Posts by Brett Hodgins
Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun
Most systems of property law, like exorcists, attach special importance to possession. Once someone is in possession of a given piece of property, it is usually a demanding process to have them removed by force of law (pro tip: try holy water). The same has historically been true in matters of international territorial sovereignty. More often than not, the country which simply takes possession of territory will win out over others which may have more legitimate claims. Yet how can a state “take possession” of land which is uninhabitable? It doesn’t take a Neil Armstrong to tell you that the answer is by planting flags.
For some reason Canada seems unwilling to practise flag-planting as much as other countries. Today we have the excuse that most of our flags are hanging over Olympic podiums. But this wasn’t always the case, and our nervousness about throwing flags around is putting our claims of Arctic sovereignty at risk. These claims are important, and could translate into tall cash, since shrinking ice coverage and advancing technology will make it more practical to extract resources such as oil and natural gas from the Arctic seabed in the future.
Don’t let the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) fool you into thinking that flag-planting isn’t a legal basis for an Arctic claim. According to Part VI of the UNCLOS, states…
Fear and Loathing of E-Vegas
There’s no such thing as problem gambling. I should know – during the Winter Olympics alone I won over $7,000 by gambling, and that’s not even including my wagers on Olympic sports. Of course I spent $22,000, but you have to understand that winning comes in cycles, and I think I’m heading back into a hot streak now. It’s complicated – the point is people who enjoy gambling have things under control.
Why, therefore, do we need laws regulating or banning gambling? The fact that problem gambling is a myth takes care of a Hartian positivist/utilitarian justification. This leaves only Fuller and his “natural law”, which in this case amounts to antiquated Victorian morality. With such a foundation, I’d bet that today’s gambling laws are little different in substance from those of a hundred years ago.[1]
Such questions are all the more relevant today because of the rise of online gambling. Anyone who has watched movies on Megavideo knows that there are two rules: 1) there’s a 72-minute limit, and 2) popup ads for a certain gambling website – let’s call it “MartyMoker.com” – are ubiquitous. But are these kinds of betting sites legal? The truth is that in Canada today the answer is not entirely clear.
The situation is complex because online gambling by its nature involves cross-border transactions. It is clear that running an unregulated online…
How I Learned to Stop Worrying About International Law and Love Toothless Inquiries
Increasingly in recent history, it has been the case that when egregious violations of international law occur resulting in thousands of deaths, the Western world will (afterwards) act to see justice done. Prominent examples include the activities of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and, to an extent, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. But what is the proper response when it is Westerners who egregiously violate international law, resulting in thousands of deaths? If you answered “something similar”, then you are wrong. Shame on you.
No, an example of the proper response can be seen in Britain today, where an inquiry into the decisions leading up to the Iraq war, headed by Sir John Chilcot, has been underway since July. As the inquiry’s website makes clear, this is not a criminal tribunal, and it is not placing anyone on trial. Rather its purpose is to accurately establish what happened, and to identify lessons that can be learned (though have no fear: if the inquiry finds that mistakes were made, “it will say so”).
Britain’s Iraq inquiry is a nice, typical piece of theatre, with a colourful cast of characters. Those gaining the most attention include Jack Straw, Foreign Minister in 2003; Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General; Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign Office’s most senior legal advisor; Wood’s deputy Elizabeth Wilmshurst;…
Should Canada Gyp the Roma?
Surprisingly for such a boring country, Canada has on occasion been described as “cool”.[1] But if we want to stick with the cool international crowd, we have to keep up with the latest trends. Most Canadians probably think that discrimination against minorities went out of fashion years ago, but lately one old classic has come back in vogue: persecuting the Roma (also known as Romani, or Gypsies).
Many Canadians may find picking on members of a small diaspora community unappealing. But like other trends such as Ugg boots or skinny jeans, just because we find them distasteful doesn’t mean we can ignore them. And there’s no denying that discrimination against the Roma is back in style – just look at Europe.
According to Amnesty International, and despite a 2007 ruling against the practice by the European Court of Human Rights, Roma children in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are still routinely placed outside mainstream schools in “special schools,” ordinarily reserved for children with mental disabilities. In Serbia and Romania, groups of Roma have been evicted from their “unlawful settlements” (which, in Serbia, were then bulldozed), and forced into even more makeshift accommodations. To be fair though, as one Romanian Vice-Mayor noted, this was really positive discrimination since the evicted Roma were provided with free metal barracks to live in – the lucky devils! In Hungary, incidents of violence…
Drugs Are Winning the War on Drugs
It’s been forty years since US President Richard Milhous Nixon first declared war on drugs, famously stating: “You’re either with us, or you’re with the drugs.” Yet today, the world is facing defeat at the hands of drugs – mankind’s greatest, and most seductive, adversary.
The United States has led the world in the long campaign against drugs. A major offensive began in 1988 with the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which 184 countries have ratified. This convention requires its members to criminalise drug trafficking and possession, and remains in force today. The move, coupled with “Say no to drugs!” and “I learned it by watching you!” public awareness campaigns, must have been successful, as it prompted drugs to strike back. In the 1990s, drugs targeted and killed prominent celebrities, including Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix, and Chris Farley. Refusing to be deterred by these terrorist tactics, the world soldiered on in the war.
In 1998, the UN General Assembly Special Session on Illicit Drugs was held. The session concluded with the adoption of a political declaration, which included commitments to achieving “significant and measurable results in the field of demand reduction,” and to “eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of the coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppy” by the year 2008. That these goals…
Somalian Pirates We!
In the battle against the ever-increasing threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia, a court has finally entered the fray. The court in question is Dutch, and in a recent decision stepped in to prevent a 14-year old girl from sailing off on her own to join the Somali pirates. Typically, the girl claimed she only wanted to break the record for the youngest solo circumnavigation of the world by sail. The truth however is painfully obvious: under the influence of torrent websites and Johnny Depp, youngsters from around the world are unable to resist the romance of piracy, and are setting sail to Somalia to sign up.
Striking a blow against Somali piracy, the momentous Dutch decision responded to a simple question: with no credible Somali government, who else was going to do it? And why shouldn’t a country enforce laws for someone else – look at Belgium’s fancy “universal jurisdiction” law. These questions go to a problem at the heart of public international law today: the “law is power” conundrum. In private international law, states in recent history have been moving further and further from a power-based model towards one founded on international comity. Globalisation rhetoric would have us believe that public international law is doing the same, but the Somali piracy issue belies this notion.
Somalia today, along with a handful of other places…
