Turkey’s New Disinformation Bill: Disturbing Trend Toward Digital Authoritarianism
In 2002, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey, defeating Kemalist hegemony, there was a glimmer of hope in the West for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. However, the experience of Turkey over the past 20 years is one descending into an authoritarian regime with clampdowns [...]
US bars two former Malta officials from entry over alleged corruption
The US Department of State Wednesday publicly designated two former Maltese government officials and their immediate families, barring them from entering the US over alleged significant corruption. The two officials barred from entry are Konrad Mizzi, a former energy and conservation minister, and Keith Schembri, former chief of staff to the prime minister. Their immediate [...]
Picture a swarm of drones entering a village programmed to fly without a human operator with instructions to shoot or immobilize anyone it deems to be holding a weapon. While this might sound like a scene from Lana Wachowski’s latest Matrix film, the technology to build these killer robots is already here. Unless states act [...]
Credibility on International Justice Requires Equal Application of the Law
On June 7, at a public hearing, Representative Ilhan Omar asked Secretary of State Tony Blinken where the victims of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity could go to seek justice if domestic prosecutors won’t pursue cases in court. Omar had noted the Biden administration’s opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Afghanistan and [...]
Arkansas Passes Sweeping and Draconian Law Targeting Transgender Youth
Last week, the state of Arkansas became the first state in the nation to effectively ban gender-affirming care for transgender and gender diverse youth. The law, H.B. 1570, prohibits youth under the age of 18 from receiving transitional or puberty-blocking hormones and surgery, and allows private insurers to refuse gender-affirming care. The law has no [...]
Japan court finds government's failure to recognize same-sex marriage unconstitutional
The Sapporo District Court found Wednesday that the government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional because it violates the right to equality. As a member of the Group of Seven, an intergovernmental organization including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, Japan was the only country that did not recognize same-sex marriage. [...]
I. Introduction Much of U.S. governance is held together by goodwill, unwritten norms, and the ideals that “that would never happen” and “no one would ever do that.” Every hope of continued reliance on these norms was “shattered” on January 6, 2021, when armed insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol. Under the direction of the President, [...]
In the present confirmation hearings, I would like someone to ask Judge Barrett a question left unanswered by Justice Scalia, her mentor: 1. What influence does the fact that many of the founders and framers were slave owners have on your originalist views? And then I would like to ask a follow-up: 2. What is [...]
Polexit: Will the Current Legal Issues Trigger Poland to Leave the EU?
Ever since winning the general election of Poland in 2015, the Polish government led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS), has continuously pushed the country to adopt a series of judicial reforms supposedly to drive out the last strands of communism from the judicial set-up. These reforms, however, have been highly controversial in that [...]
Last week, the Supreme Court issued its hotly anticipated decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. Writing for the 6-3 majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT persons from sex discrimination in employment. Pundits on the Left and Right have near-universally expressed shock that Justice [...]
