[Ruti Teitel is Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School and the author of Humanity’s Law (Oxford University Press 2011).] Sam Moyn, writing in this Sunday’s New York Times (“Human Rights, Not So Pure Anymore”) claims the current relationship of human rights is compromised, and nostalgizes the past. As he puts it: [T]he whole idea of human rights has...
In honor of Mother's Day yesterday, Foreign Policy offers some insight into the top countries who score the best on Save The Children's State of the World's Mothers report. The Dalai Lama told Britain's The Telegraph he was warned that China may have tried to kill him, in a plot involving two Tibetan females with poison in their hair and on their...
My recent post on PhDs calling themselves "Dr." led one of my e-friends, Martin Holterman, to remind me that I had promised to post about my dissertation defense -- called a "viva" in the Netherlands -- at Leiden University last year. The viva was one of the greatest academic experiences of my life, so I'm happy to rectify my omission. I'll...
Following on Ken’s most recent post on autonomous battlefield robots, I came across the short story Malak by Peter Watts (you can read it here). What jumped out at me was a short story that beginning with epigrams such as these: “An ethically-infallible machine ought not to be the goal. Our goal should be to design a machine that performs better...
Last week’s announcements can be found here. If you are organizing a conference or other event and would like to see the call for papers or the program announced on Opinio Juris, please contact us. Calls for Papers Tel Aviv University is hosting a conference entitled: Migration and Well-Being: Research Frontiers, to take place January 8-10, 2013. Up to 500-word abstract submissions must be in no later than...
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...
