Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

I wasn’t going to write about the Serious Fraud Office / BAE Systems High Court judgment last week*, but then Jo posted the thoughts of her BAE-employed friend on the case. In summary, they say that bribery is okay with non-democratic countries because everyone else is doing it and it’s the only way to safeguard [...]

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Following Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday, those who refuse to recognise the province’s new status have argued that such a recognition would be a violation of Serbia’s sovereignty. Ilana Bet-El, writing yesterday on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site, endorses this view, arguing that
"while the UN Charter effectively enshrined three rights: of state [...]

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Reading the reports of the death of a senior Al-Qaeda Afghanistan leader in Pakistan, I can’t help thinking of the opening statement of Robert Jackson at the Nuremberg trials:

“The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to [...]

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