Before You Comment ...
I currently have a little issue with my commenting software. I will try to fix it as soon as possible. In the meantime, just click on the heading of the post that you would like to comment on. You will then get onto the individual post page and from there, the comment feature should work. Sorry for the overhead.
A little bit less than a week after the Irish decided against ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon in a popular vote, the British House of Lords approved ratification of the treaty, thus paving the way to official ratification by the Queen. Jurist has more [link].
The fact that Great Britain approved the Treaty of Lisbon might have brought some relief to the European heads of state who met today to discuss, inter alia, how to save the treaty despite the Irish "no" vote last week. Program and further information on the meeting are available here [link to official website of Slovenian presidency]. Yet, a concrete solution by the European heads of state for dealing with the Irish non-ratification is not expected before fall.
I thought we could help the European heads of state and discuss possible ways out of what now seems to be a dead end. Since the Irish referendum, various propositions have been made to this regard: e.g. having Irish vote again (as it was done few years ago with the Treaty of Nice) or giving up the whole European idea ... just to name a few extremes. I am, however, sure that many of you - regardless whether you are a European citizen or not, whether you are pro or con the European Union - have your own proper ideas on the future of the EU. With my blog, I would like to provide a platform for everyone to voice and discuss his/her thoughts about the future of the European Union.
I am looking forward to your comments!
I recently stumbled over an interesting website. International Law Video Library [link] is a great tool for teaching international law and also a useful source of information on issues in international law. The International Law Video Library is hosted by Dr. Jean Allain [website] of Queen's University in Belfast. The site features interviews by major players in international law, e.g. Judge Thomas Buergenthal, Professor James Crawford, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, Dr. Joseph Rotblat.
After a rather long "creative pause" I am now - hopefully - back on track. A lot has happened in the international law arena during the past few months and to list everything here would probably go beyond the scope of a simple blog post. So I decided to focus on one area that has previously been of intensive coverage on this blog: the good old(?) Lisbon Treaty.
Having been signed in December 2007, the Lisbon Treaty is currently in its ratification phase, i.e. the treaty has to become binding in the individual Member States. The ratification procedures vary among the various Member States and the whole process will probably last through 2008. For those of you who would like to know the Treaty's ratification status in the individual states, the European Union has a very helpful web page explaining ratification procedures, ratification status and other interesting information on a country-by-country basis. Here is the link (I will also add this link to the sidebar of my blog). In June, Ireland will hold its long-anticipated referendum on the Lisbon Treaty ratification and in the United Kingdom a case is pending on the question whether there should be a referendum on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. So it is definitely worth keeping an eye on how the situation in those two countries develops.
The above-mentioned web page also offers other interesting information on the Lisbon Treaty, including a full-text version [link]. In addition, the Centrum fuer Europaeische Politik (CEP) [homepage] provides an interesting comparison of the Lisbon Treaty and its predecessor, the Nice Treaty [link; contributions mainly in German, but "Overview: Institutional Changes" is available in English at the bottom of the web page].
Well, this post should definitely bring us back on track as far as the Lisbon Treaty is concerned ...
In an exceptional move, Bryan Garner from LawProse, Inc. [website] was offered the opportunity to look behind the scenes of the US Supreme Court. During the 2006-2007 term, he interviewed eight of the nine Supreme Court judges and made the interviews available online [link to videos]. It is extremely interesting and revealing to hear the judges talk about legal writing and advocacy. Thanks for everyone involved for providing this great opportunity.
