The D.C. Circuit last month issued an interesting decision in Belhas v. Ya'alon on a possible jus cogens exception to the FSIA. The case presented the possibility that a government official committing jus cogens violations cannot be acting within his official capacity. The court rejected the argument. Here is the key excerpt of the majority and concurring...
From CNN: Think Barack Hussein Obama has it rough campaigning for president with a name like that? The Illinois senator has nothing on Frankenstein Momin. Or Billy Kid Sangma. Or Adolf Lu Hitler Marak. The three men are among dozens of others with equally colorful names who are competing for legislative seats in Meghalaya, a remote northeast Indian state, on March 3. There...
William J. Haynes II, DOD General Counsel, is stepping down from his position in March. The DOD Press Release is here. Haynes, played a critical role in decisions surrounding the application of the Geneva Conventions to detainees, the use of GTMO as a detention facility, as well as the interrogation standards to be employed there and elsewhere. ...
Over the past few weeks, the Bush administration has repeatedly tried to legitimize the military commissions by comparing them to the trials held at Nuremberg. First, William Haynes invoked Nuremberg in defense of his belief that the military commissions would provide detainees with fair trials:When asked if he thought the men at Guantánamo could receive a fair trial, Davis...
When I teach Foreign Relations, the first order of business for the class is to identify every provision of the U.S. Constitution that makes some explicit reference to foreign relations. (Of course this is somewhat artificial, as there are many provisions of the Constitution that affect foreign relations even though they make no explicit mention of foreign relations.) ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a lower court opinion dismissing a lawsuit brought seeking damages for the U.S. military's use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War (Vietnam Ass'n for Victims of Agent Orange v. Dow Chemical Co). For me, the most interesting and doctrinally significant part of the decision is the Second...
So, after much prodding, I have officially joined Facebook. I even have three friends — which means that I'm only 229,997 behind a Facebook group that recently organized world-wide protest against FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia:What began as a group of young people venting their rage at the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Facebook, an...
Further to Julian's post on Friday, the ICC has already made clear that it has no intention of lifting the warrants:The office of the prosecutor of International Criminal Court Thursday insisted arrest warrants for Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, rebels in Uganda remain in effect following news Kampala has agreed to set up national courts to handle LRA crimes. "The office...
Interested in learning more about the political farce that the military commissions have become? Run, don't walk, to Scott Horton's fantastic "The Great Guantanamo Puppet Theater" at Harpers.com. On these issues, Scott (like Marty Lederman) is always an invaluable read. ...
During my latest blog-blackout, I missed the latest from Uganda. Apparently, the LRA-Uganda peace talks have reached agreement on a domestic process for prosecuting war crimes. The Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on Tuesday signed a major agreement on how to deal with crimes committed during the brutal nearly 22-year insurgency in northern Uganda. The...
Wow — he must really think the military commissions are unfair:...
Judith Resnik gave an interesting talk on local foreign policymaking at Peggy McGuinness’ terrific Missouri v. Holland symposium week before last, based an article she has forthcoming in the Emory Law Journal (proofs here). She catalogues all the (mostly good) ways in which localities are emerging as international actors. Some of the themes echo others' work (see for...
