For a fascinating google-map of individual cases identified swine-flu occurrences, see here. (Can't vouch for its accuracy, however, and as H/T Futurepundit points out, it will rapidly get overwhelmed as more cases become identified over time.) Among the interviews I participated in as one of the experts on the Gingrich-Mitchell UN reform commission back in 2005 was one with a senior...
In today's Washington Post, Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith have an editorial attacking the recent refusal of a federal judge to grant a motion to dismiss in Khulumani v. Barclays National Bank Ltd, the ATS lawsuit brought by victims of apartheid against 23 corporations who did business with the South African government during the apartheid era. It's a remarkably unpersuasive...
I would first like to thank David for his thoughtful reply to my initial post. I will address his three main points briefly and in order. First, David raises a very fair set of questions regarding the choice and emphasis of my case studies. I deliberately chose three networks that were widely seen as successful in the literature, so that they...
It’s a pleasure to be able to comment on Pierre-Hugues Verdier’s excellent, if critical, article on networks. I respond as a defender: in my view, networks have notched some impressive achievements, and at their best, have become primary vehicles of international governance. From bank capital adequacy to mutual recognition on drug regulation to accounting standards, their list of...
I would first like to thank Opinio Juris for hosting this online symposium on my recent article, Transnational Regulatory Networks and Their Limits. Opinio Juris has quickly become an invaluable means of keeping up with current developments in international law, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to share my thoughts with you. In essence, the article sounds a cautionary...
The Yale Journal of International Law (YJIL) is pleased to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris in this third online symposium. Today, Friday, and Monday we will feature three Articles published by YJIL in Vol. 34-1, which is available for download here. Thank you very much to Peggy McGuinness and the other Opinio Juris bloggers for hosting and...
Last week, on April 1, the European Community (EC) signed onto the Hague Choice of Courts Convention. The treaty essentially seeks to replicate for covered commercial contracts a regime of judgment recognition in cases where parties exclusively agreed on a particular court for their disputes akin to the recognition of arbitral awards that occurs under the New York Convention. The EC signature is...
The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution last week on "Human Rights and Climate Change," in follow up to the January report by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights, The Council resolution is significant less for what it says than for the fact of its adoption, which reflects...
Last month, the UNEP Governing Council voted to begin negotiation of a treaty on mercury pollution. The negotiations will start next year and are supposed to conclude in 2013. Meanwhile, negotiations on the future of the international climate change regime will resume next week in Bonn, aimed at reaching an agreement at the Copenhagen Conference in December. The development of any...
The IMF is much under discussion these days as the global recession deepens and spreads. I invited Daniel Bradlow (professor at my school, Washington College of Law, and head of our international legal studies program, as well as long time advisor on Africa to the development banks and institutions, and SARCHI professor of international development law at the University of...
Thanks to Peggy for her introduction. It’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to guest blog on Opinio Juris, which I think has become essential reading for international lawyers. Just recently I heard an ICC prosecutor remark how much his office had been influenced by Kevin Heller’s post criticizing the Pre-Trial Chamber’s decision on the genocide charges in the...
Financial crisis getting you down? You can always move your money to the virtual world of the Planet Calypso: Interstellar banking isn't here yet, but at least you can pretend. The publisher of the online science-fiction game "Entropia Universe," set on the planet Calypso, received a banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority last week and plans to open a...
