As reported here, during a particularly technical portion of the oral argument in the Texas redistricting case this week Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was seen dozing away. Both flanking Justices Souter and Alito looked at her sleeping but did nothing. I would suspect that Justice Alito was thinking something along these lines: Whose snores these are I...
As reported by the Guardian — but largely ignored by the U.S. press — the U.S. government agreed Monday to pay $300,000 to an Egyptian man detained in New York following the 9/11 attacks and held in solitary confinement for 10 months without charge. The settlement is the first of its kind. The man, Ehab Elmaghraby, was one of 762...
President Bush was in India yesterday where he addressed the topic of outsourcing. Following a speech at the Hydrabad Indian School of Business, he had this to say: "People do lose jobs as a result of globalization, and it's painful for those who lose jobs. But the fundamental question is, how does a government or society react to that. And...
Overshadowed by the war on terrorism, the U.S. war on illegal narcotics continues apace. This war is not just metaphorical. It involves substantial deployment of military and diplomatic assets throughout the world, as the State Department's annual International Narcotics Control Strategy report indicates. The U.S. has poured billions of dollars into narcotics interdiction or eradication overseas. Drugs dominates the...
Arnaud de Borchgrave, one of the deans of international journalism and now an editor-at-large for UPI, has filed an essay based on a recent meeting of foreign leaders from the government, media, and international organizations. The worst geopolitical blunder in 229 years of American history? That was how participants at a recent off-the-record conference held in Monaco viewed the U.S. decision...
U.S. opposition may result in a delay on the current proposal to replace the U.N. Human Rights Commission with a new Human Rights Council, Reuters reports. Although, as I pointed out, the U.S. only has five votes in the General Assembly, it does have other levers of influence. Britain, for instance, is supporting a delay and members of Congress...
Here are the preliminary results of my survey of the new and lateral faculty hires in international law. Please contact me if you have more information or clarifications regarding this list. Auckland Kevin Jon Heller (International Criminal Law) from Georgia Boston University Robert Sloane (International Law) new hire Cincinnati Jacob Katz Cogan (International Law) new hire Fordham Grainne De Burca (EU Law) from European University in Florence Florida State Lesley...
It may not be the most important international dispute of our time, but a storm is brewing over which country — China or Scotland — invented golf. From the International Herald-Tribune: Did the Chinese invent golf and export it westward centuries before any Scottish shepherd ever thought of making a game out of his forlorn fate? Say something quickly in a...
According to a China Daily report, all death-penalty appeals in China will be held publicly as of July 1, 2006. The move, initiated by the Supreme People's Court, is designed to decrease the number of wrongful convictions by making the appeals process more transparent. Under Chinese law, city-level intermediate courts initially hear cases that could lead to the death penalty....
Today in San Francisco there is a meeting of business leaders to discuss corporate social responsibility. It is part of the U.N. Global Compact, the largest volunteer initiative to promote ten universal principles relating to human rights, labor standards, environment, and anti-corruption. Part of that discussion will address the recently published McKinsey survey of business executives on business and society....
With all the recent talk of electronic surveillance, the NSA, and FISA, I want to point out a sidebar to the history of surveillance and cryptography. Three encoded Nazi messages—products of the famed Enigma encryption system—that had gone unbroken since WWII are being deciphered by a group of amateurs using networked computers via the Internet. The first message...
As we relaunch Opinio Juris at our new site, we are all extremely pleased to welcome our newest permanent blog contributor, Professor Kevin Heller. Since we began our blog just over a year ago, Kevin has been a valuable commentator, informal adviser, and friend to Opino Juris. As our readers have noted, he has been a terrific guest writer...
