Designing for the iPhone and iPad - A Collection of Pre-Built GUI Kits

 
If you are developing interfaces for the iPhone or iPad and are looking for pre-build GUI resources, check out this comprehensive collection from Speckyboy:

• iPhone and iPad Development GUI Kits, Stencils and Icons - Speckyboy Design Magazine

Coming to America

Given the harsh immigration law enacted in Arizona last week, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the toll that our border enforcement policy levies on migrants journeying from Central America to the United States. On Wednesday, Amnesty International released a report, Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move in Mexico, that documents the serious human rights violations suffered by migrants traveling through the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Tabasco, and Veracruz en route to the United States. At the margins of society, these Central American migrants are kidnapped, threatened, and assaulted by criminal gangs, other migrants, and corrupt officials, yet these crimes are rarely acknowledged, let alone prosecuted.
It is a challenge to gather reliable data on these abuses, but human rights organizations, academics, and shelters have conducted surveys that suggest that these migrant populations suffer high levels of violence and other wrongdoing, including arbitrary detention, extortion, beatings, robbery, sexual assault, and even murder. Some highlights:

• A report published last year by Mexico's National Human Rights Commission estimated that between September 2008 and February 2009 nearly 10,000 migrants were kidnapped by criminal gangs, often in collusion with the police. The study suggested that the vast majority of these migrants were threatened with guns and knives and received death threats against them and their relatives.
• Women and girl migrants are particular risk of sexual violence. Local and international NGOs and health professionals working with migrant women suggest that as many as six in ten migrant women and girls are raped -- many at the hands of state officials.
• Many migrants are killed or disappear in Mexico. Very few of these deaths are investigated by state law enforcement and attorney generals, and federal and state authorities do not systematically gather data collection on these abuses. As a result, the families of these migrants often do not know the fate of their loved ones who've journeyed northwards.

As the Mexican government plays an increasing role in protecting its nationals in the United States, it's sadly ironic that it fails to uphold its international commitments to protect migrants within its borders. But while the Mexican authorities must make greater efforts to prevent human rights abuses against migrants, the U.S. government also bears responsibility for immigration laws and policies that push migrants to embark on these risky journeys in the first place. A more humane immigration system would enable migrants to travel lawfully and safely to the United States, respecting their dignity as human beings. In the words of a Mexican man who provides shelter and food to migrants in need,

The train carries hundreds of lives, human beings who have suffered. They leave their homes because of the extreme poverty of where they come from, the journey north is a nightmare for them but they do it for the families they have left behind.

'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'We literally could not run the Navy without women today.'

-- U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, announcing that his department has put an end to the long-standing ban on women serving on submarines. (photo credit) Today 52,446 out of the Navy's 330,700 active-duty personnel, or 15%, are women. Prior IntLawGrrls posts about women servicemembers are available here.

On April 30

On this day in ...
... 1950 (60 years ago today), Dr. Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt (left) was born in Leipzig. She received her doctorate in law from Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University in Frankfurtin 1979, having completed a thesis on employer-employee law, then began a career as a judge and civil servant. Hohmann-Dennhardt served as Minister of Justice and then as Minister of Science and the Arts of the German Land of Hesse before becoming a Judge on Germany's Federal Constitutional Court in 1999.

(Prior April 30 posts are here, here, and here.)

Watch Denver Nuggets vs Utah Jazz NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 6 Live Stream Online 4.30.10

The (4) Denver Nuggets hit the road on Friday, April 30, 2010 9:30 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (5) Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City for Game 6 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Nuggets vs Jazz on your PC.

The Jazz are 34-9 at home this season, and 11-10 against Northwest opponents. They are averaging 107.8 scoring, and holding teams to 98.2 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 4,  averaging 104.6 points per game.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, are 19-24 on the road this season, and 14-7 against Northwest opponents. They are averaging 102.8 scoring, and holding teams to 104.1 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 3, averaging 106.7 points per game.

Utah currently leads the series at 3-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Denver Nuggets vs Utah Jazz Game 6 this Friday night.

Watch Los Angeles Lakers vs Oklahoma City Thunder NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 6 Live Stream Online 4.30.10

The (1) Los Angeles Lakers hit the road on Friday, April 30, 2010 9:30 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (8) Oklahoma City Thunder at Ford Center for Game 6 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Lakers vs Thunder on your PC.

The Thunder are 29-14 at home this season, and 30-27 against Western opponents. They are averaging 101.8 scoring, and holding teams to 95.9 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 14,  averaging 101.0 points per game.

The Lakers, meanwhile, are 23-20 on the road this season, and 38-19 against Western opponents. They are averaging 99.2 scoring, and holding teams to 98.9 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 12, averaging 101.3 points per game.

The Lakers currently lead the series at 3-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Los Angeles Lakers vs Oklahoma City Thunder Game 6 this Friday night.

Watch Atlanta Hawks vs Milwaukee Bucks NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 6 Live Stream Online 4.30.10

The (3) Atlanta Hawks hit the road on Friday, April 30, 2010 7:00 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (6) Milwaukee Bucks at Bradley Center in Wisconsin for Game 6 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Hawks vs Bucks on your PC.

The Bucks are 30-13 at home this season, and 34-23 against Eastern opponents. They are averaging 100.3 scoring, and holding teams to 96.6 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 23, averaging 97.7 points per game.

The Hawks, meanwhile, are 19-24 on the road this season, and 34-23 against Eastern opponents. They are averaging 98.7 scoring, and holding teams to 98.5 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 13, averaging 101.3 points per game.

Milwaukee currently leads the series at 3-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Atlanta Hawks vs Milwaukee Bucks Game 6 this Friday night.

Watch Phoenix Suns vs Portland Trail Blazers NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 6 Live Stream Online 4.29.10

The (3) Phoenix Suns hit the road on Thursday, April 29, 2010 10:30 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (6) Portland Trail Blazers at Rose Garden in Oregon for Game 6 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Suns vs Trail Blazers on your PC.

The Trail Blazers are 27-16 at home this season, and 35-22 against Western opponents. They are averaging 98.1 scoring, and holding teams to 93.8 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 21, averaging 97.9 points per game.

The Suns, meanwhile, are 23-20 on the road this season, and 38-19 against Western opponents. They are averaging 107.4 scoring, and holding teams to 106.8 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 1, averaging 109.9 points per game.

Phoenix currently leads the series at 3-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Phoenix Suns vs Portland Trail Blazers Game 6 this Thursday night.

Watch Dallas Texas vs San Antonio Spurs NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 6 Live Stream Online 4.29.10

The (2) Dallas Texas hit the road on Thursday, April 29, 2010 8:00 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (7) San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center in Texas for Game 6 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Texas vs Spurs on your PC.

The Spurs are 31-12 at home this season, and 12-9 against Southwest opponents. They are averaging 104.9 scoring, and holding teams to 96.8 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 15, averaging 100.9 points per game.

The Mavericks, meanwhile, are 27-16 on the road this season, and 12-9 against Southwest opponents. They are averaging 101.6 scoring, and holding teams to 98.7 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 11,  averaging 101.5 points per game.

San Antonio currently leads the series at 3-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Dallas Texas vs San Antonio Spurs Game 6 this Thursday night.

Suppressing Maritime Piracy: What Are The Options?

Further to Diane's post below, this post is to call attention to a report produced by the ASIL, the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS) and the One Earth Future Foundation on international piracy. The report grew out of a conference on the topic, details of which are here and here. (I was a participant along with American Society of International Law Executive Director Betsy Andersen). The conference and report focused on the following topics:

• Can the crime of piracy be added to the jurisdiction of the ICC? If so, what is the process for doing so?
• Given the politics around the 2010 ICC review conference (the possibility that the crime of aggression will be added to the ICC’s jurisdiction; the desire on the part of some to add terrorism), how likely is it that the ICC might try pirates in the near future?
• What are the same possibilities for the Law of the Sea Tribunal?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of using (third party) national governments to try apprehended pirates? How might universal jurisdiction work in practice with regard to the crime of piracy in the current era?
• What alternative governance options exist to prosecute pirates?
• What are the prospects for a special tribunal on piracy? How might this be established? By whom or under whose auspices? Through what processes?

My presentation focused on the international/hybrid tribunal option and discussed the different modalities by which international or hybrid tribunals have been established in the past:

• by coercion through the Security Council (ICTY & ICTR)),
• by consent with a host government (SCSL, ECCC, STL), or
• as part of a transitional administration (Special Panels in East Timor & Kosovo).

I also discussed potential regional and bilateral arrangements as well as other cooperative arrangements among affected states (along the lines of the mixed antislavery commissions of the 19th century, which IntLawGrrl Jenny Martinez (right) has written about, or the Lockerbie Tribunal). My presentation argued that given the vagaries of incorporation of the piracy prohibition into domestic law and the demonstrated inability and unwillingness of states to aggressively prosecute offenders, the international community needs a more comprehensive regime to effectively prosecute acts of piracy to supplement the cooperative military and preventative responses to date.
The Security Council's action is indeed welcome. Interestingly, so far, the Council has been careful not to identify piracy per se as a threat to the peace. In the Somalia resolutions, the Council designates the situation in Somalia as the threat that is exacerbated by piracy. Several states (including South Africa) are on record opposing the idea that piracy per se constitutes a threat to the peace. China has taken the opposite position. In its Resolution 1918, the Council asks the Secretary General to report on options

to further the aim of prosecuting and imprisoning persons responsible for acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.

No doubt the ASIL/ACUNS/OEF report will feature prominently in this research. Check it out!

News---Antietam NMP Added To Curriculum of Military Medicine School

Origin of Military Medicine Is Backdrop for Teaching Future Medical Leaders,Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, April 28, 2010

When service members are injured on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, there is a system of care in place to quickly attend to life threatening injuries, evacuate the injured to local field hospitals, and if needed, transport them for more advanced care at military hospitals in Europe or back in the United States. This system of care, while more advanced today than ever, began on a battlefield much closer to home during the Civil War.

More than 150 medical students from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or USU, will converge on the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md., April 29, as part of their first-year curriculum. They will be joined by more than 60 graduate nursing students from USU.

“We’re attempting to give students a sense of not only the strategies used at Antietam, but also how this battle significantly influenced the development of our modern day medical system,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Sheila Robinson, who oversees the exercise as USU Department of Military and Emergency Medicine course director.

Originally intended for the military medical students to break in their combat boots, the Antietam March serves to teach students, from a historical perspective, the basic tenets of battlefield healthcare. In the mid-1800s, then-Army Surgeon General of the Potomac Maj. Jonathan Letterman, recognized that care on the front lines, medical logistics and evacuation assets under the direction of a physician were key to delivering battlefield care. Letterman is also known as “The Father of Battlefield Medicine.”

USU partnered with the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., to ensure an authentic focus on the medical lessons learned and innovations resulting from the Battle of Antietam. University students will march in small groups, stopping at stations along the route to hear USU faculty members discuss conditions, battlefield strategies and medical aspects of the battle. Each student will be assigned the name of a real Civil War soldier, whom they will be able to follow from the time the soldier was injured until they arrived at a field hospital.

The Battle of Antietam, which took place Sept. 17, 1862, is considered the bloodiest single-day battle in American history. More than 23,000 men were killed or wounded.

The USU educates health care professionals dedicated to career service in the Department of Defense and the U.S. Public Health Service. The university provides military and public health-relevant education, research, service, and consultation to the nation and the world, pursuing excellence and innovation during times of peace and war. Many graduates are supporting operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, offering their leadership and expertise. Approximately 25 percent of all active-duty military medical officers are USU graduates.

Media interested in attending the road march should contact the Office of External Affairs at (301) 295-3981 by noon, April 28. For additional information on USU, visit our Web site at www.usuhs.mil.

Text and top Image Source: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Other Images: Antietam NMP

Ahoy, there! New tribunal?

Keep reading that ad hoc criminal tribunals are destined for Davey Jones' locker.
Apparently no one's given the United Nations that memo.
Not only did that intergovernmental organization establish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon a while back (prior posts), but also yesterday the U.N. Security Council unanimously resolved to consider an international piracy tribunal.
The latest in a 2-years-on series of resolutions on "The situation in Somalia," Resolution 1918 (2010) 1st recited a litany of concerns about attacks by pirates off the coast of that horn-of-Africa nation. (See Beth Van Schaack's post today, above, as well as IntLawGrrls' prior posts). Then it alluded to problems in bringing offenders to account, even as it noted that there've been some prosecutions in some national courts. (Justice systems specifically mentioned were Kenya (right) (photo credit) and the Seychelles. A few pirates also have found themselves haled before national courts in the United States and elsewhere.)
After urging more concerted efforts by all countries, the Security Council, in ¶ 4 of Resolution 1918, requested U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

to present to the Security Council within 3 months a report on possible options to further the aim of prosecuting and imprisoning persons responsible for acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia ...

Options explicitly contemplated:

► "creating special domestic chambers possibly with international components"

► "a regional tribunal or an international tribunal and corresponding imprisonment arrangements"

In preparing its report, Ban's staff is to consider the work of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, as well as "the existing practice in establishing international and mixed tribunals ..."

Time will tell if yet another tribunal weighs anchor.

On April 29

On this day in ...
... 1941, in Québec, Canada, the Bar Act was amended so that the province permitted women to practice law. Previously, they were banned from the legal profession even if they had a law degree. The change came "[a]fter decades of attempts and rebuffs." It would be another 15 years before women were allowed to become practicing notaries.

(Prior April 29 posts are here, here, and here)

Watch Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 5 Live Stream Online 4.28.10

The (5) Utah Jazz hit the road on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:30 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (4) Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center for Game 5 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Jazz vs Nuggets on your PC.

The Nuggets are 35-8 at home this season, and 13-7 against Northwest opponents. They are averaging 110.4 scoring, and holding teams to 101.6 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 3, averaging 106.6 points per game.

The Jazz, meanwhile, are 22-21 on the road this season, and 11-9 against Northwest opponents. They are averaging 101.4 scoring, and holding teams to 100.5 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 4, averaging 104.6 points per game.

Utah currently leads the series at 3-1.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets Game 5 this Wednesday night.

Watch Milwaukee Bucks vs Atlanta Hawks NBA 2010 Playoffs Game 5 Live Stream Online 4.28.10

The (6) Milwaukee Bucks hit the road on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 8:00 PM ET when they pay a visit to the (3) Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena for Game 5 of 7 of the 2010 NBA Playoffs. So don't fail to watch NBA live online Bucks vs Hawks on your PC.

The Hawks are 36-7 at home this season, and 34-22 against Eastern opponents. They are averaging 104.3 scoring, and holding teams to 95.7 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 12, averaging 101.5 points per game.

The Bucks, meanwhile, are 18-25 on the road this season, and 33-23 against Eastern opponents. They are averaging 95.1 scoring, and holding teams to 95.5 points scored on defense. On offense they are ranked 22, averaging 97.7 points per game.

The series is currently tied at 2-2.

Enjoy live score, preview, recaps and highlights as you watch 2010 NBA Playoffs live streaming online Milwaukee Bucks vs Atlanta Hawks Game 5 this Wednesday night.

News---1862 Battlefield On South Mountian Endangered By Transmission Line

Woman Works To Preserve Middletown Valley, Karen Gardner, March 25, 2010, News-Post, Middletown, Maryland.

Elizabeth Bauer lives in the shadow of South Mountain. She can see the area where the Battle of South Mountain was fought and the rolling farmland that has characterized the area for generations.She is taking on the fight to preserve the mostly rural area. Bauer is the new president of Citizens for the Preservation of Middletown Valley, an organization formed two years ago to oppose plans to build a gas transmission compressor station in the area. In January 2009, Dominion Transmission bought an old stone farmhouse known as Fox's Tavern and 135 surrounding acres. Two months later, the Civil War Preservation Trust included the tavern as one of the nation's 10 most endangered Civil War sites.

Preservation Maryland and Maryland Life magazine recently named Fox's Tavern one of the 11 most endangered historic sites in Maryland. It's one of many privately owned sites historians and land preservationists consider threatened. Dominion's purchase of the land spurred the national historic preservation group to add the area to its endangered list. Bauer, her husband and two sons have all been active in Civil War living history. Her husband, Claude, and younger son, Brendan, 21, have participated in battle re-enactments. Her son Cameron, 25, joined the rest of his family to serve as extras in the Civil War movie "Gods and Generals."

Dominion plans to build a compression pump for its natural gas transmission line on the property, which is zoned agricultural. The pump is not likely to be built soon, but company representatives said it is part of long-range plans. The pipe moves natural gas from underground sources to markets in the mid-Atlantic region. The preservation group wants Dominion to reconsider building a compressor station on land zoned agricultural. The group said the noise generated by a compressor makes it more suitable for an industrially zoned area. "The Dominion issue is going to loom over us until 2015," Bauer said.

In the meantime, she hopes to get the group active in other land preservation and zoning issues in Frederick County. The group supports Frederick County's new comprehensive plan, which has tightened development possibilities around the county.
The group hopes to reach out to preservation-minded people throughout the county, she said. She also plans to look into the process used to extract natural gas from underground stores and research the ramifications for those whose properties are above the gas supply. "We have not been assertive in our approach," she said. "I want to get the hackles up. If you can get anger, you can get interest. It's amazing the number of people who know nothing about this."

Bauer is hoping to build the group's membership. It is applying for nonprofit status and Bauer is considering mass mailings to increase visibility and financial contributions. "I don't think the community realizes it's the board that keeps us going financially," she said.

Rich Maranto served as the organization's first president. Maranto, Bauer and Randy Buxbaum started the group in November 2007 and were the first board members. Buxbaum remains the group's treasurer. Bauer, 54, works in human resources for an intelligence firm. Most of her work is done from her home. She volunteered for many years with the Arthritis Foundation when the organization had a Frederick County office. She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which limits her living history acting to warm-weather events.She plays a civilian, and this summer will probably adopt the persona of a cook or seamstress.

Her interests and experience with arthritis combines with her volunteer work. At work, she sees herself as an advocate for her employees."When I retire, I want to become a health care advocate for seniors," she said. "People do not want to challenge their doctor's opinion, and they don't understand the long-term effects. "I'm a very caring person, but I'm also a force to be reckoned with. Not in a rude way, but I can be forceful."

Top Image: Fox's Gap--- The old Sharpsburg Road. This is the scene of the "Bloody Lane" during the battle of Fox's Gap that took place on September, 14th 1862. This is also the same road used by Breckinridge's troops in 1864 as they advanced toward Middletown. John Allen Miller, Photographer.

Second Image: North Carolina Monument at Fox's Gap

Bottom Image: Wise's Farm at Fox's Gap

New Film---Law & Order: Lincoln Assasination Unit

Conspirator Follows The Drama After Lincoln's Death, Anthony Breznican, USAToday, April 28, 2010.

Any grade-school student can tell you the story of the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater at the hand of John Wilkes Booth. But what happened next? Robert Redford's new film, The Conspirator, follows the race to hunt down the small band of Confederate sympathizers who helped plot the attack. Think of it as Law & Order: Civil War Unit.

James McAvoy (Atonement) stars as a decorated Union soldier who reluctantly agrees to defend one of the accused, boarding-house owner Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), whose son was the lone conspirator to escape the manhunt. "There was a question of whether she was complicit, guilty by association, or even more guilty," says Redford, who directs but doesn't star in the movie. "The lawyer that defended her didn't want to defend her. He was a Union soldier who became a lawyer." His contempt for the suspect gives way to a fear that she is being prosecuted solely to bring her fugitive son out of hiding.

The Conspirator is independently financed and doesn't yet have a distributor. It's the first project made by the American Film Co., which plans to create historical dramas. Redford says he didn't want to simply re-create Lincoln's assassination and deals with that mainly as setup. "All the President's Men was very similar, because you had this big historical event taking place, but what people didn't know was what these two reporters did, digging in under the radar. You didn't need to show Nixon a lot," he says. Redford starred in that 1976 film about the fall of President Nixon.

Surratt was tried by a military commission instead of a civilian court, and with attorneys who represent accused enemies of the state still finding their integrity questioned, The Conspirator may strike present-day nerves. "I don't want to hit that too hard because then it sounds like agit-propaganda," Redford says. "I don't think Americans respond to well to that. But you can show them something and let them decide."

Text and Image Source: USAToday April 28, 2010

Images: Claudette Barius photographer, The American Film Company Productions, Caption One: Director Robert Redford says The Conspirator uses Lincoln only as a setup, the same way All the President's Men "didn't need to show Nixon a lot." Caption Two: Robin Wright plays Mary Surrat opposite Robert McAvoy as her reluctant attorney.

News---New National Archives' Exhibit: Original 13th Amendment Continued Slavery Forever, POWs Executed, CSS Alabama Digital Comic Book

Archives Exhibit Explores Little-Known Aspects of Civil War, Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post Staff, April 27, 2010.

The Confederate prisoners were lined up 15 paces from the Union firing squad. The order was given, and the six rebels died instantly. Five of them were shot through the heart, the Union officer in charge reported, adding that the execution was conducted to "my entire satisfaction."

So what if they were innocent POWs. A band of rebels had massacred captured Union soldiers and their commanding officer a few weeks before. Now, Union commanders just needed to select a Confederate officer for death, to complete the eye-for-an-eye transaction. There was no gallantry to this bloody affair in 1864, no stirring charge worthy of Currier and Ives. It was but a dark footnote to the epic of the American Civil War. And it was just what the National Archives sought for the major exhibit that will debut Friday: "Discovering the Civil War."

The exhibit, designed to launch Washington's celebration of the coming 150th anniversary of the war years, seeks to explore more of the little-known aspects of the battle and glimpse some of the dimmer corners of the conflict that remade the country and that so many Americans think they know so well. Yet 150 years later, the anniversary of the war that tore the nation apart finds a country that remains racially divided, politically fractured and historically split -- even over the causes and legacy of America's most wrenching conflict.

The governors of two Southern states, Virginia and Mississippi, sparked controversy this month by neglecting or sounding dismissive of the role of slavery in the war. And one noted Civil War historian says the nation might be too divided to properly mark the key unifying event in its history. "I think it's going to be impossible to get all the American people to gather to commemorate a portion of American history that's so important to the country," said Virginia Tech's James I. Robertson Jr., who 50 years ago directed the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission. "People just aren't that together anymore.

"The nation is far more polarized and politicized now than it was" in the centennial, he said. "Every subject seems to become an issue." But another scholar disagreed. Princeton historian James M. McPherson said that the Civil War centennial coincided with the civil rights movement. "On the issue of race, I think there was much sharper polarization then than now," he said. McPherson said recent uproars point to "the way in which the war still resonates in American culture."

"Issues having to do with race and slavery and regionalism and federalism -- all of those are hot-button issues in American politics and American culture, and the Civil War looms over all of them," he said. The war, which began in 1861 and ended in 1865, claimed more than 600,000 lives -- 2 percent of the population then. Today, that would mean 6 million dead, historians say. One battle in 1862, near Sharpsburg, Md., killed four times the number of American casualties on D-Day in 1944.

But the archives' exhibit seeks to probe beyond the sagas of the grand battles that pack the shelves of bookstores. It will present, for instance, an earlier, and long forgotten, proposal for what could have been the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The actual 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery in the United States. But in December 1860, Congress proposed a very different version.

Although never ratified, it read: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will . . . abolish or interfere, within any state, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state." This was a 13th Amendment that would have protected slavery, instead of abolishing it, archives historians say. The exhibit, which is free, features reproductions of recruiting posters, letters and photographs, including one haunting portrait of an African American drummer boy from a Union regiment of black soldiers.

The exhibit also uses touch-screen computer technology to illustrate chapters of the war. The saga of the notorious Confederate commerce raider, CSS Alabama, which preyed on Union shipping until it was sunk in 1864, is told as a touc screen "graphic novel" with comic book-style cartoon panels. The tale of the vengeful executions in Missouri is rendered with a touch-screen tour of the documents found in the archives' stacks.

"It's kind of a guided research experience," said senior curator Bruce Bustard, "where the visitor will be able to follow the research through the steps."
It is not a pleasant story. "It struck me as not the way I remembered the Civil War growing up, which is generally pictured as great armies clashing on a battlefield like Gettysburg," he said.

The tale begins with the killing of six Union POWs and their commander, Maj. James Wilson. They had been captured in a skirmish at Pilot Knob, Mo., on Sept. 27, 1864. But their captors handed them over to a rebel guerrilla commander named Tim Reves, or Reeves, Bustard said. There appears to have been bad blood between Reeves and Wilson, Bustard said, but the record on that is not clear. Documents indicate that Wilson and his men were killed by Reeves and his band Oct. 3.

After the bodies were found weeks later, outraged Union officers ordered the execution of the six rebel POWs at a prison in St. Louis. And on Nov. 8, Confederate Maj. Enoch O. Wolf was selected to be shot in retaliation for the killing of Wilson. Wolf proclaimed his innocence, condemned the killing of the Union soldiers by a "bush whacker" and in a letter to a Union general requested time "to prepare for death." Somehow, word of his plight reached the White House, whose chief resident -- and the Civil War's main protagonist -- was known for staying executions.

Bustard duly found in the archives a scrawled note on War Department stationery dated Nov. 10, 1864. It read:

"Suspend execution of Major Wolf until further order, (and) meanwhile, report to me on the case. A. Lincoln." Wolf was spared, survived the war and lived well into old age.

See the C.S.S Alabama Touch Screen Comic Book

Text Source: Washingtion Post
Top Image Source: Mental Floss
Middle Image Source: Footnote.com
Bottom Image Source: Confederate POWs at Belle Plain, Virginia, 1864

Adjudicating Aggression in Domestic Courts

As we’ve blogged before, adding the crime of aggression to the ICC Statute threatens to undermine the Court’s system of complementarity, which depends on domestic courts being the primary fora for adjudicating international crimes. Very few states have penalized the crime of aggression, but they may begin to do so in the event that the crime of aggression is added to the ICC Statute. Delegates involved in these negotiations should start focusing on what amendments to the complementarity provisions or other provisions might be appropriate to signal that aggression prosecutions need not go forward in domestic courts in the event that the Court eventually exercises jurisdiction over the crime.
This issue was central to the British House of Lords case of R. v. Jones, [2006] UKHL 16—one of the few domestic cases to consider the crime of aggression. (Article 14 of the Statute of the Iraqi High Tribunal includes the domestic crime of an analogous crime—“The abuse of position and the pursuit of policies that were about to lead to the threat of war or the use of the armed forces of Iraq against an Arab country, in accordance with Article 1 of Law Number 7 of 1958.” Saddam Hussein was executed before these charges could be adjudicated).
The issue arose in Jones in a somewhat backward fashion. In 2003, several British subjects (including Margaret Jones, right) were arrested in connection with efforts undertaken at British military bases to impede British involvement in the Iraq War. The individuals were variously charged with, and some convicted of, aggravated trespass and criminal damage. The appellants all argued that under British law, they were entitled to use reasonable force to prevent the commission of a crime: the crime of aggression. Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 provides:

(1) A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large.

Appellants asserted that the United Kingdom’s actions in Iraq were unlawful and that they were thus justified in attempting to prevent them by the use of reasonable force. By their account, the crime of aggression was established in customary international law and its core elements understood with sufficient clarity to permit the prosecution of the crime. They argued that the defense should not be

restricted to crimes triable in the domestic courts and should be understood as extending to crimes recognised under customary international law.

Acknowledging the ongoing negotiations within the Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, the appellants stated that the absence of agreed provisions was primarily the result of disagreements over procedural matters, and did not negate the existence of a sufficiently defined prohibition of aggression in customary international law. Even though “the exercise of the prerogative in respect of foreign policy and deployment of the armed forces cannot be challenged in the courts,” the appellants argued that they should be entitled to rely on the illegality of the exercise of the Crown’s prerogative powers as a defense to criminal charges and to put to the jury the question of whether their actions were reasonable and proportionate in the face of an imminent crime.
In response, the Crown argued that there is no automatic incorporation of crimes of customary international law into the domestic law. Rather, such crimes require “statutory interposition.” In situations in which the state’s prerogative with regard to national security and foreign policy is at issue and is determinative, such matters remain outside the courts’ purview.
The Court of Appeals ruled, inter alia, that the crime of aggression was insufficiently defined under international law to trigger the application of the justification defense under the statute.
The House of Lords affirmed, but on different grounds. Lord Bingham of Cornhill determined that customary international law recognized the crime of aggression as evidenced by treaty practice since the 1920s, the Nuremberg and Tokyo proceedings, and the ICC negotiations. Lord Hoffman (left, of Pinochet fame) reasoned that it was for Parliament to decide which international offenses should be made prosecutable in domestic courts and that the courts no longer possessed any residual power to create new offenses in the event of statutory gaps, no matter how pressing the public interest. Furthermore, he noted that the liability of individuals for the crime of aggression is secondary to the acts of a state. The courts should not inquire into the “discretionary powers” of the state to use force. Lord Mance in his speech noted that not all public international law crimes must, or should, be incorporated into the domestic penal code.
The Appeals were dismissed. Several of the appellants were allowed at trial to argue that they were seeking to prevent specific and codified war crimes from being committed, principally the release of cluster bombs and munitions tipped with depleted uranium. Last I was able to determine, the trials ended with hung juries and the defendants were slated to be retried.
In their speeches, the Lords recognized that since the early days of the International Law Commission’s Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind, individual responsibility for the crime of aggression has been intrinsically and inextricably linked to the commission of aggression by a state. Thus, prosecuting the crime of aggression in domestic courts would necessarily involve those courts in non-justiciable inquiries into foreign policy/national security decisions to use force by the home or foreign states. Indeed, as a predicate to finding an individual liable for the crime of aggression, courts would have to declare an act of state to be unlawful. Creating a unique or inverse complementarity regime for the crime of aggression would avoid this. To date, delegates have not focused on this implication of expanding the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction to the crime of aggression, but they would do well to do so.

(Disclosure: I've been advising the Department of State on the aggression negotiations. Any views expressed here are my own).

On April 28

On this day in ...
... 1838, the namesake of a Dutch research consortium familiar to international lawyers all over -- Tobias Michael Carel Asser (left) -- was born in Amsterdam into a family of jurists. He himself became a lawyer, then began teaching law, and eventually devoted himself to international law as a professor at what became the University of Amsterdam. His belief that interstate dialogue would serve global peace led him to spearhead a number of landmark private and public international law conferences at The Hague. Asser also served as a governmental legal adviser and diplomat, inter alia as the Dutch delegate to the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907 (prior posts here and here), and he was an inaugural member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. On account of these contributions, Asser shared the 1911 Nobel Peace Prize; he died in 1913 at The Hague. In 1965, the law faculties of universities in Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Tilburg, and Utrecht founded the Hague-based T.M.C. Asser Instituut in his name.


(Prior April 28 posts are here, here, and here)

Katupotretteja lisää

Tässä pari salamalla valaistua potrettia lisää. Tuossa Jyrkin kuvaamassa sotilaassa on kyllä kaunis valo, joka tulee yhdestä Nikon SB-800 salamasta. Voisi vaikka luulla, että ilta-aurinko tuo valoa vartiovuoroon.

Kuvaamani nainen taas voisi olla vaikka New Yorkista. Aurinko valaisee vastaan kuvattavan takaa oikealta ja Nikon SB-900 valaisee edestä vasemmalta.

New and Noteworthy---Civil War Campaigner, Number 1 April/May 2010

Civil War Campaigner is a new publication that is available in a print or digital edition that bears a striking resemblance in layout style and editorial content to Civil War Historian magazine which gave up the ghost late last year.

Covering a wide range of topics related to Civil War era cultures, the magazine benefits both military and civilian reenactors. Number 1 April/May articles cover the material, military, and political cultures of the era. Also, reenacting on and the preservation of historic sites is a focus. The magazine has photographs on nearly every page; there is a single page with text only. That's helpful when the article is how to load and fire a musket from a prone position, clay smoking pipes of the 1860s and Federal painted haversacks. Many of the photographs of textiles and the smoking pipes are large and the details are visible.

Unfortunately there are instances when references are incomplete or non-existent. In Setting forth information on Antietam battlefield farms, the articles' bibliography cites newspapers with no dates and an essay from a collection of essays. If a reader wished to locate Elise Manning-Sterling's essay on the cultural impact of the battle of Antietam battle on an agrarian landscape, there is no indication that her work appears in Archaeological Perspectives on the American Civil War edited by Clarence R. Geier and Stephen R. Potter (2000).

In its 105 pages there is little advertising. Several of the articles appear to be brief but are loaded with details. In particular the article on the 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago is allocated two pages of which about 1/3 is text. Reading the article, a reenactor will be able to gather and grasp the pertinent facts and be able have a brief conversation on the topic during a living history event. So though short the article seems satisfactory regarding the intent of the magazine.

Civil War Campaginer magazine's annual subscription for six issues is $14.95. Visit the website. CWL is a pleased subscriber.

Text by CWL.

Toive toteutui, vihdoinkin. Leica M9 tulossa kokeiluun.

Joskus, taisi olla viime vuoden puolella, toivoin voivani kokeilla Leica M9 kameraa mahdollisimman pian. Mahdollisimman pian on suhteellinen ilmaus ja se hetki on tällä viikolla. Sain tänään nimittäin viestin, että Leica M9 on matkalla minulle. Ei, en ole ostanut Leicaa, mutta saan kokeilla sitä. Legendaarisen mittaetsinkameran viimeisin inkarnaatio on herättänyt paljon keskustelua ja odotan innolla, että pääsen omian käsin valottamaan Leican pikseleitä. Palaan Leica-asiaan heti, kun olen valotuksia tehnyt.

CWL on "The Blade Was At My Own Breast": A Runaway Slave Mother Kills Her Child

'The Blade Was At My Own Breast': Slave Infanticide in 1850s Fiction, Sarah N. Roth, American Nineteenth Century History, 8:2, June 2007, 169-185.

Anti-slavery authors searched for events to fictionalize so as to heighten the agitation of a northern readers. In January 1856 such an event occurred. In a year that included John Brown's Pottawatomie Massacre and Preston Brooks, one of South Carolina's representatives, attempted homicide of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, other attempted murders and a homicide occurred. On January 27, Margaret Garner attacked her four children and killed one of them, a two year old. Garner and her children had runaway from Kentucky but were surrounded by slave catchers in Ohio. It was a front page story in the North but never appeared in print in the South.

Garner's infanticide caused a dilemma for Northern authors. Would white, middle class readers have sympathy for a murdering mother? Having committed an 'unnatural act' such as killing her own child, would Margaret Garner's story turn audiences away from slave mothers? If slave mothers were savages then why should they be set free on Northern soil?

Later that summer, Harriet Beecher Stowe author of Uncle Tom's Cabin published Dred. It contained an instance when a slave mother killed her two children. Other authors did attempt to portray such an instance in their own fiction. Race, femininity, motherhood, enslavement and violence directed toward children became entwined in these novels.

Garner herself was of West African descent, lived her entire life as a slave, and had murdered one of her own children. Northern readers were far removed from her.
Authors added attributes to their fictional Garner in order to develop sympathy in the readers. In two novels, Garner became nearly white with only a tincture of black blood. In other stories Garner's character spoke of salvation of death for the female child who would later be sexually assaulted by a white slaveholder. In the Victorian ante-bellum world a mother who murdered a child violated the sacred charge given to all mothers to protect their children.

Authors stressed that the Garner character was fulfilling rather than rejecting this sacred charge. With only one option of putting a child out of harm's, mothers slew their children. Infanticide was not an act of beast-like violence but one of desperate sacrifice. Women characters in antebellum fiction could engage in violence in only one way---suicide. Suicide was self-determination. In suicide, women remained victims.

A large number of antebellum fictional characters who were female slaves, committed suicide. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Lucy drowned herself when she learned her child had been sold away from her. In another story, a female slave drank poison rather than submit to her new owner, a rapist. In Another story, a female slave threatened suicide after her rescuer from slavery attempted rape. When mothers killed children to prevent the child's destruction at the hands of a rapist, they were also committing suicide by suppressing their innate maternal instincts to preserve the child.

Women in antebellum sentimental novels resorted to violence to protect their chastity, their faith and the safety of their child. Violence became logical when the choice was made in the face of abuse and harm by a slaveholder. Yet during the course of the plot, slaveholders who attacked women and young adults were not assaulted by women. The slaveholders were undone by other circumstances in the story.

Traditional abolitionist images of women as victims were there in antebellum stories. Yet they became more assertive and defiant in the face of violent authority.

Text by CWL.

Top Image Source: Newspaper Clipping

Second Image Source: Painting

More on International Justice Dialogue

(We welcome IntLawGrrls guest/alumna Valerie Oosterveld back for this guest post. Valerie, in turn, extends her thanks for the invitation to contribute to the blog.)

In her post a few days ago, IntLawGrrl Susana SáCouto highlighted the International Gender Justice Dialogue held last week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She featured the panel on “Prosecutions and Jurisprudence – What have we achieved and what remains to do done?”

Other panels at the Dialogue, which I attended, focused on “Peace Talks and Outcomes – Strategies and Challenges”, “Women’s Rights and Peace Advocates in Conflict Situations and Fragile States” and “Mandates and Opportunities for Justice and Peace”.

While some originally-scheduled speakers were not able to attend due to travel disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano, speakers did include: Jody Williams (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Chair of the Nobel Women’s Initiative), Fatou Bensouda (International Criminal Court, by video), Joanna Sandler (UNIFEM), Monica McWilliams (Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Northern Ireland, by video), Esther María Gallego Zapata (Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, Colombia), Sarai Aharoni (Hebrew University, Israel), Yanar Mohammed (Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq), Thin Thin Aung (Women’s League of Burma, India), Gilda Maria Rivera Sierra (Centro de Derechos de Mujeres, Honduras), Chavi Nana (International Criminal Court), Susannah Sirkin (Physicians for Human Rights, USA), and

Kristin Kalla (International Criminal Court Trust Fund for Victims).

The Dialogue’s website contains video presentations of these speakers, including the powerful and inspiring closing presentation by Dr. Joan Chittister, co-chair of The Global Peace Initiative of Women, which you can watch here.

As the event was indeed a dialogue, the second day of the gathering focused on brainstorming around the themes of “Justice and Jurisprudence”, “Peace Talks and Implementation”, and “Communicating Gender Justice”. I served as a rapporteur for the group on Justice and Jurisprudence, which tackled key questions such as:

► “What are the judicial obstacles to the advancement of gender justice?”

► “What are some upcoming opportunities within the International Criminal Court and elsewhere for advancing gender justice?”

► “Where does the field of international criminal justice need to be in relation to gender issues in the next 3-5 years?”

The Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice also took the opportunity of the Dialogue to launch its newest publication, “In Pursuit of Peace”, which can be accessed here.

Writing from Kenya, as air travel cancellations kept her from attending, Ava A. Maina Ayiera summarized the feelings of the attendees at the Dialogue well:

'I do not know what journeys and stories of women’s rights, women’s empowerment emerge from Iceland, yet their stories, my stories will connect and mirror each other; stories of women determined to realize equality, to redress discrimination, to resist the degradation that comes with patriarchy and to seek justice.'

On the Job! Human Rights in China

(On the Job! pays occasional notice to interesting intlaw job notices)

Human Rights in China is recruiting for a number of staff positions.

HRIC is a nongovernmental organization founded by Chinese students and scholars in March 1989, months before the Tiananmen demonstrations (about which IntLawGrrls have posted here). From offices in New York, Hong Kong, and Belgium, HRIC's "board and staff include Chinese, North American, and European individuals devoted to fostering greater space for democratic reforms and social justice," and to advancing the "mission to promote international human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in the People’s Republic of China."

The NGO is recruiting for the following positions, most of which require language skills in both Mandarin and English:

► Program Directors in New York and Hong Kong, and, in New York,

► Marketing and Operations Associate,

► Communications Officer, and

► Information Communications Technology/Web Developer.

Details here.

On April 27

On this day in ...
... 1848, the Conseil of the provisional government of France issued Décret relatif à l'abolition de l'esclavage dans les colonies et les possessions françaises, which outlawed slavery in all French territories. The decree stated in part:

A l'avenir, même en pays étranger, il est interdit à tout Français de posséder, d'acheter ou de vendre des esclaves, et de participer, soit directement, soit indirectement à tout trafic ou exploitation de ce genre. Toute infraction à ces dispositions entraînera la perte de la qualité de citoyen français.

That is,

In the future, even in foreign countries, every French person is forbidden to possess, to purchase, or to sell slaves, and to participate directly or indirectly in the trafficking or exploitation of slaves. Every infraction of this provision will be subject to loss of French citizenship.

This was not France's 1st go-round on the issue: Slavery had been abolished in 1794, during the French Revolution, but then was reinstated in 1802 by Napoleon. (credit for photo of 1998 commemorative stamp)



(Prior April 27 posts are here, here, and here)

New---Rebel Agents Plot Terror Against NYC Financial District

A Vast and Fiendish Plot: The Confederate Attack on New York City, Clint Johnson, Citadel Press, 308 pp., index, 25 illustrations, selected bibliography, notes, $15.95.

The Confederate agents' attempt to burn Manhattan is one of the Civil War's intriguing and compelling stories. Clint Johnson's story of the attack on the city is an engaging presentation of motivations and personalities. The chemistry of the incendiaries is broadly covered and the reasons for the non-ignition of the devices. Solid, yet fast moving, the narrative does not linger to long on any one character or activity.

During the night of November 25, 1864 an incendiary chemical, known as Greek Fire, was planned to ignite spontaneously on contact with air at almost 20 hotels. The reasons for the failure in part the chemistry of the devices, the planning by the principals, and the nature of the plan. Johnson states if the schedule had been pushed back from 8p to 3a then the fires would not have been discovered by guest.
If the docks had been targeted then oxygen supply for the ignition would not have been a problem.

The motivation was payback for a Federal raid that took the life of Confederate cavalry leader, John Hunt Morgan who was out of uniform at the time of his death, and retribution for the destruction of barns in the Shenandoah Valley by the Federal army under Sheridan in 1864. The feelings behind the fires are similar to Jubal Early's burning of Chambersburg Pennsylvania in the summer of 1864 in response to Federal burning of the Virginia Military Institute in the late spring of 1864. Johnson sets the Confederate mis-adventure within the war's path through civilian populations.

Hoping to damage the Lincoln administration, the Confederate cabinet coached the agents top decided make the assault before election day. Help from Copperheads was expected. Discovery of the plot five days the fires were to occur promoted the administration to rush Federal troops into the city. As the Copperheads back out of the plan two of eight Confederate agents retreated into Canada. The remaining six agents went ahead with the attempt.

Early in the story, Johnson dwells on how New York financial powers were tied to the South and why Copperheads were prevalent in New York City. The credit, insurance, and merchant marine industries were closely linked to The Cotton Kingdom before the war. Yet, it is hard to understand the link between the agents, the financial districts interest in terminating the war and the selection of targets. Why burn the financial district when it was the financial district that most desired peace and could pressure the administration to produce it?

Johnson sometimes introduces topics, characters and incidents which appear to lead away from the main thrust of the story, such as the Battle of Gettysburg. Also, there are some unsupported generalizations regarding John Hunt Morgan's death as being a genuine contributing factor to the agents desire to burn New York City. Post-war memoirs are taken at face value by Johnson and at times don't seem to bear very well the weight of some conclusions. Yet, the book is enjoyable and is readily accessible to most readers.

Text by CWL.

Second Image: The Lost Museum Archive