18 Feb See Goldsmith, Scalia, Yoo, et. al. – February 21 at the American Enterprise Institute
Two of America’s leading scholars of foreign relations law, John Yoo and Jack Goldsmith, are co-hosting a day-long conference on Tuesday, February 21 at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C (see here for registration details). The conference, entitled the “The Outsourcing of American Law” will feature Justice Antonin Scalia as the keynote speaker (gee, what do you think he is going to talk about?).
In addition to Goldsmith and Yoo (who represent quite different approaches actually, if you believe Time Magazine), the conference will feature top scholars in the field like William Dodge, Beth Stephens and Kenneth Anderson as well as leading blog personalities Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSBlog.
Oh yes (and you knew this was coming!), the conference will also feature yours truly speaking on the first panel about the status of customary international law in domestic courts. Now I know many of our readers live and work in D.C. I hope to see some of you there!
According to Prof. Ku, John Yoo is one of America’s *leading scholars* in the field of foreign relations law. I was wondering, is that claim based on:
a. The fact that the American Bar Association has official condemned his writings?
b. The fact that the vast majority (95% in the US?, 99% worldwide?) of his colleagues in academia consider his analyses not just incorrect, but intellectually dishonest?
c. The fact that his legal theories have been turned down each and every time they have been subjected to the court’s opinion?
d. The fact that his former employer has expressly withdrawn the memos he wrote, whenever they’ve become public?
e. The fact that the interest groups that fund Yoo’s pseudo-legal research are the same that support Prof. Ku’s?
And, by the way, Jack Goldsmith, apart from his intellectual merits (which are many more than Yoo’s) is, as a matter of chronological fact, a newcomer in academia.