The Legal Research Society

On BBC’s website there is a rather enjoyable link to a compilation containing some of Donald Rumfeld’s best and/or worst gaffes from his time as Secretary of Defence. Judge for yourself whether they are words of wisdom or closer to the last words of a desperate man. It is well worth the three minutes it takes.

A forthcoming article by Ole W. Pedersen , our blog administrator, is now available on SSRN (Ole W. Pedersen, 'European Environmental Human Rights and Environmental Rights: A Long Time Coming?' (2008) Georgetown International Environmental Law Review , Forthcoming). In his paper Ole argues that the development of procedural and substantive environmental rights in Europe may signal the elevation of these rights at an international human rights law level. Abstract: This paper deals with the area of rights and environmental law focusing on procedural environmental rights and substantive human rights to the environment in a European context. The paper asserts that while international developments in this area have generally ceased, two strong trends are emerging in Europe. First, a strong focus on procedural environmental rights (a right to access to environmental information, a right to public participation and a right to access to justice) is in place in Europe. This part of the...

In a time when most countries, bar the likes of South Africa, join PM Gordon Brown in criticism of President Mugabe and the political quandary that Zimbabwe has turned into, it appears that China is instead stepping up its engagement in what is rapidly turning into a failed state. Today’s Independent has the story on Chinese weapon shipments to Zimbabwe and eyewitness sightings of Chinese soldiers in Mutare.

The EU Observer reports that FIFA President Sepp Blatter is set to push through an agreement that will cap the number of foreign nationals that are allowed to play for football clubs. Blatter’s initiative flies in the face of the ECJ’s Bosman ruling in which the Luxembourg Court declared that Article 39 of the EC Treaty, concerning the free movement of workers in the Community, ‘precludes the application of rules laid down by sporting associations under which, in matches in competitions which they organize, football clubs may field only a limited number of professional players who are nationals of other Member States.’ UEFA, the European football association, has proposed an alternative approach, namely that there will be quotas for locally trained players without discrimination on the basis of nationality. Blatter’s response is that this would expose young foreign players to exploitation. So does Blatter have a leg to stand on or is his proposal doomed to failure? And, more importa...

Wednesday 30 April, 4.30pm, Taylor C16 Denise Naicker, 'The Attempts of the UN General Assembly’s Non-Proliferation Treaty to construct a rational Nuclear Order' Abstract: The United Nations General Assembly (the “GA”) may consider general principles of co-operation in the maintenance of international peace and security, including the principles governing disarmament and the regulation of armaments. In response to this mandate, the GA produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (the “NPT”) which sought to construct a rational nuclear order in the post-World War II era. There are conflicting views as to what extent the NPT should be regarded as authoritative by the states to which it is addressed. The current nuclear order centred on the NPT has inherent limitations, including its discriminatory character, lack of agreement on appropriate sanctions for violations and in its foundations in the hypocrisy which prevailed almost without exception among nuclear powers. There is ver...

Olsen says, it may be that “Justice” is represented by a woman, but according to the prevailing patriarchal ideology, the Law is masculine, not feminine. As some feministic scholar states, the law is conceived as rational, objective, abstract and based on principles, which is how men describe themselves; and the law cannot be irrational, subjective, contextualized, or personalized, as men say that women are. If it is true that by placing men in the cultural setting, they become the parameter that defines humankind, how to organize the current law, which helps to incorporate the gender perspective into legal text or context? How to reform the curricular setting to be more feminine? Discuss.

Although many people are heatedly discussing Tibetan issue, Tibetan terrorists or criminals, who infringed on the fundamental human rights of many innocent victims, should be punished according to existing law and the rule-of-law principle. Currently, many websites and newspapers maintained by volunteers exposed some lies and distortions in some western media, which always reported how Tibetan protestors were‘protecting their human rights’, but neglected and scarcely reported expression from Chinese common people. Basically, there is expressive freedom in Western countries and some lies and fabricated stories, especially in some prestigious media are not charged with any legal consequence. From the other perspective, some distorted opinions do arise nationalism within most Chinese people, who reflect totally different from the opinions as to 1989 Tian-an-men Affair. If these reports are prejudicial to China and distorting some truths, should the media freely be forum of helping certain...