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L’état, c’est Trump?
Louis XIV, the Sun King, led France in an age of diplomatic and military triumphs and state centralization. In a simpler age, he ruled personally, without a prime minister, and he mastered the French aristocracy. He is said to have declared, “L’état, c’est moi,” which would have been a ridiculous thing to say, except that……
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Case of the Day: Kazakhstan v. Lawler
The case of the day is Republic of Kazakhstan v. Lawler (D. Ariz. 2020). Big Sky Energy Corp. commenced an arbitration against Kazakhstan before ICSID, asserting a claim under the US/Kazakhstan bilateral investment treaty. The treaty does not provide protection to “any company that is controlled by non-U.S. nationals if that company does not conduct……
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Royal Scandal of the Day: Can Prince Andrew Be Required To Testify?
Back in 2015 I wrote about some unserious attempts by lawyers for an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein to get testimony or a statement from Prince Andrew. I commented on the haplessness of the strategy of sending requests to Buckingham Palace and the awesomeness of the letterhead of the alleged victims’ lawyers. Later, I commented……
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Case of the Day: Bodyguard Productions v. Musante
The case of the day is Bodyguard Productions, Inc. v. Musante (D. Hawaii 2020). Bodyguard owned the copyright for a movie called The Hitman’s Bodyguard. It alleged that Alex Musante had infringed the copyright. The claim was that Musante had streamed the movie using a BitTorrent client. In an amended complaint, filed apparently after having……
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A Tale of Two Judges
On January 20, Mohammed Hossein brought an action and a petition for a writ habeas corpus in the District Court in Boston seeking relief from imminent removal. He was a young Iranian national studying for a bachelor’s degree at Northeastern University. When he arrived at Logan Airport, the CBP officer revoked his student visa and……