In association with the International Commission of Jurists

April 2010

13 Apr

Following up on Ken's post about the Washington Post editorial endorsing Harold Koh's legal defense of targeted killings, it is worth analyzing the passage Ken quoted one more time, but this time from a domestic U.S. constitutional perspective: Mr. Koh’s reaffirmation of the right to self-defense — even outside the confines of an existing armed conflict — is particularly important. The Authorization...

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13 Apr

The Washington Post editorializes today in praise of Legal Adviser Koh's statement on drones in his speech to ASIL on March 25.  It specifically focused on the self-defense distinction in the statement: Mr. Koh's reaffirmation of the right to self-defense -- even outside the confines of an existing armed conflict -- is particularly important. The Authorization for the Use of Military Force...

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13 Apr

UNTOLD STORIES: HIDDEN HISTORIES OF WAR CRIMES TRIALS A two-day international symposium to uncover and explore some of the less well-known war crimes trials, both international and domestic. Melbourne Law School 15th and 16th October 2010 Presented by The Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law, Melbourne Law School, and supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant Organizers: Gerry Simpson, Tim McCormack, Kevin Heller,...

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13 Apr

Another day, another chance for folks in the UK to make threats about bringing legal action against the Pope during his upcoming September visit to the UK.  The latest attack comes from noted atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. It looks like the focus will be on breaking down the Pope's head-of-state immunity defense, rather than trying to fit the...

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12 Apr

Treat liquidity risk and runs on institutions as fundamentally a question of lack of information - the lack of information on the underlying financial solvency prompting flight from uncertainty.  In that case, the question following the announcement in the press yesterday of the Greek-EU bailout is not so much what it signals about liquidity, as instead what contribution it will...

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12 Apr

I rarely get to blog about the relationship between my two favorite things -- professional basketball and international law -- so I would be remiss if I failed to comment on the latest problem to afflict the New Jersey Nets, one of the worst teams in the NBA.  The Nets are in the process of being sold to Mikhail Prokhorov,...

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09 Apr

The results of this new study about the ineffectiveness of international aid to certain developing countries is not surprising, but it is still depressing. For years, the international community has forked over billions in health aid, believing the donations supplemented health budgets in poor countries. It now turns out development money prompted some governments to spend on entirely different things, which...

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09 Apr

A federal district court in Texas has held that the Alien Tort Statute ("ATS") requires allegations of intent to violate international law. The mere knowledge that such violation was occurring, or would occur, is insufficient to support a claim under the ATS. The complaint in Abecassis v. Wyatt alleges that various corporations and individuals purchased oil from Iraq and made...

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09 Apr

I don't know a lot about CEDAW, the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, but I know that lots of groups on both sides think the treaty is really important. For instance, in this post, a critic of CEDAW quotes a proponent of CEDAW, Janet Benshoof,  for the view that: "[W]ere the United States (US) to ratify CEDAW, it would bring...

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09 Apr

I don't fully understand the nature of the legal charges against Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon. It sounds like, from this Economist article, that he is being accused of some version of "prosecutorial" and "judicial" misconduct for refusing to follow the terms of Spain's 1977 amnesty law preventing investigations into Franco-era crimes.  Garzon apparently held that there is a consensus that...

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08 Apr

The Obama administration has been savagely criticized for authorizing the CIA to use lethal force against Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen who is allegedly a member of al-Qaeda in Yemen.  Glenn Greewald, for example, has described the decision -- justifiably -- as "unbelievably Orwellian and tyrannical."  To date, however, critics have ignored what I think is perhaps the most important...

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