Economics v. Justice? International Nuclear Liability Regimes

After the recent earthquake in Japan, there has been a global outpouring of sympathy and support. Governments and individuals worldwide have been trying to help Japan recover from the tragedy. Likewise, the world has been on edge regarding the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima I (or Fukushima Daiichi) nuclear power station, as everyone hopes that an even more serious nuclear catastrophe can be avoided.

Yet what about those individuals devoid of empathy or, seemingly, any human emotion? Pseudo-humans so empty and craven that, seeing the Japanese nuclear crisis, they think first and foremost about what the impact will be on the stock market. Self-interested automatons from an economics textbook come to life, who focus only on things that matter – or rather, the thing that matters: money. Whose writing will cater to this audience? The Wall Street Journal? Fox Business News? Amateurs! Come with me, fellow homo economici, and let us cast off this veil of humanity.

Firstly, the crisis in Japan has been playing havoc with the stock market, and that can only mean one thing: investment opportunities! Here’s a great stock pick[1] to get the ball rolling: General Electric. GE built (wholly or in part) half of the reactors at the Fukushima I plant, and the crisis now unfolding has been partially attributed to a design flaw. In reaction to this news, GE’s stock price

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History and the International Rule of Law

The pro-democracy protests surging through the Middle East in recent weeks have left many in the West wondering why more isn’t being done to help protect protestors from violent repression, or push dictators from office. Put more simply, to the extent that Arab dictators are the evil galactic empire in Star Wars, why can’t the West play the role of the ewoks – helping the rebel alliance overthrow tyranny when they need it the most? Why can’t international law be like the eagles in Lord of the Rings, swooping in at the last minute to save protestor-Sam and Frodo after they cast Gaddafi’s ring of power into mount doom – using the opportunity when his shield generator was destroyed and blocking his killing curse because it turns out they were the master of the Elder Wand all along? [Note: spoilers appear in the preceding paragraph]

But what do international law and the Arab protests have to do with books and movies about an orphan raised by his uncle setting off on a quest to destroy an evil lord, guided by a wise old wizard (yes, the plots are all the same)? Well, the point is that many observers feel like “something should be done” to help save the heroes from violence at the last minute – and there is often a hazy feeling that international law can fill this role.…

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I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Law

Have you ever found yourself visiting someone else’s home, and upon entering, removing your muddy shoes at the door – even though you weren’t asked to? A trivial nicety perhaps – or an APPALLING DEGRADATION OF YOUR PERSONAL FREEDOMS? Shouldn’t I have the right in a free society to wear my disgusting footwear wherever I want? If someone invites me into his home, he should either make it clear that the invitation is conditional on my acceptance of certain terms and conditions (such as removing my street shoes), or accept that I can wear whatever I want. In other words, restrictions on my personal freedom should only arise through some sort of explicit consensual agreement.

The same could be said for tipping in restaurants; I never agreed to pay an additional, discretionary surcharge on top of the price of my meal, so why should I be bound to do so? In this sense, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that every restaurant is like a Stalinist regime (“in Soviet Russia, restaurant eats you!”). I could continue with more examples – and I will. Why do I have to greet people by smiling and shaking hands (or even “faire la bise”), instead of my preferred greeting: staring intensely at one another in silence for several minutes? It’s as if my personal interactions are regulated by some invisible totalitarian system.

It’s not…

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Finders v. Keepers

The noted archaeologist Professor Henry Jones Jr. famously adopted the mantra that historical artefacts “belong in a museum!” No one could quibble with Dr. Jones’s efforts to keep culturally significant items out of the hands of sinister private collectors or Nazis, but he also spent much of his career expropriating priceless objects from the ancient temples of Latin America and India, and bringing them back for display in first-world museums. Jones wasn’t the first to do so, but was rather continuing a long history of colonial nations unilaterally claiming the cultural property of others as their own. Today, countries around the world must deal with the legacy of this tragic past – a task made all the more difficult by the lack of any meaningful international regime for settling questions about disputed historical items.

As the old adage goes, don’t believe everything the director of the British Museum tells you. Contrary to his claim otherwise, the repatriation of historical artefacts is still a live issue today. Many major objects are being sought from European and American museums by their “parent” countries, including Egypt’s Rosetta stone (currently in Britain), bust of Nefertiti (Germany), and statue of Ramses II (Italy); Greece’s Parthenon marbles (Britain again); Peru’s Machu Picchu relics (United States); and even Korea’s Jikji – pages from what is believed to be the oldest book printed with movable…

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Environmental Law and the Curse of Competency

Have you ever been in an organization full of incompetents, where one competent person has to do everyone else’s work even though it has nothing to do with their own job? I certainly have – and identifying that individual really took the pressure off me and my fellow rubes. “Tibor,” we’d say, “we can’t get this project done on time even though your project depends on it. Can you help us out?” Sure enough, Tibor would come through for us, and we’d all learn something about teamwork. Something depressing.

“What does this have to do with law?” you may ask (other than its relevance to my ongoing unjust dismissal hearing). Simple: by passing the environmental buck on to financial regulatory agencies such as the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), we would be treating them just like poor old Tibor.

In the land of the incompetent, the semi-competent man is king. Similarly, in the ham-fisted world of inefficient and ineffective governmental organisations, a body which generally satisfies its mandate, such as the OSC, is a paragon. Of course, the OSC (or the rest of Canada’s financial market regulators) isn’t beyond criticism. Many complain that Canada is more lax towards fraud and white-collar crime than other countries. Nevertheless, the OSC has fared much better in meeting its dual mandate – protecting investors while promoting fair and efficient markets – than equivalent organizations…

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We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident

Today is a historic day. Beginning today, the notion of someone starting their own country will no longer be restricted to isolated kooks or wacky cartoon characters. Instead, I will be lending the idea my own considerable prestige and legitimacy by declaring my apartment to be the sovereign realm of New Worcestershire. In my realm, I’ll lift cumbersome exotic pet restrictions; download free movies and music with de jure, rather than merely de facto immunity; and in the words of another, “kill anyone who looks at me cock-eyed”. And if you don’t like it, then I’ll see you in court!

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) that is. In July, the ICJ gave an advisory opinion to the UN General Assembly, reaching the sweeping conclusion that “international law contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence.” The subject of this opinion wasn’t a prominent nation like New Worcestershire, but an obscure place called Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and the validity of this declaration has been hotly disputed ever since.

At Serbia’s prompting, the UN General Assembly, in October 2008, passed a resolution referring to the ICJ the straightforward question: “is the [Kosovan declaration] in accordance with international law?” The ICJ considered the question in two parts; whether the declaration was in violation of general international law, and whether it was in…

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The More You Know: Lessons in International Justice

Today, holding world leaders responsible for crimes committed while in office can generally be achieved through one of two bodies: the International Criminal Court (ICC); or ad hoc tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), or the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). But for international justice enthusiasts, which route is preferable? In fact, each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, and perhaps these bodies could learn some lessons from one another.

The first lesson for the ICC is clear: more celebrities. The SCSL’s trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, which began in 2007, attracted little attention from the international media until recently, when actress Mia Farrow and supermodel Naomi Campbell appeared as witnesses. Since these ladies became involved in the trial, the Western media has become suddenly interested in war crimes committed in Liberia and Sierra Leone (though the movie Blood Diamond also helped make the subject matter sexier).

The ICC, meanwhile, has begun investigations into crimes in five countries – Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, and Kenya – and the media still doesn’t know where those places are, let alone which non-celebrity was responsible for the mass murder of thousands of other non-celebrities. The ICC should start scouring its case to see if Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir ever met with Britney Spears, or if any of…

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A League of Their Own

In recent years China’s prominence on the world stage has grown rapidly. With consistently high GDP growth, a swelling middle class, and high-profile international events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics or the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, many recognize China as an emerging superpower. But this growth has not been consistent across all fronts, and in some respects China lags far behind other world powers. Recent events have made one area in particular stand out in this regard: oil spills.

On July 16^th in the Chinese port city of Dalian, the explosion of two oil pipelines caused thousands of barrels of oil to begin gushing into the sea. The slick has since expanded to cover hundreds of square kilometres of water and spread upwards of 90km down the coast. The spill – and China’s cack-handed response – is clearly modelled after the U.S.’s ongoing gulf coast saga – but it’s a pale imitation. Unlike the American spill, there seems to be no threat of the oil being carried to other nations’ coasts. Yet even Australia has managed to pull off a massive spill affecting its neighbours. If China wants to get into the oil spill big leagues, they’ll have to find a way to go international.

But while the international oil spill scene is characterised by intense competition, there is a notable lack of corresponding cooperation. It’s…

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Anarchists Engage with G20 Issues

A great deal of attention has been paid recently to the preparation for the G20 summit next weekend in Toronto. But while the event has been a boon for the troubled artificial lake industry, not everyone will be so pleased with the assembled world leaders. From labour unions to environmentalists to indigenous rights groups, protestors are expected in the thousands. The greatest security concern however, remains the kind of anti-capitalism and anarchist groups which made the Seattle WTO summit of 1999 so memorable. The same kind will be in attendance during the Toronto summit; the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance (SOAR) and FFFC Ottawa, which was responsible for the firebombing of an Ottawa bank after hours on May 18^th, have both announced they’ll be at the event.

Yet Mike Bakunin, who recently left SOAR to establish a sister branch in Rivière Ouest (Manitoba) with a more awesome acronym, claims that these groups don’t just advocate violence. “For those who think that anarchists are just about chaos and firebombing, that’s not the case. Groups like FFFC Ottawa give the rest of us a bad name – we can actually engage with the issues as well as anyone. Now obviously the summit will be focusing on economic and financial matters, so we think that we can best get our message across if we zero in on those issues as well. It’s hard to…

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Judicial Reform Coming to China! International Community Elated!

April 1: This morning, China’s Minister of Justice Wu Aiying held a press conference in which she declared the need for greater judicial transparency. The announcement came in the wake of a decision involving four executives of the mining corporation Rio Tinto, who were accused of bribery and stealing trade secrets. The defendants were sentenced to 7-14 years in prison, including 10 years for Australian Stern Hu.

“There are important questions about due process raised by this case,” Ms. Wu commented, “particularly since large parts of the case were heard behind closed doors.”

Ms. Wu announced that she intended to introduce a broad set of reforms to the Chinese justice system, which would greatly strengthen the principles of judicial impartiality, transparency, and fairness.

“If we are able to pass these reforms, after rigorous debate in the People’s National Congress, it will be a great step forward for the cause of justice in China.”

She also noted that tendency of Chinese courts to give exceptionally harsher sentences to those who plead not-guilty (leading to nearly universal pleas of guilty, as in the Rio Tinto case) goes against the principle that a defendant should be presumed innocent. She expressed concern that such cases as these were hurting the reputation of China’s justice system internationally.

Several high-profile international cases had indeed strained relations between China and various Western countries recently. China’s execution on December…

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