Simple vs. Compound Interest

Further to our discussion in class last week, and in preparation for discussing reparations this week, here is the old post on simple versus compound interest:


On 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.

More on Secession, Self-Determination and Catalonia

As you will all have seen from recent headlines, the secession issue in Spain has taken a turn for the worse, with what is developing as a crisis heading in to uncharted waters. Here is one of a series of blog posts on the legal issues surrounding the Catalonian claim. The risk of civil war is not trivial.

[Update] - this article is quite a good backgrounder on the entire Catalonian crisis.

Limits of Diplomatic Immunity

Just as we were discussing the international law principles on immunity, an issue of diplomatic immunity came up in the news. Here is a blog post analyzing a recent Supreme Court of the United Kingdom case, Reyes v. Al-Malki, which involved allegations of human trafficking against Saudi diplomats in England. The issues are not unlike those raised in the case I mentioned in class, involving a member of the Indian consulate in New York, who the district attorney wanted to charge for visa fraud in connection with the employment of a foreign laborer. You can read about the other case I mentioned, involving the CIA contractor in Pakistan, here - though there are many articles written about this incident. His detention complicated the planning around the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Corporate Legal Personality and the Alien Tort Claim Statute

As most of you likely know, the Supreme Court of the United States just last week heard arguments in Jesner v. Arab Bank, which involved issues related to the Alien Tort Claim Statute, which was at the center of the Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum case that we examined in class. Here is a short blog post with commentary on the case, discussing the issue of corporate legal responsibility - does this comport with your thinking after our discussion in class?

Terrorism and Threats to the Life of the Nation

Further to our discussion last week about terrorism, and what constitutes a threat to the institutions of the state, or threats to the life of the nation, here is the excerpt from the House of Lords Case in A(F.C.) v. the Home Secretary [2004]. When we get to human rights in a week or so, we will come across this question again, in the Loveless case—which was an early case considering the latitude for states to derogate from rights obligations during times of national emergency, when the life of the nation is threatened. As we will see, the Court was quite deferential to the state's interests in that case, but the House of Lords staked out a pretty high bar in A(F.C.) v. the Home Secretary.

The case (you can find the full judgment here) involved the "certification" of the applicants under the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act, 2001, which permitted the government to detain persons so certified for an indefinite period. The government of the U.K. argued that the law constituted a permitted derogation from its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

As part of the decision, Lord Hoffman considered what "the life of the nation" meant in Art. 15 of the Convention, and wrote as follows (continued below the fold):

More on Iraq and Spain

The tension increased this weekend, with Iraqi armed forces starting to deploy into a threatening posture in the Kurdish territory of Iraq. Meanwhile, the deadline is nigh in Spain for the Catalonians to clarify what position they are taking.

Non-Recognition and Human Rights

We have discussed the extraterritorial reach of human rights briefly in class, and just wrapped up our discussion of the recognition and non-recognition of states. Here is a short blog-post that looks at how the issue of non-recognition (in Crimea and the Ukraine) is affecting the extraterritorial application of the European Convention of Human Rights in the current context.

More Secession and Self-Determination

As the claims for the right of secession and independence, based on the right of self-determination, continue to evolve in the Kurdish region of Iraq and in Catalonia in Spain, focus this week turned to two other secessionist movements: in Nigeria, and in Cameroon. Consider the relationship between these claims and the principle of uti posseditis that we studied a few classes ago.

The Kurds and the Catalonians - Self-Determination

As we discussed in class, the issue of self-determination is being raised in real time in two countries right now, and in both cases it is leading to significant crisis.

As we talked about, the Kurds have voted for independence, and the Iraqi government is responding with a heavy hand. Here is a legal analysis of the issues there.

After our last class, this Sunday, the Catalonian people voted in a plebiscite in Spain that the government and the Supreme Court had ruled to be illegal, and which law enforcement took efforts to block. The situation descended into chaos as the day wore on, and leaves many experts unsure how things are going to unfold.