Here's my definition of a very bad week — first you're arrested on suspicion of genocide, then you lose your job:The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Wednesday cancelled the contract of a member of the defence council, Callixte Gakwaya, after being suspected of committing genocide. The case of Gakwaya had recently caused tension in relations between the regime in...
As we wrap up the first week of the General Assembly, I thought it might be a useful educational service to link to Ali G.'s trip to the UN in which he conducts an insightful interview with former UN SecGen Boutros Boutros Gali and visits the Security Council chamber. How many UN structural reform issues can you spot? Buyakasha! For...
The Bush-McCain Senate compromise was released late yesterday afternoon and already the blogosphere is busily analyzing it. Marty Lederman (of course) and blogosphere newcomer Bobby Chesney have already read, chewed, and largely digested the compromise agreement with respect to the Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3. A copy of that portion of the agreement can be found here thanks to...
We have rarely if ever seen a week like this one at the United Nations. President Chavez condemning Bush as the Devil Incarnate and President Ahmadinejad calling for the return of the Apocalypse. Here is an excerpt from Chavez's speech: The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human...
My thanks to Peter for the kind words about my new essay "The Rhetoric of Necessity (Or, Sanford Levinson's Pinteresque Conversation)." If anyone is interested in taking a look at it, it is available on SSRN here. ...
As reported in this Financial Times interview with Legal Adviser John Bellinger. How does this line up with the current difficulties between the Administration and Senate Republicans? Also from the FT, this story about how CIA interrogators in effect walked off the job at secret prisons shut down last week with the transfers to Guantanamo. ...
The NYT flags an important issue that has been largely lost in the coverage of congressional plans to overhaul the military commission system. As the NYT reports, both the Bush bill and the McCain-Graham alternative would strip federal courts of their jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus appeals from detainees held outside of the U.S. (including Guantanamo Bay). According...
... and counting. Opinio Juris had its 250,000th visit on Wednesday. We thank you for taking part in the conversation and, as always, if you have any suggestions, please let us know. ...
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave an interesting speech at the American Sociological Association last month on comparative experiences of women in the judiciary. The speech provides a useful perspective on how the United States Supreme Court fares compared with peer national and international tribunals on this issue. When President Carter took office in 1977, only one woman (Shirley Hufstedler) sat...
The Georgia Law Review has a Spring 2006 symposium issue recently out on emergency powers and the Constitution, organized by our own Kevin Heller and featuring a lead essay from Sanford Levinson, along with responses from Philip Bobbitt, Michael Stokes Paulsen, Kim Lane Scheppele, William Scheuerman, Mark Tushnet, and Kevin himself. It’s an excellent collection, with some genuine engagement....
A federal court last week rendered an important Alien Tort Statute decision in the case of Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc. The decision is available here. The Southern District of New York granted Talisman's motion for summary judgment. I found the opinion thoughtful, detailed, and well-reasoned. The core allegation was that Talisman conspired...
In an interesting counterpoint to all the controversy over the Pope's recent remarks about Islam, a group of European Church leaders recently went to Africa to apologize for slavery and colonialism: A delegation of European church leaders, recently in Harare, has publicly apologized to Zimbabweans and Africans for the historical wrongs of colonization and slavery. At a prayer conference in Harare...
