[Martin Flaherty is the Leitner Family Professor of International Human Rights and Director of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School. He is a visiting professor at St. John's Law School Fall 2010.] Louis Henkin influenced – and will continue to influence – countless lives in untold ways. Not least, in fact perhaps most,...
[Sean D. Murphy is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School] I recall that Louis Henkin’s first-year constitutional law course at Columbia Law School was unique in that he assigned extraordinarily short reading assignments. While at first that seemed a blessing to an overburdened student, it became readily apparent that he expected you to read...
[Mary Ellen O'Connell is Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolutin at Notre Dame Law School] Louis Henkin dedicated his classic work, How Nations Behave, to his father Who All His Days Loved Law, Sought Peace and Pursued It Psalms 34: 12-14 The verse applies equally to Lou. He loved the law and sought peace through...
In Part One of this series, I discussed how to decide whether to write a book and offered some thoughts about book contracts. In this post, I want to discuss the calling card that every potential book author needs to obtain a contract -- a good proposal. Bill Schabas can submit a one sentence proposal that says "I want to...
In its motion to dismiss the ACLU/CCR targeted-killing lawsuit, the government claims (p.5) that Al-Aulaqi can be lawfully targeted because Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is "an organized armed group that is either part of al-Qaeda, or is an associated force, or cobelligerent, of al-Qaeda that has directed armed attacks against the United States in the noninternational armed conflict...
I am currently underwater with some things and won't be posting much, despite my interest in the debates over drones, targeted killing, and much else besides. However, I wanted to suggest that, for those trying to make sense of US actions in AfPak - including the overt strikes by NATO against safe havens in Pakistan, the sharply increased public pressure...
[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, United States Department of State; previously he was Martin R. Flug ’55 Professor of International Law and Dean, Yale Law School (2004-09), as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998–2001). This tribute is adapted from "The Future of Lou Henkin’s Human Rights Movement," Columbia Human Rights Journal...
Terribly sad news today on the death of Louis Henkin. Here's the message from Columbia Law School Dean David Schizer: I'm very sorry to report that our colleague, Lou Henkin, passed away this morning. Lou has been a towering presence here at the Law School since he joined the faculty in 1962. His intellectual and personal contributions were...
If passed, the House bill, "Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act" (H.R. 2378) has all the markings of a major trade battle before the WTO. At bottom, the law requires the United States administrative agencies to treat currency manipulation as a subsidy that would be subject to countervailing duties equal to the benefit to exporters conferred by the manipulation. The...
[John Dehn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy. The views expressed in this post are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Defense, U.S. Army, U.S. Military Academy, or any other department or agency of the U.S. government] I agree with Kevin that not every wartime decision...
You can find the brief here. I was going to write about the "political question" section, but Ben Wittes beat me to it. Here is what he says (emphasis mine): Fifth, the groups’ arguments that the case does not present a political question are deeply radical and fascinating. For present purposes, consider only some of the main themes...
Today's announcement that Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize is welcome news. The award is consistent with a longstanding tradition of the Nobel Peace Prize to honor political dissidents. In announcing the prize, the Nobel Committee stated that "The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many...
