China’s New Air Defense Identification Zone

£¨Í¼±í£©[¶«º£·À¿Õʶ±ðÇø]¶«º£·À¿Õʶ±ðÇø»®ÉèʾÒâͼThree days ago China’s Ministry of National Defense established an Air Defense Identification Zone (“ADIZ”) for the East China Sea. According to the announcement, foreign aircraft operating within the ADIZ will be subject to a couple of requirements: First, they must provide Chinese authorities with various means of identification, including by reporting flight plans, maintaining two-way radio communications and responding in a timely manner to inquiries, displaying clear marks of nationality, and maintaining the operation of any secondary radar transponders. Second, the aircraft must “follow the instructions” of Chinese authorities. If any aircraft fails to provide identification or follow instructions, “China’s armed forces will adopt defensive emergency measures.” The ADIZ is outlined in red in the map above and, most notably, includes the air territory above the contested Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands. Japan has warned that the ADIZ creates a risk of “unpredictable events,” while Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that they are “deeply concerned” about China’s announcement and committed to defending Japan. The obvious purpose of the ADIZ is to further whittle away at Japan’s de facto control over the Islands. In this post, I want to raise two brief points on the legality of this measure.

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Data on the Foreign Travel of Wisconsin’s Federal Legislators

It’s common to hear of federal legislators traveling abroad on official business to meet with foreign leaders. Because this practice has a variety of significant implications for the execution of U.S. foreign relations, I decided to look into the extent to which Wisconsin’s representatives and senators have been involved over the last five years. My sources were WikiLeaks cables and public reports on publicly and privately financed foreign travel. While it’s not always easy to identify the purpose of any given trip, detailed accounts are often contained in State Department cables, which you can access by performing keyword searches on WikiLeaks’s website. My findings are below. As you’ll notice, Wisconsin’s legislators traveled abroad, if at all, only in 2009–not a single representative or senator reported foreign travel on public funds from 2010-present. I wasn’t able to obtain information on privately-funded travel for the last four years, so it’s possible that some travel still occurred during the period, but the drop-off in publicly-funded travel is striking. And a little bizarre. Perhaps it’s pure coincidence. Or maybe it’s a response to fiscal austerity? I don’t know.  

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UN Immunity in the Haitian Cholera Litigation

Two days ago, victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti filed a class action in the Southern District of New York against the United Nations, the UN Secretary-General, and the former head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (“MINUSTAH”). The complaint alleges that the defendants were negligent in deploying cholera-stricken Nepalese troops to Haiti and in constructing and maintaining their sanitation facilities. Additional claims include gross negligence, wrongful death, negligent supervision, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, private and public nuisance, and breach of contract. The lawsuit is compelling in many respects, but I think the court will dismiss the complaint on the basis of the defendants’ immunity. In this post, I’ll explain why.

First some background: In 2004, the Security Council passed a resolution creating MINUSTAH for the purpose of enhancing security and promoting democracy and the rule of law in Haiti. In implementing that resolution, dozens of countries have deployed military and police forces to Haiti over the last decade. One of those countries, however, was Nepal, where cholera is apparently endemic. In 2011, within a couple of months after the arrival of approximately 1000 Nepalese troops, Haitians living downstream from the troops contracted cholera, and from there the number of cases shot up dramatically. The latest CDC figures are that the disease has infected over 650,000 Haitians, 8300 of whom have died. This is tragic. What’s worse is that, even in the face of pretty clear evidence of the source, the UN has refused even to acknowledge its role, much less offer compensation. 

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