The FIFA Scandal from an International Law Perspective

You may recall that I raised the FIFA corruption scandal in the context of the exercise of jurisdiction extraterritorially. This week the issue was taken up on ASIL's Insights blog. You may find it interesting.

Compound vs. Simple Interest

Further to our discussion of damages and costs in litigation, and the difference between compound and simple interest, here is a link to a spreadsheet that illustrates the power of compound interest. It includes the formulas you can use to calculate straight-forward compound interest.

Important to note is that an investment of $15,000 in an account earning compound interest, calculated and paid monthly, at a rate of 6% per annum, will earn $31,653.07 more in interest over a 20 year period, than an account earning simple interest at the same rate over the same period.

Compound interest is even more powerful when the principal is increasing with each period. So, if you took $2 each week (the amount you might be tempted to spend on lottery tickets), and invested it in an account earning 6% per annum compounded monthly (admittedly impossible to find in the current environment), at the end of 40 years your account (in which you would have only invested $4,160 over the 40 years) would be worth $15,953, or close to four times your investment. Make that $20 instead of $2, and the amounts become more interesting.

You can find a straight compound interest calculator here, and one which includes the addition of monthly contributions to principal  here.

Pinochet - Recently Disclosed Information

On the eve of our discussing the Pinochet case in class, the New York Times ran an article disclosing new information on Pinochet's involvement in, and the CIA's views on, the notorious assassination of a former Chilean ambassador with a bomb in Washington D.C. An old article in The Nation discusses the relationship between Kissinger and Pinochet, and Kissinger's failure to deter Pinochet from acting against the ambassador. Finally, here is an account in The Atlantic on the CIA's role in the coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, which overthrew a democratically elected government and brought Pinochet to power.

Recent Developments Relating to Adjudication

As we get set to consider adjudication and jurisdiction issues, you will be interested in a few recent developments. Just today the European Court of Justice handed down a decision on data sharing between European states and the U.S. (in particular), that will have a massive impact on U.S. internet-based businesses (article on this here).

In other news, you will no doubt have been following the unfolding story of the U.S. airstrikes against a hospital run by Medicin Sans Frontiers  in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in which some 22 people were killed and many more injured. The American explanation for this killing of non-combatants, and potentially targeting a hospital, has been "evolving" over the last few days. The targeting of a hospital is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and thus a war crime, so the reasons are important. Of considerable interest, given our discussion of jurisdiction, is whether the International Criminal Court might be able to exercise jurisdiction over the incident, a question that is taken up in this article.

Self-Determination in Catalonia

Further to our discussion of self-determination last week, you will be interested to read on recent developments in Catalonia. As the New York Times reported:

Catalan separatist parties won a majority of the seats in regional parliamentary elections on Sunday that they had billed as a plebiscite on secession from Spain.

The article continues here. Another article a couple of days after the election provides further analysis for what this means for Spain. In your view, do the Catalonians have a right of self-determination that would justify a declaration of independence and secession?