Bush. Just as everybody had begun writing off the influence of the neocons at the White House, genial, chubby-faced Frederick gave the muscular intellectuals a lease of life. It...
There is little doubt that but for a constitutional impediment one of the top Republican contenders for President in 2008 would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a country that embraces immigrants like no other, it is anachronistic and even anti-American that our Constitution does not allow naturalized citizens to become President. That was the message of a great LA...
Charles "Cully" Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, gave a radio interview on Thursday in which he attacked law firms that give pro bono assitance to Guantanamo detainees and suggested a boycott of such firms by American companies may be in order. Thankfully, the Pentagon is distancing itself from DASD Stimson's remarks. CNN has the story....
Or so to speak. The standard narrative about the law of expropriation is that there was a wave of nationalizations (and subsequent arbitrations) in the 1960's and 1970's, then a wave or privatizations in the 1980's and 1990's. Today's disputes about expropriation, so the story goes, are about regulatory expropriation--how different types of regulations (environmental, health, tax, etc.) can actually...
President Bush's surge strategy in Iraq may be the final ingloroious blow to Tony Blair's legacy. But the "special relationship" appears to be further strained by the Atlanta police department's overzealous enforcement of the Georgia jaywalking statute against a world-renowned British historian and self-described "ageing member of the bourgeoisie." A friend at the FCO, aware that I am...
It seems that quite a few prominent law firms are establishing climate change practice groups, among them Pillsbury Winthrop, Latham & Watkins, Davis Wright Tremaine, and Hunton & Williams. This shouldn't be very surprising. Even if the US government has yet to sign on to Kyoto, transnational corporations will have to deal with that and other emissions regimes...
The story here (also fronted in the FT). With half a trillion dollars in annual sales, this effort of Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro — the world's four largest superstores — is bound to be of consequence. One question mark: can a code such as this, labeled the Global Social Compliance Program and purporting to regulate the...
Opinio Juris is very pleased to announce that John Bellinger will be guest blogging with us for the week of January 15. As our readers well know, Bellinger is the State Department Legal Adviser, the top lawyer at the Department of State. In that capacity he is the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department...
I have a new essay on SSRN, entitled "Retreat from Nuremberg: The Leadership Requirement in the Special Working Group's Definition of Aggression." Here is the abstract:The International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression is contingent upon the Assembly of States Parties adopting a definition of the crime. To that end, the Special Working Group on the...
In keeping with my recent spate of hopeful posts, it's my pleasure to mention that Israel is poised to appoint its first-ever Muslim minister:An Arab-Israeli legislator of the centre-left Labour Party is to become Israel's first-ever Moslem minister, Israeli news channels reported Wednesday night. Labour Party head Amir Peretz has decided to appoint Raleb Majadele from the central Arab-Israeli town of Baka el-Garbia as science,...
