I have been remiss in not pointing interested readers to Anna Gelpern's terrific posts on the ongoing NML v. Argentina sovereign debt litigation that is going on here in New York. I want to highlight in particular her incredibly useful and interesting account of the scene last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard...
My previous posts (see here for the most recent) have explained why Judge Kozinski's opinion in the Sea Shepherd case wrongly considers a political end to be a private end. In this post I want to highlight what is ironic -- though not technically incorrect -- about Judge Kozinski's conclusion that Sea Shepherd committed an act of piracy on "the...
Eugene Kontorovich has responded at Volokh Conspiracy to my previous post about politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas. I invite interested readers to examine for themselves the various documents Eugene and I discuss; in this final post I simply want to correct a fundamental error on Eugene's part concerning the Harvard Draft Convention on Piracy -- an error...
Both Eugene and Maggie disagree with my claim that politically-motivated acts of violence on the high seas were not traditionally considered piracy under international law, but were instead simply criminal acts that the offended state could prosecute as it saw fit. Here is Eugene (my emphasis; combining two comments): The rule is clear as both a matter of customary international law...
As Julian noted earlier, the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge Kozinski, has decided that anti-whaling activism qualifies as piracy if it involves violence against a ship on the high seas. I'm running short for time right now, but I want to briefly respond to Kozinski's key claim about the traditional understanding of piracy's "private ends" requirement (p....
In a tartly worded opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has reversed a lower court and granted a group representing Japanese whalers a preliminary injunction against the protest activities of Sea Shepherd. Here is Judge Alex Kozinski's instantly quotable opening to the opinion: You don't need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships;...
As we wait with bated breath for the Supreme Court's decision in Kiobel, it is worth remembering that there are viable alternatives to ATS litigation. That was particularly evident last week when The Hague District Court in the case of Akpan/Royal Dutch Shell. Here's the Judicial Press Release (translated by Pieter Bekker): Four Nigerian farmers and fishermen, together with...
I posted a few weeks ago about the scandalous situation of adulterated Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) exported from Italy, Greece, and Spain. Here is an update on the international olive oil market from Ed Dolan of EconoMonitor. He reports that cold weather in Spain, followed by drought, has shrunk the Spanish harvest: There is little doubt about what is happening...
Rob has an excellent post today at Prawfsblawg extolling the potential of American legal education. It is nice to see someone dissenting from the conventional doom and gloom, and Rob makes a number of valuable points. But I feel compelled to take issue with (1) his description of non-American legal education, and (2) his assessment of the potential for American...
This treaty was totally NOT on my radar screen. But as the NYT reports: More than 140 nations adopted the first legally binding international treaty on Saturday aimed at reducing mercury emissions, after four years of negotiations on ways to set limits on the use of a highly toxic metal. The treaty was adopted after all-night negotiations that followed a week of...
I am delighted to announce that Thomas Graham, the U.S. Member of the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, will be giving the Shapiro Lecture at Hofstra entitled "It Sure Looks Different from the Inside: Deciding International Disputes at the WTO." Graham has been an observer and a participant in the international trade law system since the 1970s as a USTR attorney,...
