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Category Archives: International Law
Judicial Reform in France
Thursday, January 8, 2009
French President Nicholas Sarkosy wants to do away with Investigating Magistrates. This would end a 200-year legal tradition in France. Although the move gives lip service to the presumption of innocence, the practical result will be more power to the government and less justice for the people.
This important story has been discussed widely. [...]Israel: Suicide for Fear of Death
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
I oppose the Israeli attack on Gaza. My father and uncle were born in Bath, England and raised in Baghdad, Iraq. Both of them spoke Arabic fluently. My wife is a Rabbi. (I consider myself Quaker; my wife thinks I’m basically Catholic.) The lesson I take from the Holocaust is that silence equals complicity. I [...]
Obama: Corporate Militarist
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Hope is one of the most powerful drugs, but it’s no substitute for progressive change. Our new President is dedicated to preserving a corrupt system. The US military is deploying in the USA. The government is going to bail out creditors instead of debtors. Get [...]US House Backs Away From Iran War
Saturday, September 27, 2008
HR 362 is off the table for this session of Congress. Last July, I and other critics decried this resolution as being the functional equivalent of a declaration of war against Iran. The Democratic leadership in the House agreed.
House Resolution 2605 isn’t as well known, but it is far more visionary. The author [...]Privacy Dies in France
Thursday, September 11, 2008
The right to privacy is in deep trouble throughout the western world. The latest bad news comes from France, which has just been saddled with a new national intelligence agency with the power to keep track of the political ideas and sex lives of people who are not suspected of being criminals.
Time will [...]Wal-Mart Loses in Mexico
Monday, September 8, 2008
It turns out that Wal-Mart’s labor practices are even meaner overseas than they are in the USA. The Mexican Supreme Court recently told the company that it had to pay its Mexican workers in money, not in company vouchers that had to be spent at Wal-Mart.
Read the Mexican Constitution (in Spanish). Check out [...]US vs. Nazario
Friday, August 22, 2008
Jose Luis Nazario is being prosecuted in civilian court for crimes allegedly committed while serving as an active-duty US Marine. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act was designed for prosecuting US mercenary forces – who are not subject to the military courts.
This case should not be in the civilian courts. Although I have publically [...]Salim Hamdan and the Decline of America
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
A military commission has convicted Salim Hamdan of giving Material Support for Terrorism. It acquitted him of the primary charge he faced: Conspiracy to Commit Terrorist Acts. Looking at these proceedings is like reading the autopsy report on the American Legal System.
Even if this defendant had been acquitted of all the charges, he [...]Afghan War: Wrong and Illegal
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Barak Obama and many others who consider themselves to be progressive argue that the “real” front in the War on Terrorism is in Afghanistan. This is dangerous nonsense. Bush, Cheney, and the others lied about the Afghan war, too. The Afghan war is yet another illegal war of aggression. We’ve already lost. It’s time to [...]