There is little doubt that but for a constitutional impediment one of the top Republican contenders for President in 2008 would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a country that embraces immigrants like no other, it is anachronistic and even anti-American that our Constitution does not allow naturalized citizens to become President. That was the message of a great LA...
Charles "Cully" Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, gave a radio interview on Thursday in which he attacked law firms that give pro bono assitance to Guantanamo detainees and suggested a boycott of such firms by American companies may be in order. Thankfully, the Pentagon is distancing itself from DASD Stimson's remarks. CNN has the story....
Or so to speak. The standard narrative about the law of expropriation is that there was a wave of nationalizations (and subsequent arbitrations) in the 1960's and 1970's, then a wave or privatizations in the 1980's and 1990's. Today's disputes about expropriation, so the story goes, are about regulatory expropriation--how different types of regulations (environmental, health, tax, etc.) can actually...
President Bush's surge strategy in Iraq may be the final ingloroious blow to Tony Blair's legacy. But the "special relationship" appears to be further strained by the Atlanta police department's overzealous enforcement of the Georgia jaywalking statute against a world-renowned British historian and self-described "ageing member of the bourgeoisie." A friend at the FCO, aware that I am...
It seems that quite a few prominent law firms are establishing climate change practice groups, among them Pillsbury Winthrop, Latham & Watkins, Davis Wright Tremaine, and Hunton & Williams. This shouldn't be very surprising. Even if the US government has yet to sign on to Kyoto, transnational corporations will have to deal with that and other emissions regimes...
The story here (also fronted in the FT). With half a trillion dollars in annual sales, this effort of Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and Metro — the world's four largest superstores — is bound to be of consequence. One question mark: can a code such as this, labeled the Global Social Compliance Program and purporting to regulate the...
Opinio Juris is very pleased to announce that John Bellinger will be guest blogging with us for the week of January 15. As our readers well know, Bellinger is the State Department Legal Adviser, the top lawyer at the Department of State. In that capacity he is the principal adviser on all domestic and international law matters to the Department...
I have a new essay on SSRN, entitled "Retreat from Nuremberg: The Leadership Requirement in the Special Working Group's Definition of Aggression." Here is the abstract:The International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression is contingent upon the Assembly of States Parties adopting a definition of the crime. To that end, the Special Working Group on the...
In keeping with my recent spate of hopeful posts, it's my pleasure to mention that Israel is poised to appoint its first-ever Muslim minister:An Arab-Israeli legislator of the centre-left Labour Party is to become Israel's first-ever Moslem minister, Israeli news channels reported Wednesday night. Labour Party head Amir Peretz has decided to appoint Raleb Majadele from the central Arab-Israeli town of Baka el-Garbia as science,...
On Sunday, U.S. forces attacked what the Defense Department is characterizing as “’principal Al Qaeda leadership’ operating in the southern part of Somalia." DOD’s information on the attack is pretty sketchy, but the official Defense Department news story indicates that the targets were “terrorists who may have struck the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.” [Update: The New...
An impressive array of academics (including Anne-Marie Slaughter and John Ikenberry) and think-tank heavyweights (Ivo Daalder among them) are lining up behind the idea of institutionalizing an alliance of true democracies to advance effective and legitimate global governance. It's a central recommendation of the final report of the Princeton Project on National Security (which includes a draft charter for...
Ostensibly as a "concession" to the Democratic-controlled Congress, William Haynes II has withdrawn from consideration for a position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The Democrats filibustered his nomination in 2004, but Bush renominated him last year. Opposition to Haynes, who was General Counsel of the Department of Defense, centered on his responsibility, as...
