ISSUE
: “WHY I want to be a lawyer?!?!”
RULE: The purpose of this blog is to encourage discussion. I am totally aware that my opinions usually vacillate between the cynical and the idealistic, and this is my attempt, before I take the bar, to “come clean.” Thus I subject myself to you for debate. Don’t hold back.

HOLDINGS:

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Evidence of Crazy Love Series I

Sam just went to a friend's engagement party. She's known this friend since she was 15 -known her to make good decisions. Guy knew her for 3 weeks and proposed. I think she flew back here and will be here for a few months, then he's doing something. Basically they have been apart for a bunch of months post-engagement, post knowing each other for 3 weeks, and now they're coming back together.








Sue's bf flew across the world (from the U.S. to Indonesia) for 30 hours to surprise her on her 30th birthday.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Critical legal studies

Just began reading an intro to Critical Race Theory.

Who knew critical legal studies was a whole movement? Will have to investigate further but so far I like it.

From Wikipedia:

Critical legal studies was a movement in legal thought in the 1970s and 80s committed to shaping society based on a vision of human personality devoid of the hidden interests and class domination that was perceived to be behind existing legal institutions. Adherents of the movement sought to destabilize traditional conceptions of law, and to unravel and challenge existing legal institutions. The more constructive members, such as Roberto Mangabeira Unger, sought to rebuild these institutions as an expression of human coexistence and not just a provisional truce in a brutal struggle, and were seen as the most powerful voices and the only way forward for the movement. Unger is one of the last standing members of the movement to continue to try to develop it in new directions—namely, to make legal analysis the basis of developing institutional alternatives.

Sisters & How to Paint

I love looking at this photo. there is so much similarity but i cant tell where it is. i think our eyes might tell the same story -slightly sad, slightly confused, slightly begging you to like us, also slightly happy and i think we're pretty determined to survive. Our face shape is kind of the same, except I have a wider chin. Our skin color differences are hilarious. All the spacing on our face is the same (i.e. eyebrows same distance apart, relationship between eyes and nose and mouth is the same) (this is the biggest problem with trying to paint faces, as its hard to tell and we're not used to looking at it. we usually just paint eyes, nose and mouth but how far apart they are from each other is crucial). Our mouths would be almost the same if I didn't have an almost-cleft lip. : ) I feel like whoever did this photo edited our teeth because they both look great and straight and I know for one that I have one snaggle tooth that doesn't show here. Our hairline would be the same if mine wasn't acting unruly. See, anyone who thinks they can't do art, its not that you can't, its just that your not as OCD about analyzing faces as I am. And therefore probably lots less awkward in interactions...: )

Your eyes are bigger of course but mine are shockingly not doing bad in this photo.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Charles Taylor conviction affirmed -50 years. Don't f* with justice, world.



Thursday 26 September 2013

Charles Taylor to spend rest of life in British jail for Sierra Leone war crimes

Charles Taylor, the warlord turned president of Liberia, is expected to spend the rest of his life in a British prison after failing to overturn a 50-year sentence for war crimes against the people of neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Charles Taylor appeals war crimes sentence
The sentence was the first handed down against a former head of state in an international court since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in 1946 Photo: AP

Taylor, impassive in a dark suit and gold-rimmed sunglasses, listened as his sentence was confirmed by Mr Justice George Gelaga King, the president of the United Nations appeals chamber.
Taylor, 65, was found guilty last year of 11 counts of war crimes, including murder, rape, torture and the enslavement of child soldiers. These offences were carried out in Sierra Leone by a brutal guerrilla army, styling itself the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Taylor gave the RUF guns, training and recruits in return for diamonds - which made him responsible for “aiding and abetting” their atrocities, ruled the UN Special Court.
Under a current agreement, Taylor, 65, will be jailed in Britain for 50 years, for arming and supporting rebels in Liberia's neighbour Sierra Leone during the brutal 1990s civil war after United Nations judges threw out his legal challenge.
Justice Gelaga King, a Sierra Leone judge and president of the appeals chamber of the special UN tribunal set up to investigate crimes in his country, delivered a judgment summary that took one hour and 15 minutes to read out.
"The sentence is fair in the light of the totality of the crimes committed," said the judge. "The defence failed to demonstrate any discernable errors in the trial chamber's sentencing."

Taylor will serve his sentence in Britain where he is expected to be a “category A” inmate fit only for a maximum-security prison. If so, the cost to the British taxpayer will be up to £80,000 per year.
Asking Taylor to rise, Justice Gelaga King said: "The appeal chamber affirms the original 50 years of imprisonment imposed by the trial, and orders this judgement should be enforced immediately."
Wearing a black double breasted suit, gold coloured tie, gold cufflinks and gold-rimmed sunglasses, Taylor remained impassive.
UN judges found Taylor guilty of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and the use of child soldiers and of "aiding and abetting" a campaign of terror by Sierra Leone rebels during a civil war that claimed 120,000 lives between 1991 and 2001.
"Charles Taylor is the first former head of state to be convicted of war crimes by an international criminal tribunal since Nuremburg in 1946," said Brenda Hollis, the UN prosecutor.
"This sentence makes it clear that those responsible for criminal conduct will be severely punished. No sentence less than 50 years would have been enough to achieve retribution and deterrence."
The former Liberian leader and warlord is expected to be moved to Belmarsh Prison over the coming days before being transferred to a maximum security jail later this autumn.
Morris Anyah, his defence lawyer, is planning an application to Justice Galega King that Taylor "might not serve his sentence in the UK, which has offered".
The defence wants Taylor to be imprisoned in Rwanda, where other people convicted by the UN court for Sierra Leone have been jailed, because he would be nearer his family and would not be "removed from traditions and culture".
"Mr Taylor has young children who might not be used to cold weather in Europe. There are issues with the food," said Mr Anyah. "He expressed his view that the next phase of life is to see how to preserve his contact with his family and ensure that his younger children are provided for."
The final decision on sending Taylor to the UK will be taken in the coming days with Finland or Sweden said to be other possibilities at the discretion of the UN judge.
The final decision on sending Taylor to the UK will be taken anytime between "the next couple of days or two weeks" with Finland or Sweden said to be other possibilities at the discretion of the UN judges.
"The president of the court decides on the basis of information and other considerations. The UK is an option and there is an agreement," a court official told The Telegraph.
The judgment is an historic one at a time of high-profile international court cases involving African leaders because Taylor's conviction is the first of a head of state for war crimes since the Nazi trials at Nuremburg 67 years ago.
During his trial, Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, and Mia Farrow, the film actress, gave important evidence about gifts of "dirty" diamonds given by Taylor at a celebrity charity dinner hosted by then South African president Nelson Mandela in 1997.
The UN appeal court found that war crimes carried out by Sierra Leone rebels, the RUF, were inextricably linked to their military aims, to instil "fear, by killing, enslaving and raping".
The appeal judge ruled that the "factual basis" for Taylor's support for the rebels "has been confirmed" and that he had traded diamonds with them in return for arms.
The appeal judge also upheld trial rulings that Taylor had helped provide the rebels with military personnel logistical support, including finances, arms, safe havens and other supplies. The UN court found that Taylor had told rebels to make the population "fearful" and to use "all means" during military operations.
His legal team used the acquittal in February of Momcilo Perisic, a Serb general, whose 27-year sentence for war crimes committed during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia was overturned.
"The appeal chamber is not persuaded that there are cogent reasons to depart from the trial chamber findings," said the judge. "The appeal chamber concludes that specific direction is not needed."
In General Perisic's case, UN judges at a different tribunal for the former Yugoslavia found that it necessary for prosecutors to establish "specific direction" in the commissioning or committing of war crimes to establishing guilt and to uphold prison convictions.
In a major blow for Taylor, the UN appeal judges rejected defence arguments that the prosecution had relied on "uncorroborated hearsay" from witnesses, ruling that the balance of evidence was sufficient
"The defence bases its challenge on legally erroneous reasons or objections," said the judge.
"The trial chamber applied the rules of the evaluation beyond a reasonable doubt. The appeals chamber finds no merit in the evidential submissions."
Claims that by Taylor that the UN trial court was biased and unfair was rejected by the appeal judges as "unsupported, disingenuous and ludicrous".
The appeal judges rejected calls earlier this year from prosecutors for the special UN tribunal to find him guilty of additional charges of ordering and instigating war crimes, increasing his prison sentence to 80 years.
The UN prosecutors were concerned that a lesser jail sentence will fail to send a message to African leaders that involvement in atrocities or war crimes will be punished by whole life sentences in foreign prisons.
Judges rejected arguments from the prosecution that the trial court made a mistake by only convicting Taylor of aiding and abetting Sierra Leone's notorious Revolutionary United Front and other rebel groups.
"In this case, the trial chamber did not err in law," said judge Gelaga King.
The UN court ruled last year that Taylor helped rebels in Sierra Leone with the preparation and execution of crimes that "resulted directly from (his) plans" but that he did not command their execution or instigate them.
Taylor had pleaded not guilty to all counts, claiming in seven months of testimony in his own defence that he was a statesman and peacemaker in West Africa.
During Taylor's trial which began proper on June 4, 2007, some 94 witnesses took the stand for the prosecution and 21 for the defence. Taylor himself testified for 81 hours.
Judges heard gruesome testimony from victims of the Sierra Leone conflict, including a witness who said he pleaded with RUF rebels to cut off his remaining hand so they would spare his toddler son.
Others said Taylor's fighters strung human intestines across roads, removed foetuses from women's wombs and practised cannibalism, while children younger than 15 were enlisted to fight. One witness said he was present when the Liberian leader ate human liver.
Nigerian authorities arrested Taylor in March 2006 when he tried to flee from exile in Nigeria after stepping down as Liberian president three years earlier in a negotiated end to a civil war in his own country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/liberia/10336000/Charles-Taylor-to-spend-rest-of-life-in-British-jail-for-Sierra-Leone-war-crimes.html

Comparing Constitutions in the World -great resource for intl law project




Monday, September 16, 2013

Legal Philosophy Lesson 1: Law & Economics

(will read and comment later) From admin reading: Sometimes, the common law system is thought to promote both liberty and economic efficiency (on the later point, see Richard Posner, Economic Analysis of the Law (6th ed. 2000), sometimes it is thought to do neither, and be undemocratic as well.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

A Way Forward? Nonconsensual International Lawmaking

I guess if I thought about it, I could have figured it out. But in my first three weeks of International Law class, which I almost didn't take because I thought it would be remedial, I am actually learning a lot about the foundations and philosophies behind international law (thus it is more, right, up my alley). And the first three weeks has been all about consent -what it means, how to get it, how to give it, what can be done with or without (almost nothing) it.

I also thought sovereign just meant independent, but I guess a more legalese definition is "an entity that no other entity can make laws over." (Yes, I made that up myself, surmised from my readings.) So the argument goes that sovereign states, by their very definition, can't have other laws over them that are binding. So any type of international law has to come from consent. And for the most part, every state has to consent to be bound by any international laws.

But, there is growing consideration that in areas such as the environment, terrorism, etc., perhaps a larger cooperative body has emerged in the modern era. And so perhaps we are ready for a cataclysmic change where the sovereign is the international community. Of course, this brings a plethora of complications, ambiguities, you know metaphysical kind of stuff which is just where I belong.

And so at some point, I should read and comment on this article. But in the meantime, enjoy.
Nonconsensual International Lawmaking, 2008 U. Ill. L. Rev. 71 (2008). I have it on file so email me if you want a copy.

San Vito to Seyne sur Mer and everything in between...


Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.