This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin Jon Heller posted on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s refusal to participate in his Military Commission trial, on the censored time-delayed video and audio feed from the trial and on the irony of an op-ed complaining about "false information about the detention" in the media coverage. Deborah Pearlstein addressed the question whether things might have gone...
My friend at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin, offers a fairly convincing critique of the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S. Agency for International Development as its budget is taken up this week by Congress. Take branding: Throughout the Middle East, especially in areas where anti-American sentiment is especially strong, the USAID refuses to put the USAID logo on its...
Here's yet another long-ish story in the NY Times on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, and how it's cramping American citizens abroad. (How many tax stories get this kind of play? NYT must have some reader traction on this.) Remember: the US is the only country other than Eritrea that taxes its external citizens. Dueling takeaways: More AmCits abroad...
Responding to a letter to which we linked yesterday, US Trade Representative Kirk has rejected criticism that the negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement have not been transparent. The Greek left leader has asked the EU to re-examine its commitment to austerity. In talks to normalize bilateral relations, Zimbabwe has asked the EU to lift all remaining sanctions on Mugabe and senior...
The standoff between China and the Philippines over the Huangyan Island/ Scarborough Shoal (see the island marked 黄岩 on the Chinese map to the right) has continued to fester over the past few weeks. CFR's Asia Unbound blog has a nice summary here of the latest. The bottom line: The Philippines has been calling for restraint in recent days, but the...
Michele Bachmann couldn't take a little bit of heat from a few restrictionists on the Right and has renounced her Swiss citizenship, apparently pursuant to article 42 of the Swiss nationality law. It wasn't clear that Republicans had such a big problem with her keeping it. Check out the comments to Mark Krikorian's "Swiss Miss" column over at National Review Online, in...
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta kicked off the U.S. Senate's forthcoming debate on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea yesterday with a speech pushing for ratification. His comments were reinforced by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I am agnostic on whether the U.S. should join UNCLOS and the Panetta speech didn't...
US President Barack Obama has backed same-sex marriage. Foreign Policy gives a global look into which countries have already legalized same-sex marriage. Stricter international rules of the Hague Adoption Convention are seen as contributing to a drastic drop in international adoptions worldwide. As another sign of heightening tensions between China and the Philippines over disputed islands in the South China Sea, Chinese...
There is a friendly debate going on at Prawfsblawg about whether people who have PhDs or JSDs in law are entitled to refer to themselves as "Dr. so-and-so." Skepticism seems to be the order of the day; here are quotes from Paul Horwitz and Jeff Yates, respectively: Although I think there's a good deal to be said for obtaining JSDs or...
That's right, Michele Bachmann has acquired Swiss citizenship and is now a dual national. The news reports say she did it for her kids. (It doesn't appear that her naturalization was necessary for her children's, since her husband was already a Swiss citizen. For those interested in the finer points of Swiss nationality law, here is a primer. Note that although...
According to the Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. government has recently re-affirmed its obligations to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty. This is a particularly sensitive time to re-affirm this commitment, given the ongoing tensions between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea. But what exactly is the U.S. committing to here? Would the...
The Arab League has joined the ICRC in warning of a civil war within Syria; a UN envoy bolsters this claim with reports that arms are flowing in both directions between neighboring Lebanon and Syria. Citizens of North Carolina have voted to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions, dealing a setback to LGBT-rights activists and those in favor of equal treatment...
