As Women’s History Month draws to a close, we should recognize that our history of gender inequity and oppression is now being used by our highest courts to narrowly define the contours of women’s rights going forward. We need to fight back to ensure our principles — of equality, human dignity, and respect for the [...]
A widespread or systematic attack directed against civilians is a crime against humanity—a crime against us all. The jurisprudence around the creation of this international crime began early in the 20th century and evolved through the International Military Tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo, and into the modern era during what is called the Age of [...]
The brutal rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in India’s Uttar Pradesh (UP) region in September 2020 and the road leading to a subsequent verdict, raise questions about sex, caste, and class-based discrimination in India. The Hathras rape case, as it is colloquially known, clearly depicts the double discrimination faced by Dalit women. [...]
The Iraqi government’s decision to pour enormous funding into an ambitious railroad project that will connect Asia and Europe indicates that Iran may be inching ever closer to geopolitical obsolescence. Reports emerged last year that the governments of Iraq, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had reached a transport agreement that would enable the [...]
Nullum crimen sine poena, “No crime without a punishment” The ICC Warrant Against Vladimir Putin The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for committing egregious war crimes in Ukraine. With this law-enforcing issuance, the ICC acknowledges inter alia the continuing validity of the Nuremberg Principles under international law. [...]
As House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his new Republican House majority threaten the pipeline of U.S. aid to Ukraine, more than one observer has noted the irony in the fact that the mantle of the antiwar cause has now been assumed by the right. The images of protestors being beaten outside the Democratic National Convention in [...]
To what extent can the United Nations (UN) prevent and control so-called anti-corruption campaigns that serve only to bolster the power of authoritarian regimes? As authoritarian power spreads, this is an increasingly urgent question. If the UN does not take measures to track and curtail illegitimate anti-corruption campaigns, it is the people whom these campaigns [...]
Can access to justice be enhanced via the advent of generative AI such as the widely and wildly popular ChatGPT app? I get asked this pointed question quite frequently. The straightforward answer is that generative AI provides a mixed bag, namely that in some respects this type of AI will indeed enable greater access to [...]
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is openly threatening to force a default on our nation’s debts unless President Biden agrees to a so far unspecified list of spending cuts to federal programs. But the president has a formidable constitutional argument against this irresponsible display of brinkmanship. It is disappointing that he has so far declined, at [...]
In New York State Pistol & Rifle Ass’n v. Bruen, decided last June, the Supreme Court issued one of the most unusual and dangerous opinions in American history. Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion instructed lower court judges to rely exclusively on history and tradition to resolve Second Amendment cases and to completely ignore the government’s asserted [...]
