Everything you need to know about the majority's dismissive attitude toward the Prosecution's evidence of genocide is contained in this paragraph: 179. In relation to the alleged insufficient resources allocated by the GoS to ensure adequate conditions of life in IDP Camps in Darfur, the Majority considers that the Prosecution's allegation is vague in light of the fact that, in addition...
In an effort to put its sordid past behind it -- Nisour Square was so 2007 -- Blackwater Worldwide has announced that it shall henceforth be referred to not as "Blackwater," but as "Xe" -- pronounced like the letter "Z." But why stop there? Why not go full Prince and replace the Blackwater name with a symbol that represents what the...
I have been meaning to do a post about the Supreme Court's first antidumping decision in decades, but frankly the case is a yawner. The question in United States v. Eurodif is whether the importation of low enriched uranium (LEU) is a good or a service. If it is the latter, then it cannot be subject to antidumping...
The Wall Street Journal has an article today, February 6, 2009, front page, on the rush by states to enact new trade barriers in all sorts of ways. The WTO is expressing great concern, indeed saying that it is unable even to keep up with tracking the barriers being erected. The landscape is moving so fast that officials at the WTO,...
The ICJ has issued a judgment in the case Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine). At first glance the issue may seem relatively dry: whether Serpents' Island in the Black Sea is an inhabited island or just a rocky outcropping. But the answer to this question affects maritime delimitation lines, which in turn resolves which country has the right to...
OK, it only violates international trade law obligations, but that's not nothing! Specifically, the stimulus package recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives contains a number of "buy American" requirements for the purchase of steel by recipients of the stimulus. The EU is already getting set to challenge these provisions at the WTO, if they make it into U.S....
Economics Professor William Easterly of NYU has launched "Aid Watch," a new blog that is "just asking that aid benefit the poor." Check out Easterly's inaugural post in which he takes on World Bank President Robert Zoelleck's recent request for a stimulus package for the world. Whether you agree or disagree with Easterly's "tough love" approach to international aid and...
It’s an absurd question, of course, to ask why the environment is more important than human rights. But it’s actually true: protecting, say, endangered sea turtles is far more important than protecting against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of individuals. At least that is the conclusion if one is examining the question from an international trade perspective. The...
Earlier today, the SFRC voted 16-1 in favor of Senator Hillary Clinton's nomination to be the next U.S. Secretary of State. That result is not surprising, nor was her generally well-regarded performance before the SFRC on Tuesday. Indeed, it's worth remembering on the second point that Clinton worked not only with transition officials and her own advisers to get ready,...
Comments like this one, made not by some obscure commenter but by David Bernstein, a law professor at George Mason and a member of The Volokh Conspiracy, in response to my Dershowitz post below: Herein the phoniness of international law. Humble Law Student has raised several significant questions with Heller’s analysis, including whether it matters under international law, as it surely...
In case anyone is interested, here is the text of my Fall 2008 final exam in International Business Transactions. (It's over at my much neglected home blog.) I don’t think this was my greatest exam drafting exercise - I’ve done better in past years. Actually, to be perfectly frank, I think it is not very good at all; I liked...
I don't imagine there is any reader of OJ who is not aware of the suffering and devastation caused by malaria. So this is welcome news. A vaccine against the parasitic disease malaria cut illnesses by more than half in field trials and could be safely given with other childhood inoculations, two studies have reported. The vaccine, which will begin a...
