I would like to thank everyone at Opinio Juris for inviting me to guest blog this week on detention policy issues facing the Obama Administration, the Congress, and the courts. Needless to say, I hope my comments contribute to the debate and I welcome comments/feedback from readers. The discussion below addresses both detainees presently held and those detained who will be...
Florence Hartmann's contempt trial began today at the ICTY. Hartmann, a celebrated journalist who served as the Tribunal's spokesperson from 2000-2006, is charged with knowingly disclosing confidential Tribunal information: On 10 September 2007, a book entitled Paix et Châtiment, authored for publication by Florence Hartmann, was published by Flammarion. Pages 120-122 of the book Paix et Châtiment in particular disclose information...
Maybe it's too soon after finals for some of you, but for those still willing to undergo examination, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has a short on-line quiz on international humanitarian law (IHL). You can access it here. It's issued in concert with a major conference the Center is hosting later this week on Hamas, the Gaza War, and Accountability...
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) has recently begun a series of "daily questions" for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sotomayor. The Friday, June 12 question is about interpretation of the US constitution and foreign and international law in relation thereto. One thing that can safely be taken away from the last three Supreme Court confirmation processes is that this issue is here...
Professor Bodansky is absolutely right that the success of U.S. climate change policy depends on whether our leaders can align domestic and international efforts. Unless the United States does its fair share, other nations will not do theirs. And yet a purely international solution – untethered to domestic political realities – has little chance of securing U.S. participation. Bodansky’s own...
[Daniel Bodansky is a Professor at the University of Georgia Law School] In the international climate change negotiations, new ideas are a scarce commodity. After almost twenty years of intensive work, most of the low-hanging fruit have already been plucked, and progress tends to be more incremental – a refinement to the possible types of emissions targets here, a new variation...
[Nigel Purvis is the President of Climate Advisers] Climate change presents a clear and growth threat to the United States and the world. America now has an important opportunity to lead. Congress is moving toward enacting comprehensive climate legislation. The House Energy and Commerce committee recently approved a “cap-and-trade” bill (Waxman-Markey) that would reduce U.S. emissions 17% below 2005 levels by...
I appreciate the comments from Professors Fontana and Ahdieh, and don’t have much to quarrel about with them. They offer useful correctives or supplements to my argument. On the question of the scope of the argument – that is, the nations where we can expect convergence in constitutional law – my essay notes one important exception, and Professor Fontana raises a...
[David Fontana is a Professor at George Washington University School of Law] Mark Tushnet has written another interesting paper, yet again combining his background in American and comparative constitutional law. Tushnet argues—with some qualifications—that there are major structural pressures leading to the globalization of a genre of provisions of domestic constitutional law. Tushnet’s paper is shorter, so there are many claims...
[Robert Ahdieh is a Professor at Emory Law School] At the outset, my thanks to the editors of the Virginia Journal of International Law for inviting me to contribute to this symposium, to my friends at Opinio Juris for hosting it, and to Professor Tushnet for his valuable contribution to ongoing debates about constitutionalism, globalization, and their interrelationship. Needless to say, Professor...
[Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School] The argument for “The Inevitable Globalization of Constitutional Law” identifies two general processes – top-down and bottom-up – pushing toward convergence of basic constitutional principles in a rather large number of jurisdictions, those that participate in world-wide markets requiring significant cross-border flows of investment and human capital. We...
As an eminent scholar on the topic of amnesties, I appreciate Ron Slye’s thoughtful response to my analysis of the Barrios Altos case. His critiques are certainly ones that I anticipated when offering my broad reading of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’s landmark ruling. As a regional body, the Court can only issue judgments that bind member States. Thus,...
