Interested in international law?  The web-based International Law Video Library features videos on International Law subjects, including an entire subsection on International Human Rights topics. 

The videos feature conversations with experts such as James Crawford, Whewell Professor of International Law, University of Cambridge; Phillippe Kirsch, President of the International Criminal Court; Judge Navanethem Pillay, President of the International Criminal for Rwanda Tribunal (1999 - 2003 ) and later Judge of the International Criminal Court; Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Joseph Rotblat; Christine Chinkin, Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Judge Thomas Buergenthal of the International Court of Justice and several other experts. 
Topics range from basic concepts, such as jus cogens and sovereignty, to international criminal law, disarmament, and many more.  Often, videos include some footage of the organization in which the expert works.  According to the site, the Library was launched in 2006 with funding provided by Queen’s University of Belfast. 
Hat tip: Library Boy.

This Friday and Saturday, HLS Librarian and Professor Terry Martin will be hosting a conference entitled “Spoils of War v. Cultural Heritage: The Russian Cultural Property Law in Historical Context.”

This conference will take place in the Langdell South Classroom. Click here for extensive conference details.

There is no charge for the conference, but attendees must register in advance. Click here to register.

According to author, Tom Ginsburg, Professor of Law and Political Science, and Director, Program in Asian Law, Politics and Society at the University of Illinois College of Law, the average lifespan of a constitution is only 17 years.  Read the whole paper here.

Here’s a snippet of the introduction “According to an old joke, a patron goes into a library and asks for a copy of the French Constitution, only to be told that the library does not stock periodicals.  The joke feeds the Anglo-American habit of needling France, in this case suggesting a country with suspect democratic credentials, more concerned with fashion and form than substance.  Yet France is more typical of national constitutional practice than the United States with its venerable 218-year old constitution.  By our estimate, national constitutions have lasted an average of only seventeen years since 1789.”

The U.S. has been labeled an endemic surveillance society along with the U.K., Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, China and Malaysia in a recent comprehensive survey of global privacy.

The 2007 International Privacy Rankings, a survey conducted by the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International, ranks the U.S. near the bottom finding that “in terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the U.S. is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the black category, denoting endemic surveillance.”

Today, the General Assembly adopted declaration outlining the rights of the world’s indigenous people.  For more information and the text of the Declaration, click here

The Harvard International Law Journal has a new web-based component called ILJ Online. On this site you can find brief articles about a variety of international topics. It even has an RSS feed that you can add to your blog reader. 

Adopted by consensus on December 20, 2006 by the UN General Assembly and opened for signature on February 6, 2007, this Convention criminalizes the practice of enforced disappearance (the kidnapping of an individual, directly or indirectly by the state, without informing anyone of their whereabouts) in peacetime or in war. 

It specifically prohibits the use of secret places of detention and recognizes the right to reparation and truth for victims and their families. 

Signed by almost 60 countries so far, the treaty will enter into force once it has been ratified by 20 countries.

The full-text of the Convention is available here.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has launched a full-text database that provides “information and documentation on the entire trade disputes process, from initial filing to final enactment”. 

Known as IDATD, Integrated Database of Trade Disputes for Latin America and the Caribbean, this “database consolidates into a single site information on trade agreements and disputes, both ongoing and resolved, within the World Trade Organization (WTO), the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the Central American Common Market, and the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)”.

The database is searchable by trade system, complainant and respondent countries, year, number and object of the dispute, as well as by subject.  The website includes background information, such as how dispute mechanisms operate, and links to legal texts of the dispute settlement systems established under trade agreements.

The database is available in English (http://idatd.eclac.cl) and Spanish (http://badicc.eclac.cl).

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the convention open for signature today.  The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and Protocol on 13 December 2006.  The document is available here

Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Report: 

The United States of America and International Law.

This report, submitted by Mr. Tony Lloyd, condems Bush Administration activities in international law.  Full-text Report