Transnational Law Blogtag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-5088922008-05-27T16:17:19-07:00A study of all law which regulates actions or events that transcend national frontiers.TypePadThis Blogger Needs a Brief Hiatustag:typepad.com,2003:post-504816302008-05-27T16:17:19-07:002008-05-27T16:21:10-07:00The time has come for me to take a break from the blogging world and focus my attention on preparing for the California Bar exam. It has been a pleasure blogging throughout my law school tenure, and I look forward to returning after I take the Bar exam in July. Although I am stepping out of the discourse for awhile, there is the possibility that some of my colleagues will continue to post, and we'll continue to accept comments. Also, we're looking for law students who are interested in blogging about transnational law issues. If you're interested, please contact me....Travis HodgkinsI Want a Certificate in Space Law, Too!tag:typepad.com,2003:post-498288082008-05-13T16:24:54-07:002008-05-13T16:25:04-07:00As I am coming out of finals, graduating from law school, and staring the Bar exam dead in the eye, I am fascinated by this article on Res Communis about the first law student to graduate with a specialty in space law. It should come as no surprise that I'm planning a career in transnational law but I take my hat off to anyone that is planning a career in space law-- that is just too international and out-of-this-world cool! I'll admit it, I'm jealous! The University of Mississippi Law School is the only ABA-accredited law school in the nation...Travis HodgkinsFactory in China Accidentally Makes Free Tibet Flagstag:typepad.com,2003:post-491475862008-04-28T16:45:15-07:002008-04-28T16:46:55-07:00A factory in China has been manufacturing 'Free Tibet' flags (h/t Foreign Passport Blog). According to the BBC, the factory owner said the flags were ordered from outside China, and he did not know the flags were a symbol for a free Tibet. The flags are known as the Snow Lion Flag and they have been banned in China. Factory workers discovered the meaning of the flag by looking it up online. Chinese police fear that some of the flags have already been shipped to Hong Kong and could appear there during the torch relay later this week. Hong Kong...Travis HodgkinsThinking of China's Loyal Youthtag:typepad.com,2003:post-485603602008-04-16T15:18:55-07:002008-04-16T15:19:19-07:00An editorial by Matthew Forney, former Beijing bureau chief for Time, entitled, China's Loyal Youth, explores some of the reasons why most young Chinese support their government's recent suppression of the Tibetan uprising. Forney's assessment of the next generation of Chinese-- those 30 years of age and under-- is interesting because it gives a cursory look at the future policy makers, lawyers, and businesspeople of the fastest growing economy in the world. Forney points out that China's youth probably doesn't remember the events of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. They probably don't think of China as a police state since they've...Travis HodgkinsYo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rumtag:typepad.com,2003:post-483917482008-04-13T20:17:46-07:002008-04-15T20:46:40-07:00An article at IntLawGrrls entitled, The Jolly Roger Still Flies, reminds us that piracy is still a very lucrative business-- I don't mean piracy in the intellectual property sense of the word-- I mean REAL pirates! Here is a piece of the article: ...[T]oday’s pirates seem to have gone largely unmentioned in the mainstream press, despite their having taken some 3200 sailors hostage over the last 10 years, which they’ve ransomed for millions of dollars (paid by the shipowners). In fact, total worldwide losses due to commercial vessel piracy are estimated at USD 13-16 billion per year. Just a little...Travis HodgkinsThe U.S. Military's Contemplated Use of the Blogospheretag:typepad.com,2003:post-478896742008-04-08T17:20:22-07:002008-04-08T17:20:32-07:00While I was perusing the blogosphere about a week ago, I came across a post on Opinio Juris that caught my attention entitled, US Military Thought About Recruiting-- or Hiring-- Bloggers, which discusses a 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University that suggests using bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message. The Opinio Juris post cited an article from the Wired Blog's Danger Room entitled, Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers', that republished the following paragraph from the report: Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of...Travis HodgkinsSeeing The Tibet Situation Clearly: Old Tibet and Democracy for a Future Tibettag:typepad.com,2003:post-478936662008-04-02T19:42:42-07:002008-04-09T10:40:20-07:00There is always two sides to every story and the same is true about the unrest in Tibet. The state operated Xinhua News issued an editorial today entitled, Don't See Tibet Through Tainted Glasses, which argues that Tibet is better now than it was before it came under the control of China. The basic argument is that people who view the Tibet situation through rose-colored glasses intentionally distort facts and deny that Tibet is experiencing its best era of development and stability and Tibetans are enjoying the broadest human rights ever. China Daily also ran an article today entitled, CNN:...Travis HodgkinsComparing the Current Account Balances of the U.S. and Chinatag:typepad.com,2003:post-477970342008-03-31T20:57:40-07:002008-04-01T15:28:00-07:00The Crashing Down Now blog has a post entitled, The U.S. Account Balance?, which discussed the CIA World Factbook rank order of each country's current account balance. I've never even heard of a country's current account balance, and so I was surprised to learn that the U.S. has the largest negative balance of any other country in the world! The current U.S. balance is $ -747,100,000,000! And China has the greatest surplus! China's current balance is $363,300,000,000! This might make sense to the folks out there who took more than one course in economics, but it baffled me. I did...Travis HodgkinsAFRC Appeal: Joint Criminal Enterprisetag:typepad.com,2003:post-470294022008-03-27T08:26:56-07:002008-03-27T10:09:33-07:00This is the second in a series that will post excerpts from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council Appeal Judgment from the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The section concerns Joint Criminal Enterprise, a mode of liability that is somewhat akin to conspiracy. As with previous selections, this post will only be a selection from the judgment for the sake of space and time. This should not be interpreted as placing particular emphasis on certain sections. Citations and references are omitted as well. Joint Criminal Enterprise The actus reus for all forms of joint criminal enterprise liability consists of the following...John DermodyMedellin v. Texas: ICJ decision creates an international obligation, but not domestic lawtag:typepad.com,2003:post-475259262008-03-25T14:33:16-07:002008-03-27T10:11:46-07:00This morning’s decision in Medellin v. Texas is the culmination of a long line of cases, both at the ICJ and at the Supreme Court, that have attempted to determine the effect that an ICJ ruling has under U.S. domestic law. In the law review comment I am working on, I have approached this problem from the perspective of trying to doctrinally resolve the Medellin line of cases with the Supreme Court’s decision in Mitsubishi Motors v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth, 473 U.S. 614 (1985). In Mitsubishi, the Court determined that parties to an international commercial contract that appointed a third-party arbitrator...Dave RaynorBefore you go to the Olympic Games in Chinatag:typepad.com,2003:post-474662722008-03-24T13:43:21-07:002008-04-16T12:57:43-07:00Amid the violent protests in Tibet and the calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, the US State Department issued a "fact sheet" regarding the upcoming 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. The fact sheet says that China is generally safe but the "recent violence in Tibet" and a recently "failed attempt to create an explosion on a passenger plane in flight from western China’s Xinjiang Province to Beijing are good examples of how potentially dangerous events can occur in the run-up to the Olympics." The fact sheet says early preparation is key for anyone planning on being in China...Travis HodgkinsViolence in Tibet Presents China With the Tiananmen Square Dilemmatag:typepad.com,2003:post-471120802008-03-16T17:48:10-07:002008-03-16T17:56:09-07:00A few days ago I argued in a previous post that the protests and violence in Tibet could be the first of many Tiananmen Square type incidents that occur throughout China during the months leading up to the Olympics. An article published by the Times Online entitled, Fears of Another Tiananmen as Tibet Explodes in Hatred, corroborated my previous sentiments. The article is written by British journalist James Miles, and according to the China Digital Times, he is the only journalist known to be in Tibet during the recent protests and riots. Here is the portion of his report pertaining...Travis HodgkinsViolent Protests in Tibet Invite Questions About The Chinese Government's Control Over The Countrytag:typepad.com,2003:post-470555822008-03-14T21:47:20-07:002008-03-15T14:08:21-07:00The violence in Tibet is an indication of the chaos that could result from the Olympics in China. An article by the Christian Science Monitor posits an explanation as to why this years annual protests in Tibet are more volatile than they have been in decades. Anne Holmes, the director of the Free Tibet Campaign in London, said in the article that the Tibetans "are aware that in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, the media's and the world's eyes are on Tibet. They felt it was worth the risk of doing a lot more this year than they would...Travis HodgkinsA Reason to Have Faith in China's Legal System: The Labor Contract Lawtag:typepad.com,2003:post-466788822008-03-06T12:02:11-08:002008-03-06T12:02:43-08:00NPR's All Things Considered did a piece recently on the new labor contract law in China. The show barely skimmed the surface of the new law, summarizing it as "a new law requiring businesses to give workers written contracts and pay compensation if they're fired." The NPR segment focused mostly on a couple of labor activists who had been attacked for educating workers about their new rights. For instance, it opens with this sad story: Companies say the law will raise costs, and some may be fighting back — literally: Labor activist Huang Qingnan, who was promoting the law, was...Travis HodgkinsAFRC Appeal: Forced Marriagetag:typepad.com,2003:post-465527122008-03-04T06:34:00-08:002008-03-04T06:34:13-08:00This entry is the first in a series that will post noteworthy excerpts from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council Appeal Judgment. Due to space and format constraints I will only post selections from the sections and will omit the references and citations. This is not done to highlight any particular passages, but to save time and present something that is digestible. What follows is from the Judgment:Forced Marriage: [ . . .] The first issue for the Appeals Chamber's determination relates to the scope of "Other Inhumane Acts" under Article 2.i of the Statute. The Trial Chamber concluded that in...John DermodyAFRC Appeal Judgmenttag:typepad.com,2003:post-465118362008-03-03T09:15:30-08:002008-03-03T09:18:46-08:00The Appeal Judgment in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) case was filed and released on March 3. There are a number of sections in the Judgment that I am sure will be of interest, notably, the Joint Criminal Enterprise section and the Forced Marriage section. Over the next couple of days I will post sections of the Judgment and would welcome comments and critiques of the Judgment's conclusions and approach. Although I have a number of thoughts on the Judgment, I will keep them in reserve until I am no longer associated with the Appeals Chamber. I look forward...John DermodyIs the United States a Harbinger of Global Economic Mayhem?tag:typepad.com,2003:post-463729962008-02-29T17:08:27-08:002008-02-29T17:09:26-08:00It's really not a news flash that the United States is facing tough times ahead. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 300.57 points today, which is attributed to a huge loss from insurance giant AIG. An article from FOX News says, "Today's sell-off has put the Dow and S&P on pace for their fourth consecutive monthly losses -- something that hasn't happened since 2002." A post on the Foreign Policy Passport blog entitled, Is The United States Dragging The World Toward Recession?, predicts global economic mayhem: The Financial Times published three stories yesterday that represent more bad news about the...Travis HodgkinsLand of The Not So Freetag:typepad.com,2003:post-463810402008-02-29T16:37:52-08:002008-02-29T16:38:22-08:00A recently released report found that more than one of every 100 adults in the US is in jail or prison, making the US the world's top incarcerator! This report only bolsters past arguments I've made about the US being a police state (see here and here). Moreover, a citizenry behind bars is not a productive, tax-paying citizenry! An article by the AP included the following: The report was compiled by the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which is working with 13 states on developing programs to divert offenders from prison without jeopardizing public safety. "Getting tough on criminals...Travis HodgkinsIt's Just More Evidence of The New Space Racetag:typepad.com,2003:post-463305802008-02-28T17:41:43-08:002008-02-28T17:41:56-08:00The US Navy successfully hit a malfunctioning spy satellite with an SM-3 missile on February 20. The US government said that it was necessary to destroy the satellite in orbit to prevent a highly toxic chemical, hydrazine, contained within the satellite, from falling back to Earth. An article from MSNBC, dispelling 5 myths about the downing of the satellite, said the following about the toxic chemicals: Space officials were so concerned about the satellite's full tank of hydrazine fuel because they believed it had frozen solid, due to the low temperatures aboard the spacecraft. They feared that the titanium-shielded "toxic...Travis HodgkinsAnother Reason to Have Faith in China's Maturing Legal Systemtag:typepad.com,2003:post-460234582008-02-23T09:55:12-08:002008-02-23T10:01:08-08:00An article entitled, How One Man in China Strengthens the Rule of Law, (h/t CDT) tells how one lawyer bringing small lawsuits can possibly bring about massive legal reform. As we argued in a previous post entitled, A Reason to Have Faith in China's Legal System, small lawsuits vindicating the rights of the average Chinese citizen will engender within the citizenry a general interest and trust in the legal system, which will perpetuate a rule of law system. Our previous article concerned a small legal aid station in Xi'an that represented migrant construction workers, and this current article concerns public...Travis Hodgkins