Chris and I had a nice little exchange a few weeks ago about a speech made by former State Department Legal Adviser William Taft IV that criticized the U.S. detention policy in Guantanamo Bay. Today's Guardian has a long expose alleging that Taft, and other U.S. lawyers, were involved in pressuring the UK's attorney general to change his mind over...
Scott Sullivan of Trans-Atlantic Assembly has a thoughtful post on the Bassiouni Affair, including a kicker on Taliban detainees in Guantanamo.See also this BBC report, forwarded by Greg Fox....
Why should an otherwise boring Supreme Court opinion Tuesday in Pasquantino v. U.S. on the applicability of federal "wire fraud" statute to activities involving avoidance of foreign tax laws (via SCOTUSBlog) affect our understanding of the President's foreign relations powers?Because Justice Thomas' opinion for the Court casually cites the legendary United States v. Curtiss-Wright case for the proposition that the...
The WTO Appellate Body confirmed a lower panel ruling that the EU's system of subsidies for sugar producers violates WTO rules. The U.S. sugar subsidy system was similarly found in violation by a separate lower panel and this ruling suggests the U.S. will lose its appeal as well. Although it is unclear whether reducing the cost of say,...
Euan Macdonald of the Transatlantic Assembly has a much more detailed discussion of the Goldsmith memo discussed below. He usefully notes that (1) Goldsmith plainly rejects the U.S. doctrine of preemptive self-defense, at least as articulated by the Bush Administration; and (2) the Goldsmith opinion supports Blair's claim that he did have legal advice assuring him that the Iraq...
The Iraq War, and its legality (which I previously discussed here), continue to excite participants in the UK election campaign. Today, the long-sought legal opinion (or at least parts of it) from Lord Goldsmith, the UK Govt's chief legal advisor, was leaked to the press. (UPDATE: the UK administration has released the full opinion here.)From this side of the pond,...
With all due respect to the hand-wringing over whether “The Interpreter” is too pro-UN (an impossibility in America’s current political climate, but I digress), you guys have missed the boat. Witness this: I’m watching Sesame Street with my daughter this morning and the muppets are in a furor. They can’t agree on who should start singing the Alphabet Song....
Jeff V., an incoming law student, posted a series of questions to a post of Julian’s which can be boiled down as follows (a) does the ICJ have U.S.-styled clerkships and (b) how can someone learn more about careers in international law? Here are some general responses.First, concerning clerkships at the ICJ: the ICJ has not traditionally had...
This interview with a local Ugandan NGO suggests the ICC should back out of its Ugandan investigation (an issue Peggy discussed in more detail here). Here's a key exchange between a reporter from the East African and David Kaiza:Does the ICC risk escalating the [Ugandan] war?The LRA [the Ugandan rebel forces -ed.] are not the kind of people who will...
After bashing the ICJ a bit here, I thought it is only fair that I pass along ways that the ICJ can serve a useful though limited role in the settlement of international disputes.First, Malaysia and Indonesia, last seen sending out naval ships to confront each other over disputed islands, appear willing to consider sending this dispute as well to...
In a comment to Julian’s post on “The Interpreter,” Yuval Rubinstein provided a link to this article on Prof. Cherif Bassiouni of De Paul University Law School being pushed out of his job as the UN’s chief human rights investigator in Afghanistan by the U.S. government. (Thanks also to Greg Fox for separately e-mailing this article as well...
According to the always reliable SCOTUSBlog, the Supreme Court denied certiorari today in Acree v. Iraq, a petition brought by U.S. POWs who had won a judgment against the Government of Iraq for mistreatment during the Gulf War. I blogged about this case, and Prof. John Norton Moore's vehement appeal for Supreme Court cert, here....
