In association with the International Commission of Jurists

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17 Jun

For the last several years, the number of pro-whaling states in the International Whaling Commission (the constituent organ for the International Whaling Convention) has been steadily increasing. In particular, Japan, renowned for its “scientific whaling,” has courted various states to join the Convention and support its push for more whaling through a regional management scheme that would alleviate the moratorium...

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17 Jun

I can understand Roger's desire to defend his former colleague, Colleen Graffy, whose ill-considered comments compounded the diplomatic problem facing the U.S. following the suicide of two Saudis and one Yemeni at Guantanamo last weekend. But there is little there to defend. Certainly the administration did not think so. The State Department distanced itself from Graffy's remarks with...

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17 Jun

Colleen Graffy, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, has been in hot water this week for her remark that the three suicides at Guantanamo Bay were a "PR stunt." She did not actually use those words, which were quoted as verbatim from the BBC and ignited the controversy. There is no BBC link to the transcript...

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16 Jun

Now, my recent effort doesn’t qualify as a bestseller, but it certainly has a fair bit to say about international law. But what do actual bestsellers say about international law? Well, this week in lieu of seeing the movie I finally read The Da Vinci Code. Like others before me, although I enjoyed it as a thriller, I was troubled...

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16 Jun

This week I am in Dallas, Texas participating in a conference sponsored by the Institute for Transnational Arbitration on the subject of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the 21st Century. Details here. The focus of the conference was on investment arbitration before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The keynote speaker for the conference...

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15 Jun

Yesterday, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for the International Criminal Court issued its Third Report to the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Darfur. The Report, which was completed pursuant to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1593, summarizes the status of the ICC’s investigative efforts over the six months since its Second Report was issued in December 2005....

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15 Jun

The federal court for the Eastern District of New York yesterday dismissed, in part, a class-action lawsuit brought by a number of immigrants who were detained without charges by the federal government in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. The plaintiffs in Turkmen v. Ashcroft alleged that they, and a number of other illegal...

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15 Jun

I may have spoken a bit too soon about the likelihood of Nigerian compliance with the ICJ's 2002 judgment awarding the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. Here is a report detailing seriously angry reactions in Bakassi itself. My favorite angry reaction: The Paramount Ruler of Bakassi, Chief Etim Edet said: "I was born there. I schooled there. Watch out, on...

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15 Jun

The NYT has a fascinating article today detailing the story of Moazzam Begg, a UK citizen who was detained by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Guantanamo for nearly three years. Mr. Begg, the NYT reports, is on a tour promoting his book (pre-order it here) describing his experiences in U.S. detention (he says he wasn't tortured, but does say...

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14 Jun

Jess Bavin has another informative piece on the ICC in today's WSJ, noting the warming trend of the US toward the ICC: That new approach will be on display today, when the ICC's chief prosecutor reports to the United Nations Security Council on his investigation into alleged war crimes in Darfur. The U.S., which now considers the ICC perhaps the...

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14 Jun

Richard Steinberg and Jonathan Zasloff of UCLA have just posted on SSRN their ASIL centennial essay on "Power and International Law" to be published in the American Journal of International Law. In a sense it is a nice summary of the movement of international law scholarship over the past 100 years. The article is available for download here. ...

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14 Jun

Attorneys for a number of detainees suspected of ties to Islamic terrorist groups are challenging their continued detention by Canada in Canada's highest court, the Seattle PI reports. The three non-Canadians have been detained for years without being charged or without any evidence about them being released, apparently for purposes of deportation to their home countries. Because they might...

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