The Daily Reviewer | Transnational Law Blog

Behind President Obama’s Warning of “Double Dip” Danger

Nov 18, 2009 11:57am

Today, in an interview with Fox News in Beijing, President Obama warned that “the US economy could head into a ‘double-dip recession’ unless urgent steps were taken to rein back America’s mounting level of public debt,” reported the Financial Times. Speculation about a double dipping, also known as W shape...

Sri Lanka and Trade Policy: Concession or Sanction?

Oct 26, 2009 7:40pm

The European Union last week produced an official notice derived from its year-long investigation on human right violation in Sri Lanka. Here are the Commission's final report, and the independent expert's report. Given the Commission's conclusion that Sri Lankan government breached its human rights commitments during it 25-year civil war...

New Wave of Insider Trading Charges as Judge Approved Wiretaps for White Collar Crime Investigation

Oct 21, 2009 12:07pm

It’s all over the news, and I should not be caught by surprise. Yet here I am becoming very disturbed by the loopholes in our financial institutions, which gave rise to an unprecedented amount of white collar crime - from Bernard Madoff to Raj Rajaratnam. Wall Street this week has...

America's Third Nobel Peace Prize In A Decade

Oct 9, 2009 10:43am

At 4am, the news that president Obama received the Nobel peace prize came to me just as unexpected at it was for all of us. However, as the dust settled, and president Obama finally responded with his speech in the White House's rose garden saying that the prize is "an...

A Proposed Solution for California Budget Crisis

Sep 9, 2009 9:18pm

People pointed to California's divided government and the supermajority law, which requires the legislature to adopt a budget with a two-third vote as reasons that cause the ongoing budget crisis in the Golden State over the last decade. The budget, which was passed by Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 24 of...

The Case Of Ben Bernanke

Aug 31, 2009 1:57pm

Last week, most news applauded Obama’s reappointment of Ben Bernanke as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Of the few commentators who opposed the reappointment, Morgan Stanley Asia's Stephen Roach lists three critical mistakes that Bernanke made leading toward the financial crisis. He argues that Bernanke should not be reappointed...

Sheehan is out of Retirement

Aug 27, 2009 8:25pm

I've talked about Cindy Sheehan before and was under the impression she had given up her war protest. I'm glad to read that Sheehan has once again taken up her charge and is dogging Obama while he is on vacation. The Breit Bart put it as follows: After spending weeks...

Posner v. Macroeconomists

Aug 23, 2009 2:37pm

This week brings a heated debate between Judge Posner and some prominent economists including Brad DeLong of UC Berkeley. The debate comes at the heart of my recent discussion with a lawyer who is also a faithful follower of Paul Krugman blog. I argued that certain opinions made by Paul...

The Transnational Law School

Aug 23, 2009 2:34pm

Much to my surprise and fascination, Peking University ("Bei Da") opened a School of Transnational Law in the Fall of 2008 that has a curriculum nearly identical to that of a U.S. juris doctor (JD) program and requires three years of study. Even more amazing is that the school is...

Trapped in the Middle-Income Class, Malaysia Is Finding Its Way Out

Aug 4, 2009 2:17pm

Once considered one of the Asian dragons, foreign investors have largely forgot Malaysia in the decade following the 1998 Asian financial crisis. However, there have been some important recent reforms in business law in Malaysia as the government of Najib Razak finds ways to push its liberalization agenda further in...

Do You Really Own That E-Book?

Jul 26, 2009 8:48pm

"Control At A Distance" is a very interesting article over at Balkinization about Amazon.com using the internet to delete copies of George Orwell's books 1984 and Animal Farm from various people's Kindles after learning that the publisher did not want to grant the rights to Kindle. Jack Balkin cleverly points...

In the Darkening Shadow of California Budget Crisis

Jun 10, 2009 9:25am

A few days ago, I received some updated news from our Chancellor at UC Hastings regarding Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut 100% state funding for the law school. With $24 billion deficit, the governor was searching for further cuts to make up the remaining $5.5 billion and UC Hastings'...

As the Dong Falls, Vietnam Faces a Harder Test at the Time of Global Crisis

Jun 7, 2009 5:38am

The Financial Times recently reported that the Vietnam's dong is depreciating steadily as budget deficit and account imbalance grows with "chronic current account deficit that reached $8.4bn, or 9.3 per cent of gross domestic product, in 2008". Vietnamese government is facing the threat of not gathering enough money for its...

China's Rising Power and the Hope for a Multi-Polar World

May 10, 2009 3:12am

Recently David Pilling of the Financial Times published a thought-provoking article under the title: “Asia Pays Tribute to Its New Superpower,” which discusses how the rise of China during the time of economic crisis has been perceived within the region and beyond. I found the true nature of this article...

An American Life Story

May 3, 2009 3:09pm

The Washington Post today offers a heartfelt portrait of Justice Souter that invokes much of my admiration and inspiration for the Superior Court Judge- a simple life fills with unwavering public service and modesty. Justice Souter recently announced his retirement from the Highest Court leaving this June when the Court...

Reaching Out to Sri Lanka

May 1, 2009 4:10am

I have been regularly following up with the news from Sri Lanka. Images and news from this civil war brought me solemn concern and uneasiness. Here in London, I caught this scene one weekend early this month. A sense of helplessness arrived soon after I stepped deep into the scene...

Over the Worst Yet, Japan?

Apr 30, 2009 10:29am

We don't know for sure, but at least Japan is showing signs of stabilization. Despite growing deflation and addition contraction at 3.3% this year, the Financial Times today reported some stabilizing signs from the second largest economy in the world giving hope that the worst of the recession may be...

Global Internet Rights and Censorship

Mar 28, 2009 5:48pm

The Internet has changed the way information is spread around the world. Internet usage has become ubiquitous in developed countries and it is still growing in less developed countries. The ability of populations to get information through the Internet is treated differently by various countries. Some countries have codified the...

Federal and California State Tax: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Mar 25, 2009 2:11pm

If you would like to find out the tax aspects of Obama's stimulus package which seizes about 36% of the stimulus, as well as how the State of California mends its budget crisis through various tax increases, there was a recent discussion on federal and state tax issues given by...