um, tehran was beautiful. there's been lots of rain and snow this year. the air was relatively cleam. the weather was balmy! it was a joyous time!!

i really should upload pictures. especially the shots of the city city rolling out from the foots of the alborz mountains for as far as the eye can see. or the illuminated skys. or one of the many fabulous restaurants?

toronto, remains good. i've been neglecting email writing for a while, but i'm slowly easing back into contact with ppl (that's the hope:) i'm also drastically behind having essentially skipped out on two whole weeks plus a silly intensive class on intl development. gosh, such wishy washy bs.

anyway, currently poring over the details of intl commercial arbitration, which for some reason i find very interesting. there is a lot of academic literature on the subject, but the explosion in the practice over the last decade or two, especially in north america, has certianly outgrown the literature. so many interesting questions remain: should we be preserving the traditional private nature of arbitration that allows it to be flexible, expedient and less expensive even though it is now used in a much broader range of disputes? should we care abt procedural fairness in an inherently private settlement process? what is the standard of review for arbitral decisions in a court of law? if one court system annuls an arbitral decision should another jurisdiction be allowed to implement it? should we allow arbitral decisions to remain private and confidential or should the public interest in the monitoring of the justice system take precendent? SHOULD WE CARE ABT THIS STUFF AT ALL: i think so :)