In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

10 Oct

Lest it seems like the U.S. Senate is the graveyard of all treaties, it is worth noting that the U.S. Senate has recently ratified two conventions: the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism as well as a Protocol of Amendment to the International Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures. The...

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09 Oct

I always follow the news of the Nobel Peace Prize with great interest and occasionally I find myself pleased with their choices. But this year something struck me as particularly odd. Every ten years the Nobel Peace Prize returns to the subject of nuclear disarmament, and each time it goes to a peaceful dove and not a peace-loving hawk.In 1975...

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08 Oct

Interesting column by David Brooks in the New York Times on Sunday. Money quote:I believe that social mobility is the core of the American experience. I believe that society should be structured so that as many boys and girls as possible can work, and rise the way young Hamilton and Lincoln did.If something is going to make American society more...

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07 Oct

It was announced today that the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohammed ElBaradei, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005. The Committee cited Baredei and IAEA "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way." They join...

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06 Oct

The International Criminal Court has issued indictments for the five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. These are the first warrants the ICC has ever issued, although the ICC website has no official info on these warrants.According to a U.N. official, the notifications went out last week to the governments of Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic...

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06 Oct

Julian's post below on the bill passed by the Senate today misses a few key points. First, the standards set out in the bill will not apply to all detainees being held by the US, but only to those held by military personnel. This leaves the still troubling question of what the administration's current policy is toward non-military interrogations. (But...

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06 Oct

The U.S. Senate has voted, by a 90-9 veto-proof margin, to establish uniform and clear interrogation policies for the interrogation of individuals detained in the war on terror. Apparently, the amendment (which would be attached to a spending bill) would require adherence to the Army's existing field manual for interrogation.I am obviously no expert in the effectiveness of interrogation methods...

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05 Oct

The European Court of Human Rights last week rendered its long-awaited “class action” settlement decision in Broniowski v. Poland. The case is here and the official press release summarizing the case is here.The case involved systemic unlawful confiscation of property by the Polish government relating to the redrawing of Poland following the Second World War. In a June 22, 2004...

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05 Oct

I wouldn't usually take note of this commonplace account of an address to Canadian lawyers by Justice Shi Jiuyoung, the current President of ICJ, except for a couple of statements of interest.First, Justice Shi defended the ICJ from charges that it moves way too slowly on the grounds that the procedures and various jurisdictions involved in interstate disputes. Moreover, he...

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04 Oct

This is an interesting story. U.N Ambassador John Bolton addressed over 400 students at the Yale Political Union and was greeted with a chorus of boos and loud hisses. My favorite part is a Yale sophomore* reportedly chastising the Ambassador for being “extremely rude” to the undergraduate audience who were loudly hissing at him. But then he...

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