Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

On the Internet No One Knows If You Are a Real Award

Posted on March 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Today's email brings:

award
Top Excellence Congratulations !

Your site Discourse.net, was selected to receive the Top Excellence Award, one of the most important award of the world. You have created a remarkably useful page, a shining example of the positive use of the Internet.

Visit http://www.topexcellence.com and see how to introduce the Top Excellence Award on your page.

Visit http://www.topexcellence.com/excellence/top/more.htm and see the Winner's Page.

I wish you good luck and continued success in all your endeavors.

Sincerely,
T. Cassio
Top Excellence Team

Posted in Discourse.net | 5 Comments

US Announces Withdrawal From Consular Convention

Posted on March 10, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I am told that the following letter to the UN Secretary-General dated March 7, 2005 has been signed by the Secretary of State and is to be announced in the UN Journal later this week.

Dear Mr. Secretary-General:

I have the honor on behalf of the Government of the United States of America to refer to the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, done at Vienna April 24, 1963.

This letter constitutes notification by the United States of America that it hereby withdraws from the aforesaid Protocol. As a consequence of this withdrawal, the United States will no longer recognize the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice reflected in that Protocol.

Sincerely,

Condoleezza Rice

This raises a couple of interesting legal questions – and a huge political question or two. Today I'll do the legal questions. Tomorrow – unless other blogs beat me to it – I'll tackle the political issues.

Legal Questions

  • Can the US withdraw from the Optional Protocol when that document is silent as to the possibility of withdrawal?
  • If so, when is the withdrawal effective?

Political Questions

  • What does this mean for the ICJ?
  • What does this mean for the US?
  • Why now?

For now, just a hint about the politics: Recently the US has lost three death-penalty-related cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ)concerning failure to ensure that foreign citizens arrested here have a prompt opportunity to seek assistance from their consulate. The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments in the Medellin case about a US state's duty to comply with an ICJ decision. The manouvering in advance of that case has been nothing short of amazing; excellent coverage of the issues can be found at the SCOTUS Blog.

The US's decision to withdraw now is thus on the one hand a blow against the very idea of international law with binding effect, an attempt to take some issues off the table before oral argument, and a crude attempt to let states go on violating our international obligations. But on to the technical legal stuff…

Continue reading →

Posted in Law: International Law | 15 Comments

RSS Feeds By Subject

Posted on March 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

In Ottawa, one of the techies [OK it was the incomparable RSS Feeds By Subject. Of course if you just want the whole thing, full text RDF and XML feeds are available.

Posted in Discourse.net | 2 Comments

Were the Votes Counted In MD?

Posted on March 9, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I tend to believe that any big scandal will out fairly fast; people talk.[1] So pending some confirmation, I'm filing as 'tinfoil' this allegation that there were massive systemic failures across Maryland involving Diebold AccuVote-TS machines last November — problems with “lost votes, multiple machine failures and even unreadable data cartridges”. But if true it would be very troubling indeed.

[1.] I used to also believe that big scandals cause pressure for reform, but that belief has been badly dented by the multiple scandals of the current administration which have failed to excite popular interest (or even media interest). It's enough to make Marcuse start looking good.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 5 Comments

Zanita E. Fenton to Join UM Law Faculty

Posted on March 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Prof. Zanita FentonI'm very pleased to announce that Zanita E. Fenton, currently an Associate Professor at Wayne State Law School, will be joining our faculty next year as a full Professor. Zanita visited here last year, and I'm looking forward to having her back permanently.

[Update: I have no idea why Zanita's picture won't show up in some versions of IE.]

[Update 2: I have no idea why adding

img{position:relative;}

to my stylesheet fixed the problem. But it seems that it did. Here's hoping it doesn't also introduce new ones….]

Posted in U.Miami | 3 Comments

Miami Herald On Wireless Use at UM Law.

Posted on March 8, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Today's Miami Herald runs an article, Wireless web treads fine line on campus (reg. req.), discussing the increased use of wireless computers at UM Law. The reporter who interviewed and quoted me seemed primarily interested in whether students are using the new tools to goof off in class, although that isn't the most interesting thing about wireless. But that's what the bulk of the article is about.

I actually think my students are taking notes on those things, but maybe I'm naive…

[UPDATE: Below I've added the stuff the Herald quoted me as saying for the benefit of those put off by the Herald's registration requirement.]

Continue reading →

Posted in U.Miami | 8 Comments