Vows

Dear Husband,

I vow that (so long as you want it) I will always come with you to the doctor, even if you are just getting some antibiotic for a cold. No one should have to be at the doctor's office alone.

Yours,

VC

Putting Business in Perspective

I thought I had been pretty busy, recently (although I ran 16 miles this week, so I can't be THAT busy, right?), but check out this note I just got from a friend I worked with this summer (REALLY like her -- she's a 3L at Columbia):

in the past 8 days I: argued my first case in district court, got a decision from the bench, wrote a moot court brief, did 6 hours of phone banking for election protection, went to a crazy election party, got a job interview with staff clerks office at the seventh circuit (which will happen next week), left like 3 voicemails for nicole, got an infection in my eye because i wore my contacts for too many days in a row, took the MPRE, and went to a bday party.

Guess I really was NOT that busy!

VC

Rocky Day

I am blogging just briefly to say that I had the WEIRDEST experience last night/this morning. I had a super vivid dream (like the kind where you wake up and think it was real) that today was daylight savings time and I had an extra hour to sleep. When my alarm went off and I reset it for an hour later, thinking that the time was wrong, I then slept for an extra three hours and totally threw off my work schedule for the morning before Persian class (although I did manage to get my homework for Persian done and email one of the other students the 30 sentences we had to translate from English to Persian, since she couldn't pick up the assignment yesterday).

Now I'm working on grading some papers, but am freezing, which is the second thing I'm writing about: I can't say how many days I am cold from 9:25am to 6pm. It makes me MISERABLE. I hate it that the A/C is still blasting everywhere here (not just at Yale) even though it's cold, now. I'm wearing a sweatshirt and eve just having my hands exposed makes me cold :(

Ok that's enough whining for today. Oh! I also left my phone at home, so I can't wish Desi a safe trip to Madison, schedule my dinner with Nicole, or schedule my trip to Home Depot to get a light bulb for my torch lamp (not the crappy Ikea one in the photo from two posts ago, but the super energy efficient and bright one that I really need work that I posted about a year ago when I ordered it, but that I promptly put out of use when I knocked it over and the super special energy efficient bulb broke, which I thought I would have to reorder from the website where I bought the lamp, but which I just realized, yesterday (after a year) can probably be purchased from Home Depot).

Trivial trivial.

--VC

My Midterm

I just drafted this for the class I'm TAing :)

You should spend about 15 minutes reading the following fact pattern and about 60 crafting your reply.

FACT PATTERN

The Democratic Republic of Golestan is a tiny island republic situated in the Arabian Sea between Oman and Pakistan. Golestan has roughly 120,000 inhabitants and covers an area of about 248 sq miles (this makes it about twenty times the size of Wasilla, Alaska, but just smaller, population-wise, than New Haven). Most of Golestan’s adult population engages in subsistence farming, although a significant portion of the country’s north coast is used for flower growing, which has proved extremely lucrative for Golestan and has allowed it to survive without significant foreign assistance. Golestan prides itself on being an economically independent flower economy, and sees its independence from its powerful South Asian and Gulf neighbors as tied to its status as the region’s leading flower exporter.

Golestan is party to the ICCPR, including the First Optional Protocol, the ICESCR, CAT, CEDAW, the CRC, and the Rome Statute of the ICC. In ratifying each of these treaties, the Golestan legislature issued the following declaration:

“The Government of the Democratic Republic of Golestan will comply with the provisions of the treaty, except those that the Government may consider contradictory to its ability to ensure the economic stability and autonomy of sovereign Golestan.”

On 1 September 2008, an unexpected tropical storm decimated the north coast of Golestan and all of the flower farms located there. On 2 September, Hamid Kasif, the president of Golestan, implored Golestan’s legislature to declare a state of emergency and activate the broad police powers of the executive. The legislature passed the Golestan Emergency Law (“GEL”), which declared that:

“In order to guarantee the economic stability and autonomy of sovereign Golestan in a crisis that threatens the survival of the Republic, all citizens of Golestan are immediately required to convert their crops into flower farms and join in collective flower growing. All persons who fail to comply with this law shall be executed or forced to work on government farms, and their property shall be seized.”

The month of September marked unparallel violence in Golestan, with soldiers from the Ministry of Agriculture engaging in neighborhood raids, either killing entire families on the spot if their land had not been converted to flower farms or forcing the strongest family members to work in chain gangs on government flower farms. Many of those slain or forced into labor camps hold dual nationality, including some with the United States and Belgium.

Last week, Columbia University invited President Kasif to be a guest speaker, and in introducing the President of Golestan, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said that Kasif was “starting to exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator.” In response, Kasif made the following statement:

“The actions we have undertaken in Golestan are in conformity with the understanding our legislature has consistently expressed of our international treaty obligations, as modified by our Emergency Law. In addition, nothing we have done to protect the economic integrity of Golestan violates customary international law. The people of Golestan cannot enjoy their civil and political liberties in a state of poverty or enslavement to the World Bank and multinational corporations. The measures taken to ensure Golestan’s economic independence are well within the margins of acceptable state action to preserve public order, and are consistent with the strongly-held values of this great people.”

QUESTION

You are an associate researcher with a New York-based international NGO, Lawyers Heart Human Rights (“Heart”). You have been asked to draft a memo that Heart can use to brief reporters about Kasif’s claims concerning Golestan’s treaty obligations and customary international law, as well as the justifications he provided for the state’s repressive actions. Your memo should also present what you consider to be the best option for brining someone kind of claim against the state of Golestan or its leaders.

Has Anyone Seen My Missing Pile?

Saturday spent reviewing documents for my human rights clinic.

I Think I Am Back

Only time will tell, I suppose.

**********************************

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People could not believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field

For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

(Coldplay, Viva la vida)