Academic

Tenure and the Minority Law Professor in the United States: Teaching Against the Demons

Posted on June 21, 2009
The Association of American Law Schools held a Workshop for Pretenured Minority Law School Teachers on June 17-18, 2009, in Washington, DC. The conference organizers described the purpose of the event:From their first day of teaching until tenure, minority law teachers face special challenges in the legal academy...

Governance Without Government: A Preliminary Overview

Posted on June 17, 2009
Before the 16th century in Europe, states were an important component of a complex system of governance, over territory, individuals, beliefs, customs and the like. From the 16th century on a territorial principle was introduced cuius regio, eius religio, which by the 20th century had metastasized into the notion that political control of a territory subsumed within it the ultimate authority by the political apparatus of the state to control every aspect of life (and otherwise) within those borders?at least to the extent those borders could be defended...

Brazil and China: A More Intimate Military Relationship?

Posted on June 13, 2009
Traditionally, Brazil and Japan have had close relations. The Japanese foreign ministry reports that it has loans of 326,500 million yen, grants of 1,955 million yen and technical cooperation programs valued at 97,700 million yen (2006) with Brazil. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), Japan-Brazil Relations...

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. and the Purchase of Hummer From General Motors

Posted on June 13, 2009
The transformation of General Motors from an independent multinational corporation that once commanded great power (including the power to influence smaller states) to a mere state owned enterprise of the United States has many ramifications. One of the more interesting, of course, is the way the United States is revolutionizing the construction of systems of political control of economic enterprises while simultaneously attempting to regulate the private markets in which these operate...

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China, India, Pakistan, The United States and the Taliban: Tangled Webs and Trip Wires

Posted on June 11, 2009
The relations between China, India, Pakistan, the United States and the Taliban has been is a dynamic and interesting constellation of contradictions and aspirations. One can get a sense of the complexities, and volatility, of these relationships, by considering the movements and counter movements among these parties in the context of recent troop movements by India...

Democracy Part XV: The European Parliament Elections and Downdraft Federalism

Posted on June 08, 2009
Over the last twenty or so years it has become almost established dogma among European intellectual circles to point to and decry the "democratic deficit" in the construction and operation of the institutions of the European Union. See, e.g., Fritz W...

It is All About the Universal: Anwar Ibrahim on the American "New Beginning"

Posted on June 07, 2009
It has become clear that within legal and political frameworks grounded in substantive values, the ability to control the content and interpretation of those substantive values is critical to assertions of power and influence. I speak not merely of an amorphous power and control, but the specific mechanics for the expression of power in law...

Mr. Obama Speaks in Egypt: "Islam is a Part of America"--The Ummah Wahida, and the State in Two Distinct World Orders

Posted on June 05, 2009
"So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America." Barack H. Obama, Remarks by the President On a New Beginning, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009. So Mr. Obama declared to his audience at Cairo University on June 4, 2009. This declaration, both profoundly optimistic and incomprehensible, serve as the best and most enigmatic part of Mr...

Sri Lanka and the Application of Global Humanitarian Law

Posted on May 29, 2009
Little noticed this week, the "United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday dropped a Swiss-EU draft resolution calling for an investigation into possible war crimes during Sri Lanka?s recently-concluded war on terrorism and adopted Sri Lanka?s counter resolution with some of the proposals in the Swiss-EU document incorporated into it...

Mr. Obama on Guantanamo: Of Power and Politics in Time of Crisis

Posted on May 21, 2009
One of my favorite scenes from opera is the delightful first act of Jacques Offenbach's Contes d'Hoffman (Tales of Hoffman). Hoffman, the artist, tries without success to embrace the love as imperfectly incarnated in three women. The first act focuses on a youthful and virtuoso love, of a certain sort...

Residencia en la tierra I: Pablo Neruda and the Tyranny of Despair

Posted on May 17, 2009
This is another in a series of essays on the poetry of Pablo Neruda.The subject of these essays is Neruda's Residencias en la tierra (translated usually as "Residence on Earth"), an enormously influential set of poems published in three batches -- Residencias I in 1933; Residencias II in 1935 and Residencias III in 1947...

On Fidel Castro's May Day Address 2009

Posted on May 16, 2009
The elections this past November in the United States brought with it a great excitement. The global media suggested, and the incoming administration did little to disavow, the notion that the change of administration was essentially revolutionary in character...

Residencia en la tierra I: Pablo Neruda Between Past and Future Part I

Posted on May 15, 2009
This is the first of a series of essays on the poerty of Pablo Neruda.The subject of these essays is Neruda's Residencias en la tierra (translated usually as "Residence on Earth"), an enormously influential set of poems published in three batches -- Residencias I in 1933; Residencias II in 1935 and Residencias III in 1947...

On ALBA--Cuba at the Center of a Challenge to Dominant Modalities of Trade

Posted on May 13, 2009
I have recently mentioned the excellent conference: The Measure of a Revolution: Cuba, 1959-2009, held May 7-9, 2009 at the lovely campus of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario CANADA. The conference was jointly organized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Havana University, Boston University and Queen?s University...

Cuban Conference: The Measure of a Revolution Cuba 1959-2009

Posted on May 12, 2009
I have just returned from an excellent conference, The Measure of a Revolution: Cuba, 1959-2009, held May 7-9, 2009 at the lovely campus of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario CANADA. The conference was jointly organized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Havana University, Boston University and Queen?s University...

Desperation Federalism in the United States: The Search for a Structural Solution to a Political Problem

Posted on April 29, 2009
One of the great curiosities of American federalism is that the term is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution itself. More curious still is that it appears nowhere protected from incursions by either the apparatus of state or general governments. But it is not that the founders were unaware of the need to include strong structural protections to guard the division of authority between newly subordinate state and a limited but powerful general government...

Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Power: The Case of Norway Part V (Regulatory Implications of Santiago Principles Approach and Activist SWFs)

Posted on April 28, 2009
This is the fifth of a series of five (5) essays in which the nature and character of sovereign wealth funds are considered. Specifically the essays explore whether a sovereign wealth find can form itself to the ideals expressed in emerging regulatory regimes, like the Santiago Principles, one based on the idea that states may be treated like private entities with respect to their enterprises, formally sovereign but functionally private, as long as they conform to a set of behavior expectations which are said to distinguish sovereign from private behavior...

Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Power: The Case of Norway Part IV (SWF and State Policy in Action: CSR, Israel, Burma and India)

Posted on April 27, 2009
This is the fourth of a series of five (5) essays in which the nature and character of sovereign wealth funds are considered. Specifically the essays explore whether a sovereign wealth find can form itself to the ideals expressed in emerging regulatory regimes, like the Santiago Principles, one based on the idea that states may be treated like private entities with respect to their enterprises, formally sovereign but functionally private, as long as they conform to a set of behavior expectations which are said to distinguish sovereign from private behavior...

Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Power: The Case of Norway Part III (History, Legal Structure, Ethics Guidelines)

Posted on April 26, 2009
This is the third of a series of five (5) essays in which the nature and character of sovereign wealth funds are considered. Specifically the essays explore whether a sovereign wealth find can form itself to the ideals expressed in emerging regulatory regimes, like the Santiago Principles, one based on the idea that states may be treated like private entities with respect to their enterprises, formally sovereign but functionally private, as long as they conform to a set of behavior expectations which are said to distinguish sovereign from private behavior...

Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Power: The Case of Norway Part II (Concepts and Regulatory Framework)

Posted on April 25, 2009
This is the second of a series of five (5) essays in which the nature and character of sovereign wealth funds are considered. Specifically the essays explore whether a sovereign wealth find can form itself to the ideals expressed in emerging regulatory regimes, like the Santiago Principles, one based on the idea that states may be treated like private entities with respect to their enterprises, formally sovereign but functionally private, as long as they conform to a set of behavior expectations which are said to distinguish sovereign from private behavior...

Sovereign Wealth Funds and Public Power: The Case of Norway Part I

Posted on April 24, 2009
This is the first of a series of five (5) essays in which the nature and character of sovereign wealth funds are considered. Specifically the essays explore whether a sovereign wealth find can form itself to the ideals expressed in emerging regulatory regimes, like the Santiago Principles, one based on the idea that states may be treated like private entities with respect to their enterprises, formally sovereign but functionally private, as long as they conform to a set of behavior expectations which are said to distinguish sovereign from private behavior...

Professor Beth Farmer on the Evolution of Chinese Merger Notification Guidelines

Posted on April 22, 2009
My colleague, Susan Beth Farmer has written an excellent analysis of the Chinese merger notification guidelines. I have included the Introduction, Part V (Questions and Issues), and Part VI (Conclusion) to that article here. The entire article may be downloaded at the Social Science Research Network website...

Universal Jurisdiction, Universal Law, Prosecurtorial Discretion

Posted on April 13, 2009
Legitimacy was once thought to be achieved at the point of a gun. Certainly human history confirms the importance of military power in conferring legitimacy to political desire, and legal ends. And not just military power. "Dubai police on Sunday accused Chechen Vice-Prime Minister, Adam Delimkhanov, of ordering the murder in Dubai on March 28 of the former Russian army commander from Chechnya, Sulim Yamadayev...

Phryne and A Lame Beggar, Disinherited

Posted on April 12, 2009
A Lame BeggerI am unable, yon begger cries,To stand, or move; if he say true, hee lies.John Donne, A Lame Begger, in The Works of John Donne: The Complete Poems 88 (Rosslyn, NY: Black's Readers Service Co., 1932) (before 1617).And thus our banks, so eager to suck at the public teat, cried to all within earshot of their difficulty standing or moving...

Urbi et Orbi--Easter 2009

Posted on April 12, 2009
Following a long tradition, the pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church delivered an Easter message--Urbi et Orbi; Easter 2009. While much of the Western press coverage focused on the usual--hopes for peace in the Middle East and the like, the address, understood as a whole, was meant to convey more than a simpleminded statement of political hopes...

Twenty Years of Critical Race Theory: The View From Iowa and in Global Contexrt

Posted on April 05, 2009
An exciting conference was recently held at the University of Iowa College of Law, April 2-4, 2009. The Conference, entitled, CRT 20: Honoring Our Past, Charting Our Future, was the collective product of a number of institutions in the United States:Sponsored by: The University of Iowa College of Law Co-Sponsored by: The University of California, Berkeley School of LawThe University of California, Davis School of LawThe University of Connecticut School of LawDenver University, Sturm College of LawThe University of Miami School of LawSouthern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law Contributing Race Centers Fred T...

The Public Prosecutor and the Subversion of the Republic: A Reverie on Representative Ted Stevens Just Past Time Rehabilitation

Posted on April 02, 2009
While all attention is paid to the new American President and the great political tasks that await him, a number of events are occurring in the background that, despite the best intentions of the individual who now serves as president, will shape the institutions over which he presides and the system which he represents in ways well beyond his control...

Here We Go Again: Mr. Lieberman's Wrongheaded Grandstanding in the Israel-Palestine Wars

Posted on April 01, 2009
It appears that the foreign Minister of Mr. Netanyahu's new government in Israel, as short lived as it is expected to be, has already staked out a claim to difference from the prior government's position. Israel FM Reject Annapolis Deal, BBC News Online, April 1, 2009...

Sovereign Wealth Funds as Regulatory Chameleons: Views From a Georgetown University Law School Symposium

Posted on March 31, 2009
On March 30, 2009, the Georgetown Journal of International Law (GJIL) held an important symposium, entitled Sovereign Wealth Funds, focused on legal issues related to sovereign wealth funds at the Georgetown University Law Center. Ahmed Mousa and Kevin Goldstein of the GSIL and the GJIL staff are to be congratulated on putting together an excellent program...

Anwar Ibrahim: Unity in Diversity in Malaysia Going Forward

Posted on March 20, 2009
A little over a year ago, during early March 2008, what might have seemed impossible a decade earlier had occurred--"Malaysia?s governing coalition, which has run this multiracial country without any major challenges for the past four decades, suffered a string of election defeats on Saturday, losing control of three major states and all but surrendering urban areas to the opposition...

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