Religious freedom scholar Nina Shea reports that the United Nations Human Rights Council recently ended consideration of a resolution requiring states to ban “defamation of religion.” The Organization of the Islamic Conference decided not to push for a vote on the resolution, which had passed in each of the several years, when it became clear […]
Archive | International Law
Richard Goldstone: Chief Kangaroo
Ronald Radosh, commenting on Justice Goldstone’s bizarre “just kidding” op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post about the eponymous Goldstone report on Israel’s conduct in Operation Cast Lead (despite the dateline, it’s not, near as I can tell, an April Fool’s joke): In a stunning and unexpected turn of events, Judge Richard Goldstone has essentially reversed himself […]
Ecstatic crowds in Libya celebrating imminent use of U.S. military force against Gaddafi
By David Kopel on March 17, 2011 7:08 pm in Genocide, International Human Rights Law, International Law
U.N. Security Council Resolution passes 10-0. Live feed from Benghazi on Al Jazeera English. The Resolution authorizes “all necessary measures” except military occupation of Libya. By my reading, the authorization includes destruction of Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft defenses, and of his air force and its mercenary pilots. As President Reagan once said, “We begin bombing in five […]
Text of U.N. Security Council draft resolution on Libya
By David Kopel on March 17, 2011 5:28 pm in Genocide, International Human Rights Law, International Law
Right here, provided by the Inner City Press, which has long been the best English-language media covering the United Nations. The resolution authorizes member states–acting either through regional organizations or nationally–to “take all necessary measures” to establish a no-fly zone over Libya. It further authorizes the member states to enforce the arms embargo against Libya […]
Wall Street Journal Mistaken About the Obama Administration and Protocol I?
(Update: Pleased to see that the Journal has appended the following correction to the online edition:) An earlier version of this story mistakenly reported that the Obama Administration is sending Additional Protocol 1 for Senate ratification. It is treating Article 75 of Protocol 1 as legally binding, though it has not been ratified by the […]
The Law and Politics of US Intervention in Libya
By Kenneth Anderson on March 7, 2011 12:37 pm in International Human Rights Law, International Law, Uncategorized
A few days ago, I asked the question (over at the international law blog Opinio Juris), what are the best legal arguments that would permit or preclude military intervention in Libya, by the US or some other party or parties, on humanitarian grounds (other than rescue of one’s own nationals)? The question generated an illuminating […]
HRW Defends Shawan Jabarin
By David Bernstein on February 21, 2011 8:01 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law, Israel
Last week, I noted that Human Rights Watch had appointed Shawan Jabarin to its Middle East Advisory Board. Jabarin runs a Palestinian human rights NGO based in the West Bank. He also has been found in a series of Israeli Supreme Court opinions to secretly lead a double life as a top official of the […]
Human Rights Watch Appoints Terrorist (and “Human Rights Activist”) to Middle East Advisory Board
By David Bernstein on February 16, 2011 8:43 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law
You can’t make this stuff up. Daily Beast: The man at the center of the dispute, Shawan Jabarin, runs the human rights organization Al Haq in Ramallah on the occupied West Bank. In 1985 he belonged to a Birzeit University student group associated with the PFLP, indicted as a terror group, by 30 countries including […]
The Ethics of Global Philanthropy
By Kenneth Anderson on January 14, 2011 2:24 pm in International Human Rights Law, International Law
Global philanthropy is a topic that invites examination across disciplines, including law, ethics, economics, sociology, political science and more – particularly as activity in the field grows in a globalized world. So I’d like to welcome a new volume of essays, Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, edited by Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, and Leif […]
Frank Dikötter on Mao’s Mass Murders
By Ilya Somin on December 17, 2010 12:48 am in Communism, Genocide, International Human Rights Law, International Law
Back in September, I wrote a post about historian Frank Dikötter’s excellent new book on Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” terror famine of the early 1960s. Dikotter recently published a New York Times op ed summarizing his thesis: The worst catastrophe in China’s history, and one of the worst anywhere, was the Great Famine of […]
Extradition, Espionage Prosecutions, etc., for Assange Discussed at Opinio Juris
Kevin Jon Heller, Roger Alford, Julian Ku, and Peter Spiro – who represent a wide range of political and legal views – offer up analyses of legal questions surrounding Wikileaks and Assange over at the international law blog Opinio Juris. The posts at OJ are thoughtful and legally informed, and the comments are well worth […]
Cancun and Copenhagen, and Carbon as Pure Regulatory Object
By Kenneth Anderson on November 29, 2010 11:05 am in Climate Change, Collective Action Problems, Economy, Environment, International Law
Co-Conspirator Jonathan has already remarked below on the seeming collapse of the media-academic-NGO-international organization-et al. global warming coalition in-between last year’s Copenhagen meeting and this year’s much-subdued Cancun event. I broadly agree with Jonathan, and with Margaret Wente, on whom he comments, on the policy merits. I also think the right approach to climate change […]
What Law Will Govern Space Tourism?
Over at Opinio Juris, a scholarly exchange on the question of space tourism and the law that would underlie it. Steven Freeland, commenting on his own article in the Melbourne Journal of International Law, Frans G. von der Dunk responding, and Freeland’s final comments. Meanwhile, I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving; we had family […]
UN General Assembly Committee Passes New Version of Resolution Urging Nations to Forbid Defamation of Religion
By Ilya Somin on November 24, 2010 1:19 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law, Religion, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
The United Nations General Assembly Third Committee recently passed another resolution urging nations to ban defamation of religion [HT: Elizabeth Cassidy of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which criticized the resolution here]: A U.N. General Assembly committee once again voted to condemn the “vilification of religion” on Tuesday, but support narrowed for a […]
Did Joseph Stalin Commit Genocide?
By Ilya Somin on November 23, 2010 3:14 am in Communism, Genocide, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Russia
In his excellent recent book Stalin’s Genocides, Stanford historian Norman Naimark argues that Joseph Stalin committed genocide and not “merely” mass murder. Few any longer deny that Stalin’s regime slaughtered millions of innocent people. But the Russian government and some Western writers continue to argue that these murders were not genocidal, and that Stalin therefore […]