law
Human rights vs. democracy promotion
Human Rights Watch has released their 2008 world report, and it’s getting some play in the Financial Times and other outlets. Here’s the FT lead: The world
An extra special reason for New Yorkers to give thanks
Al Baker reports on some stunning homicide figures in the New York Times: New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963. But within the city
Hi, I’m Daniel Drezner, the defense attorney for God
Over at Passport, Mike Boyer alerts me to a unique piece of litigation: Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has had enough of plagues, famines, droughts, hurricanes, and genocides. Chambers considers these incidents to be terrorists acts. To stop them, he’s suing the person responsible for them
Madlibs and the Bush administration’s signature style
The New York Times Magazine offers a sneak preview of next week’s cover story — Jeffrey Rosen’s article about Jack Goldsmith’s experiences at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (Full disclosure: Jack is a good friend and I’ve blogged about him before). Goldsmith is the author of The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside [...]
What the f$%& is Kevin Martin thinking?
Via Jonathan Adler, I see that while I was away FCC chairman Kevin Martin did not react well to the Second Court of Appeals decision to strike down the FCC’s policy governing “fleeting expletives”. The court characterized the policy — designed to make the network liable when someone unexpectedly swears during a live broadcast.– as [...]
Forward progress on intellectual property
“Striking the proper balance on intellectual property rights” is one of those ideas I put in my conceptual hope chest along with “unilateral elimination of all agricultural subsidies” or “fiscal conservativism” or “NBC renewing Friday Night Lights for another season” as policies I’d really like to see but don’t expect to happen. So, it’s a [...]
Open U.S. Attorneys thread
I’ve been remiss in not posting about the brewing brouhaha about the role that Republican members of Congress, as well as the White House, played in the removal of several U.S. Attorneys in December 2006. Comment away. If this New York Times story is accurate, then this story has the perfect storm of tidbits to [...]
Your international law links for today
Over at the Council on Foreign Relations web site, Dan Ikenson and Robert E. Lighthizer are debating whether the WTO dispute settlement system is too robust for its own good. Meanwhile, at the International Economic Law and Policy blog, my colleague Joel Trachtman discusses why Indonesia has decided to sell Baxter HealthCare exclusive access to [...]
Opinio Juris scores a (perfectly legal) coup
The international law blog Opinio Juris announces what I believe to be a first — an executive branch official openly participating in a blog: Opinio Juris is very pleased to announce that John Bellinger will be guest blogging with us for the week of January 15. As our readers well know, Bellinger is the State [...]
Open Hamdan thread
Comment away on the Hamdan decision and its implications. No, wait, before you do that, click over to see what Randy Barnett, Orin Kerr, and Jack Balkin think about the decision (Pajamas Media has a big roundup post as well). Balkin first: What the Court has done is not so much countermajoritarian as democracy forcing. [...]
