Recent Articles

On November 21

November 21, 2008 05:00

On this day in ...... 1898 (110 years ago today), radium was discovered by Marie Sklodowska Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. It was 1 of 2 elements the couple isolated that year; the other was polonium. Together the discoveries of la radioactivité -- the word she coined the same year -- brought ...

On November 20

November 20, 2008 16:25

On this day in ...... 1893 (115 years ago today), in United States v. Rodgers, the U.S. Supreme Court analyzed centuries of state practice by colonizing powers such as Portugal, Spain, and Britain in the course of holding that "the open, uninclosed waters of the Great Lakes (above right), between...

Blueprint to bring human rights home

November 20, 2008 16:21

Soon after the election, IntLawGrrl Connie de la Vega posted a moving call for the United States to reaffirm the commitment it made 60 years ago by endorsing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Just before the election, the American Constitution Society released a road map on how America...

Vagaries of witness protection before the ICC

November 19, 2008 18:00

Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui (right), both hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo, are two of the accused awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court. The two are implicated in attacks against civilians in the Ituri region of the DRC while they were members of...

On November 19

November 19, 2008 16:52

On this day in ...... 1863 (145 years ago today), with the War Between the States still raging, a national cemetery was dedicated at a Pennsylvania battlefield where 4 months earlier 51,000 had perished in a 3-day battle. One speech immediately printed in full on the front page of The New York...

Female Genital Mutilation before the ECtHR

November 19, 2008 16:37

The European Court of Human Rights (left; photo credit) yesterday asked the Irish Government to stay the deportation of Pamela Izevbekhai and her children until the Court has had an opportunity to hear her Article 3 claim on December 9th (RTE report). This followed a refusal by the (Irish) High...

Judgment in the ECOWAS Slavery Case

November 19, 2008 16:33

Our colleague Prof. William Schabas, of the Irish Centre for Human Rights (NUI Galway) has helpfully posted a link on his blog to the (very difficult to find) slavery judgment of the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, which we discussed here. The judgment...

Sirius Piracy

November 18, 2008 18:48

Piracy will be drawing the attention of the international community to a much greater degree after last weekend's hijacking of the very large Saudi-owned, Liberia-flagged oil tanker, the Sirius Star. This is reported to be the biggest tanker ever to be successfully grabbed by pirates. (photo...

Getting to Grips with Closing Guantanamo Bay

November 18, 2008 18:01

Following on from Diane's post yesterday on the Obama promise to close Guantanamo Bay, readers may be interested in an op-ed that I have in today's Irish Times on the complexities of this task. There follows a snippet, with the full op-ed here.Obama may find the Guantánamo question more complex ...

On November 18

November 18, 2008 11:01

On this day in ...... 1978 (30 years ago today), at Jonestown, Guyana, 909 people died after drinking poisoned grapeade. The mass carnage -- suicide/homicide by adults, who drank after forcing their children to drink the poison -- followed the lead and the urgings of the leader who'd brought them...