The U.S. space agency NASA announced plans yesterday to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2020. Other than its enormous cost, this seems sufficiently remote in time as to cause little international reaction. Unlike the new island Duncan noted last week, no nation has yet claimed sovereignty over the Moon as a whole under traditional principles...
See this op-ed in the L.A. Times. Interesting that even Catholic countries are getting on this bandwagon. Immigration law is likely to be a flashpoint on the question, as the U.S. persists in refusing to recognize same-sex relationships for purposes of preferential admission. ...
There has been some chatter recently in the blogosphere (at TNR’s Open University, and here, here, and here) and elsewhere about reviving the draft or some other sort of mandatory national service. Almost of all this is coming from center-left Democrats. Charlie Rangel has been talking this up for some time, and has reintroduced a bill which would...
Steve Clemons of The Washington Note has a number of interesting thoughts on the winners, losers, and implications of Bolton's resignation:1. John Bolton's resignation reflects a loss of ground by Jesse Helms' inspired 'pugnacious nationalists'. It is also a clear loss for Vice President Cheney and his loyal followers. Jim Lobe captures this quite well in a piece he has...
For those of you who have too much time on your hands, a translated version of the verdict -- all 300 pages of it! -- is available exclusively on the Grotian Moment blog here. I hope to post my thoughts on the verdict next week. It will take me that long to read the damn thing! ...
This really seals it. John Bolton's controversial tenure as U.N. Ambassador is over. I still don't understand why Bolton was so loved by conservatives or so reviled by liberals. He didn't accomplish much that deserves conservative support nor did he do anything that explains the liberal vitriol directed against him. Nor is his position as U.N. Ambassador,...
To the best of my knowledge the issue of constitutional comparativism did not come up in the voluntary school integration cases that were argued today. (Please correct me if I am wrong. See transcripts here and here). But there were two important amici briefs that squarely presented the issue. (See here for the brief of Human Rights...
Augusto Pinochet has received last rights following a heart attack. Although still alive, he appears to be in imminent danger of death. If he dies, it will bring one of the darkest chapters in Chilean history to an unsatisfying end; as I have noted before, courts have only recently begun to strip Pinochet of the general immunity he...
Thanks from all of us here at OJ to Janet Levit for some great guest-blogging over the past two weeks, with some especially good posts on understudied private-law topics. We'll hope to have Janet back again for another visit soon. ...
Here is an interesting little brewing dispute that lies below the radar screen. The Financial Times reports that the United States may bring the European Union to the International Court of Justice in order to challenge forthcoming EU greenhouse gas rules. The relevant rules will require airlines operating in the EU to participate in their greenhouse gas/ emissions...
I read with great interest the letter from President Ahmadinejad to the American people. I was struck by two things in the letter: the beginning sentence which beckons Allah to bestow on humanity the "perfect human being"--an apparent reference to “Twelfth Imam" and the Islamic apocalyptic vision. This call echoes a similar call in September in his...
The USG has settled a claim brought against it by Brandon Mayfield relating to his wrongful detention as a suspected terrorist. It's paying out $2 million, but more interestingly the settlement also involved a formal apology, as described in today's NYT:“The United States of America apologizes to Mr. Brandon Mayfield and his family for the suffering caused” by his...
