There was an interesting radio interview earlier this week with Father Joseph Fessio, provost of Ave Maria University and also a student and close friend of Pope Benedict XVI on the subject of Islam in Europe. Particularly interesting is that Father Fessio participated in a September 2005 seminar with the Pope to discuss the topic of Western Civilization and Islam....
Disturbing news coming out of China that Microsoft has shut down a blog in China because of its political reporting. The blog is run by Zhao Jing under the blog name An Ti. If you go to An Ti's blog now here is what it says: "The space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."So what was the offense? As...
In an isolated prison cell in the middle of the compound of the Federal Correctional Institute in Miami sits America’s longest held prisoner of war: General Manuel Noriega. The former head of the Panamanian Defense Force and de facto leader of that nation is no longer the...
In my estimation President Clinton's greatest economic achievement was securing the passage of the WTO and NAFTA. By contrast, to many trade experts the Bush Administration has not been a forceful proponent of free trade. Steel safeguards and Canadian softwood lumber are exhibits one and two for the case that, when necessary, this administration will sacrifice free trade for other...
The Supreme Court has granted the U.S. government's request to transfer Padilla to civilian custody in Miami. The one-page order is here. The key language is the following:"The Solicitor General has now filed with this Court an Application Respecting Custody and Transfer of Jose Padilla, seeking the same authorization previously sought from the Court of Appeals. Padilla has filed...
When addressing the treatment of individuals captured or detained in relation to the War on Terror, the Bush administration routinely emphasizes the United States commitment to respect the “principles” of the Geneva Conventions. The most recent example of this came during the recent visit by the Secretary of State Rice to Europe, where she reassured her European counterparts that the...
The Second Circuit last week rendered an important decision on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in the context of a deportation proceeding of an illegal alien. In Oliva v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, available here, the Second Circuit was faced with the question of whether the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child had achieved...
I want to follow up on Chris's great post summing up our past year, but there's a lot there. So in the meantime, I thought I'd point out one definitely non-top 25 IL event for 2005 or 2006. The NYT reports that the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora has suspended...
Seth has finished his very successful tenure as a guest-blogger here at Opinio Juris and his legacy goes on. One of his posts on the potential for universal human rights deeply intrigued a colleague of mine at Hofstra, Bernard Jacobs, a professor of constitutional law and a classics scholar. His thoughtful and interesting response to Seth's post is below:I read...
Blogging can be an ephemeral activity: reacting to the issue of the day, every day. We move so quickly from topic to topic, that it is easy to lose track of all the issues that (at one time) we thought were so important.So here, in no particular order, is our take on the 25 (!) big stories in international law...
Our friends over at PrawfsBlawg and Concurring Opinions are co-hosting a law prof blog happy hour at Cloud, 1 Dupont Circle NW (New Hampshire Ave, south of the circle). I'll be flying the flag for Opinio Juris and want to extend an invitation to any OJ readers and friends of readers to stop by and say hello. There may even...
The highly publicized McCain Amendment is now law. In order to secure the commitment of the President to support this statutory codification of the principle of humane treatment, Senator McCain agreed to the inclusion of a “superior orders” defense. The compromise legislation therefore provides that in any criminal or civil...
