The New York Times greets the arrival of 2006 with this lead story about UN efforts to revise the much maligned Human Rights Commission (it has counted among its members Sudan, Cuba, and Zimbabwe; Libya chaired it in 2003). Although I had earlier predicted (see here) UN hopes to have a new "Human Rights Council" in place by the end...
Hope everyone had a happy new year! As we move into 2006, it seems a good time to reflect a bit on where we've been the last few years. A new report from the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia has been released that deals with a new concept in international relations theory known as "human security."...
As some of you have noticed, my blogging has been very light as of late. As I mentioned in a prior post (I think), I am currently teaching a winter course at the University of the Netherlands Antilles on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao. The winter course is co-sponsored by Hofstra, the University of Baltimore, and Erasmus University...
My vote for the most important international law case in December is the ECHR's decision in Xenides-Arestis v. Turkey. The decision is available here and the official press release is here.Arestis involved the deprivation of property rights as a result of the continuing division of Cyprus and the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Arestis is a Greek-Cypriot who lives in...
As reported here, Ricardo Miguel Cavallo, a.k.a. "Serpico" or the "Angel of Death" can be tried in Spain for alleged torture committed over twenty-five years ago in Argentina. "The National Audience ruled that it has jurisdiction to try Cavallo for the crimes he allegedly committed under the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) ...
Today's New York Times has an interesting piece on the promotion of human/women's rights in Africa and the tension between such rights and local custom. This is an excellent illustration of the central problem with international law (at least from a political science perspective). As I have discussed in several other posts here, the critical tension is between sovereign equality...
The ACLU announced yesterday that it has filed a petition against the United States at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Jessica Gonzales, a Colorado woman and victim of domestic violence. She lost her claim in US federal courts, which she argued all the way to the US Supreme Court, that the failure of local police to...
I've been grading exams this week and reading various student explanations of how a decision on an international legal issue (defining torture) will vary depending on whether the decision-maker has a positivist or naturalist approach to international law. Of course, I could have asked my students to consider other "schools" of international legal theory -- e.g., the New Haven School,...
I saw Munich over the weekend and found it quite an astounding achievement by Steven Spielberg. One of the most complex and engaging movies he has produced in years. It certainly ranks up there with Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. There are plenty of good reviews of the movie. The New York Times has two reviews here...
This is a quick follow up on my post and Seth’s post, concerning Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer who was shortlisted for the Nobel and also faces criminal charges for insulting the Turkish nation.Pamuk is a great Turkish writer, however he is also a controversial figure, having criticized Turkey for ignoring Armenian and Kurdish massacres. This controversy is something Turkey...
There is a great post by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog on the Solicitor General's filing in Padilla yesterday. But what really caught my attention came from the comments. There was wild speculation that the U.S. government was so concerned about the heated discussion at Volokh on Hamdi, Padilla, and domestic surveillance that perhaps the government "has taken down Volokh. Anyone...
Interesting story from South Korea about prosecutors using text messaging to inform citizens that they have been indicted. In a country where 75 percent of the population carries mobile phones, the government concluded that it was more efficient to provide legal notices to citizens electronically instead of by mail. So if your battery dies or your phone is...
