In association with the International Commission of Jurists

April 2009

03 Apr

Tod Lindberg, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and editor of Policy Review (and, full disclosure, good friend of mine) has a new article out in Commentary, "The Only Way to Prevent Genocide."  The article argues that while "creative diplomacy" can make a difference, in "the end, it may all come down to the willingness of the United States to...

|
02 Apr

It's not exactly international law, but he was my professor at CU -- one of the very best I ever had -- and, in order to rule in his favor, the jury had to find that a majority of the Regents used his infamous 9/11 essay as a "substantial or motivating factor" in the decision to fire him.  So I...

|
02 Apr

I know I shouldn't let mainstream American conservatives' ignorance of international law bother me, but it does.  Today's example: The United States is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court, and Spanish judge and prosecutor Baltasar Garzon is a good reason why. He is considering a lawsuit by lawyers for human rights groups seeking the arrest and extradition of six former...

|
02 Apr

Read all about today’s blockbuster decision in which a U.S. federal district court held, in light of Boumediene, that detainees held at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have a constitutional right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. courts. A longer description and link to the 53-page opinion are here. Key caveat:...

|
02 Apr

Following-up on my post on Harold Koh's nomination, in the first part of this post I round-up some links to new stories and blog posts on Koh's nomination. Moreover, after the "continue reading" jump there is a guest post from Prof. Anupam Chander of the University of California, Davis (currently visiting at the University of Chicago). In the last day or so,...

|
01 Apr

Back in February, I noted that the ASIL Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court had adopted a set of recommendations for how the Obama Administration could take steps to engage with the ICC in new, more positive ways than the preceding Bush Administration.  As part of the ASIL Conference last week, the Task Force released a...

|
01 Apr

On Monday, the Eleventh Circuit rendered an interesting opinion in the case of King v. Cessna Aircraft on the subject of forum non conveniens and the rights foreign plaintiffs under bilateral treaties. The case arose out of wrongful death actions by American and European plaintiffs against Cessna Aircraft arising from a plane crash in Italy. The district court...

|
01 Apr

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution last week on "Human Rights and Climate Change," in follow up to the January  report by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights on the Relationship between Climate Change and Human Rights, The Council resolution is significant less for what it says than for the fact of its adoption, which reflects...

|
31 Mar

I was very happy to hear last week the news that Dean Harold Koh of Yale, someone I have known for many years and whom I greatly admire, was being nominated to head the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. It’s one of those picks that just makes sense: Koh is widely respected in the legal profession (among lawyers with a...

|
31 Mar

I recently posted an invite to a Chatham House international law discussion group about the new African Court on Human Rights.  The event was obviously a rousing success, as the following report by Sonya Sceats indicates: Last Monday night (23 March 2009) at Chatham House we were very privileged to host a fascinating discussion about Africa's new regional human rights court,...

|
30 Mar

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="420" caption="Bonn Negotiations Get Underway"][/caption] The climate change “negotiations” resumed this week in Bonn.  I put “negotiations” in quotes (or as they say here in England, “inverted commas”) because there has been little negotiating over the past 18 months since the Bali Action Plan was adopted. (The UNFCCC web site characterizes the sessions this week as “talks”.)  Indeed,...

|