courting disaster

Kourion, Cyrpus

2009-07-14T21:18:00.003+01:00

Once again, the view over Episkopi Bay was one of the highlights of the holiday.

Amsterdam

2009-07-12T09:47:00.002+01:00

A surprisingly classy hotel room for the conference on Wednesday (my unmade bed notwithstanding). Shame there was no time to see the city.

Cyprus holiday

2009-07-06T09:32:00.002+01:00

View from Kourion's annexe of Eusolios looking over Episkopi bay.

Neighbourhood

2009-06-26T07:55:00.001+01:00

The sculptor's/jeweller's studio around the corner from us.

Spring flowers

2009-06-25T11:56:00.004+01:00

The profusion of flowers everywhere is one of the joys of Spring in Cambridge. That and daylight until 10 pm, which I can never quite get used to after the depths of winter ...

Our car

2009-06-24T21:04:00.003+01:00

I've not owned a car since leaving Melbourne in 2003. We bought this just a few weeks ago (click for a bigger image), I've only posted a picture of something so dull as a friend has requested it. Nonetheless, we love it: it has the biggest interior of a small car I've ever seen - the three back bucket seats can fold down in two separate ways or lift out entirely!

Bilbao

2009-06-23T16:14:00.004+01:00

A very pleasant weekend away ...

A great conference venue

2009-06-19T11:23:00.001+01:00

Onati, Spain (outside Bilbao).

Dinner last night

2009-06-17T11:08:00.002+01:00

Cycles vs Punts

2009-06-16T09:35:00.003+01:00

A photo from Saturday of a common summer sight: dragging punts over the rollers and cycle path at the Mill Pond lock to get from the Backs heading upstream to Grantchester.

Saffron Waldon

2009-06-15T10:30:00.004+01:00

The brick-paved turf maze at Saffron Waldon common yesterday, on a balmy afternoon ...

The Granta

2009-06-13T13:18:00.001+01:00

The punt station outside our local, the Granta.

Rug

2009-06-11T22:48:00.003+01:00

About two years ago we both started new jobs. We still had quite a few debts, but with a surprisingly large slice of our combined first pay packet we bought this rug.

It was a good investment.

Community

2009-06-10T09:15:00.004+01:00

One of the things I like about our neighbourhood is this impromptu noticeboard on the street outside our flat. It's a section of fence that's been in use this way as long as we've been here.

It provides some insight into a family neighbourhood in a university town: children's furniture, yoga, public lectures, home reading groups, private language tuition.

An action figure we can believe in!

2009-06-09T08:29:00.002+01:00

So, anytime one of goes away, the other has to get them a bad present from the airport. On my trip to DC in April I picked up a little presidential fun. He lives on top of our coffee-maker, along with the egg-shells ...

India has authority to pursue pirates

2008-11-23T14:42:00.004Z

"Delhi has formally been given permission to act under a UN resolution allowing navies to pursue pirates into Somalia's territorial waters."

UN Security Council Resolution 1816 is a very odd creature, authorising pursuit of pirates into Somalia's territorial waters - where Somalia (or at least the internationally recognised, if ineffectual, Transitional Federal Government) consents.

This is an authority the TFG could give under international law, with or without a UNSCR. Thus, Resolution 1816 is largely pointless. Nonetheless, this is the first formal report I've caught on an agreement stuck between the TFG and a foreign navy under the Resolution (which expires next month anyway).

India has already shown it's prepared to use lethal force against pirates. In that case it appears to have been self-defence or returning fire. This would clearly be legal, though a shoot-on-sight policy towards pirates would not.

Pirates may be nasty characters but generally they are little more than common criminals who - while hostage-takers - are not interested in endangering life unnecessarily. (What use is a dead hostage?) We are not at war with pirates, and most legal systems don't authorise shoot-to-kill policies in the course of general law enforcement. That said, such an approach might well not generate much protest.

I doubt, however, it would be much of a deterrent. So long as Somalia remains in chaos and easy pickings are available in the Gulf of Aden, piracy will continue regardless of the risks to the pirates themselves.

Obama on international law

2008-11-11T13:26:00.002Z

In response to an ASIL survey:

"The next president will have to prioritize restoring our traditions of adherence to international legal regimes and norms. When I am President, America will reject torture without exception. America is the country that stood against that kind of behavior, and we will do so again. I also will reject a legal framework that does not work. There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on material support for terrorism. The sentence was 9 months. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. As president, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and laws such as our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists."

How quickly could most of this be done after 20 January? Just about instantly, I'd hope.

Only in a Cambridge student paper ...

2008-11-07T15:52:00.001Z

Headline on the US election: "Yes we could", thus identifying the correct use of the conditional subjunctive.

Welcome to pirate-town, we hope you enjoy your stay ...

2008-10-17T09:57:00.004+01:00

So, I've posted previously on "polite pirating" off Somalia.

And I've followed with interest the story of the pirates who seized a ship carrying 33 Ukranian battle-tanks, has had a long stand-off with the US navy; meanwhile another hijacked vessel has been liberated by the army of Puntland.

I've known for some time from UN reports that in the Puntland area there are "pirate command centres" and even official pirate spokesmen.

But the surrealism of Somalia's increasingly pirate-based economy reaches dizzying heights with the Port of Eyl where restraunts have been established to feed hostages seized for ransom.

"Welcome to the maison des hostages, may we recommend the beef this evening? We hope you enjoy your meal."

This may even beat inviting your hostages to a BBQ.

Library blogs

2008-10-04T15:02:00.006+01:00

An increasing number of law libraries have blogs of their own. As an all round bibliophile and library geek, I'll try and update this post a bit over coming days, but to start with a few palatial libraries ...

The Peace Palace Library (International Court of Justice)

This is a remarkably useful website, as their catalogue is updated more often than the homepages of a number of leading journals. While not full-text searchable, if you want a comprehensive list of everything published on a topic/by a person in public international law, it's a one stop shop.

The library blog is on blogger and candid photos are found on flickr. Some of the photos are really good!

Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

This really is one to bring out library-envy. I've only ever really studied in modern law libraries, even in Cambridge. The Lillian Goldman not only looks gorgeously kitted out, but it has its own facebook fansite, complete with photos. The blog itself is over here.

More suggestions welcome ...

Psst ... you chasin' some crusty local bread?

2008-09-16T12:48:00.003+01:00

The definition of an entrepreneur is (I would suggest) someone who sees a profitable market opportunity and is willing to take the associated risks.

Among the most efficient entrepreneurs are organised criminals: organised crime being the proof that if there's money to be made, making something illegal does little but increase the risks involved and therefore the profitability of an activity.

It appears, though, that in these times of rising food prices those original criminal geniuses, the crime families of Italy, have taken another basic business principle to heart: diversify.

The Guardian reports that:

"According to a report released last week, city officials and investigators suspect Camorra clans are behind many of the 1,400 unlicensed backstreet bakeries in and around the city which supply hundreds of street vendors who sell loaves out of car boots - and they may be spreading into selling other basic food products.

Open 24 hours a day, the street sellers are drawing shoppers with cheap, crusty bread fresh from wood-burning ovens, the way Neapolitans like it. But police say Naples' new breed of bakers are slowly poisoning their customers by burning old varnished wood, nut shells covered in pesticides and even planks pulled from exhumed coffins. 'Whoever buys this bread is eating dioxins and carcinogenic substances and putting their health at serious risk,' said Francesco Borrelli, assessor for agriculture for the province of Naples.

Borrelli's investigation into the underground bakeries prompted raids by Carabinieri police who found dough being mixed by illegal immigrant labour in filthy, humid and mould-streaked cellars, some perilously close to burning piles of toxic waste dumped in fields around Naples by the Camorra, which was linked earlier this year to suspected tainting of local mozzarella."

Contaminating traditional bread and mozzarella? Truly, these people they got no respect ...

Puffins and beer

2008-09-05T09:52:00.005+01:00

Where did August go?

Mostly, on finishing the typescript for my first academic book. Partly, on a two-week holiday taking in the Edinburgh Festival, Orkney and the Shetland Islands.

The northern islands are amazing, in a dramatic, remote and relatively flat way. We were too late for Puffin nesting season, sadly. There were, though, still lots of peat, sheep, Shetland ponies and ruins everywhere you turned (neolithic villages/viking long houses/castles/crofters' cottages/abandoned MOD radar installations).

One of the more amazing things in the Orkney islands is Skara Brae: the only relatively intact neolithic village in the world. It's an archeologist's dream, and it's fairly incredibly to look at still recognisable furniture (stone dresser, stone bed-box, stone pestle) that was used by real people 4,000 years ago. I doubt our flat-pack furniture will fare so well, even if covered by sand for a few millenia.

Nonetheless, as I stood at the world heritage site, a small Philistine's voice whispered in the back of my head: "With all the narrow sandy passages, little grassy knolls and wee stone walls ... It looks a bit like a putt-putt golf course, doesn't it?"

A guide to polite pirating

2008-08-08T10:57:00.005+01:00

Some may recall the dramatic episode in which Somalian pirates held hostage the crew of the luxury yacht Ponant and were then captured by French commandos after showing up to swap the hostages for the ransom.

With the approval of the Somalian Transitional Federal Government, the pirates were removed for trial in France.

There, as part of their defence, they have raised the fact that they were best-practice-following polite pirates. According to the Mirror:

The six raiders claimed they had a good conduct manual on how to seize foreign vessels to ensure their prisoners felt "relaxed and cheerful" during their week's captivity.

The written guide said they must not sexually assault women hostages, not shout at prisoners, give them food and drink regularly and let them sleep and use the toilet when they ask.

The gunmen even brought goats on to the 290ft French yacht, inviting their captives and 20 friends from their village in Somalia to an on-board barbecue.

After all, being rude could be bad for business.

However funny, this lack of violence is - in a way - good news. According to the IMO in 2007 attacks at sea or in port saw 20 mariners killed, over 153 injured and 194 kidnapped or taken hostage worldwide; 16 ships were hijacked, and one vessel and three crew remained unaccounted for as at April 2008.

Polite pirating certainly sounds better than being thrown overboard while pirates re-paint your cargo container carrier at sea to create a "phantom ship" they can steam into port to sell all the cargo ... (see paragraphs 179 and 180 of this UN report).

A little water

2008-07-29T10:41:00.003+01:00

Not on a scale, admittedly, with the horrendous UK floods of 2007 but this was the result of just 30 minutes rain on our street on Sunday. Nonetheless, the lessons of proper drainage maintenance don't quite seem to have gotten home to local government.

Of course, in that time 11 mm fell: so it was absolutely torrential. Coelacanth got caught out in and was utterly soaked.

A conversation by the river 15 minutes earlier went something like this:

Coelacanth: Hey, come meet some people!

Doug: No, I think I'll get home before it rains.

Coelacanth: OK, see you later then!

Optimism: 0; curmudgeon: 1.

More amusingly, I didn't quite get our lounge room window closed in time and the back of the TV got a bit wet. When we settled in to watch the ever-surreal Mighty Boosh that night the red-spectrum was missing from our screen, leaving everything an under-the-sea washed out green. As the TV slowly dried out under its own power, the colours faded back in.

Airport luggage: the case of the carry-on chainsaw

2008-07-27T22:38:00.002+01:00

From the New Zealand Herald (12 May 2008):

Never mind the nail scissors, what about the chainsaw?

A reader writes: "My brother-in-law went through security at Auckland domestic airport and witnessed a passenger having to fish out her nail scissors from her handbag and leave them behind. He went through security and then boarded his plane. After being seated he could smell petrol. He knew you shouldn't be able to smell petrol on a plane, because planes don't use petrol. The smell got worse and eventually he got the attention of one of the flight attendants. They started to look around to see where it was coming from. They found in the overhead compartment a chainsaw in a bag that was leaking petrol into the compartment. His plane was delayed as the owner was identified and the chainsaw removed and put with the main luggage. The owner of the chainsaw said security had stopped him but had let him through because it wasn't one of the things on their list to confiscate.