In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Julian Ku

15 Nov

According to this Washington Post report, the Senate may have reached a deal on the controversial "Graham Amendment" stripping federal courts of habeas jurisdiction over appeals by Guantanamo detainees (which Bobby and I have blogged about here and here and which SCOTUSBlog discusses here). (The full text is posted above). The bill on first glance seems pretty reasonable, especially since...

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11 Nov

Here is the full text of the "Graham Amendment" Bobby helpfully pointed out yesterday. The Washington Post has an analysis here. I must run off to help interview candidates interviewing for faculty positions, but let me add a few thoughts. Not surprisingly, I'm not reflexively opposed to this amendment, at least on first glance.(1) Congress plainly has constitutional...

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09 Nov

As the Washington Post reports, the Defense Department has released a new directive to the military on rules governing the interrogation of detainees held in U.S. military custody around the world. According to the Post, the directive has been hotly debated within the administration, especially as Congress is currently considering the McCain bill to codify standards on the treatment of...

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08 Nov

As I mentioned previously, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's senior thesis on the Italian Constitutional Court, written during his senior year at Princeton, has been missing from the Princeton archives. Today, the Daily Princetonian reports that Alito's thesis adviser has sent a copy of it to the university library and the Daily Princetonian has a brief summary here. At...

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08 Nov

The General Assembly and Security Council has selected five members for the next ICJ term. One of members, Thomas Buergenthal of the United States, is a returning judge. The rest, however, are all newbies. As I discussed before, some countries not effectively guaranteed a seat by the Security Council have launched semi-aggressive efforts to get their members on the Court....

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07 Nov

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear three important foreign affairs and international law cases this term (see here). It granted certiorari today in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld which will decide the legality of military commissions under the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Conventions (which I discussed here). It also agreed to hear two cases testing the domestic judicial enforceability of the...

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01 Nov

Roger and I can now proudly boast we have provided the most comprehensive analysis of the Alito record on international and comparative law in the blogosphere. But this record is pretty thin, I have to admit. Which is why I am thankful that John Brewer, an attorney in Manhattan and a former Alito clerk, alerts me to this Alito dissent...

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01 Nov

Many blogs start fights with other blogs, but Opinio Juris has to be unique in that we continually have knock-down battles among our regular contributors. Chris and I (to take just one example) have been fighting about international institutions like the U.N. and the ICJ since we initiated this blog almost a year ago and our disagreements show no signs...

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01 Nov

In the mass of articles about the newest U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito, there has been very little discussion about his views on international and comparative law (Roger's post here is the great exception). This is probably because most activist groups really don't care about his views on these questions and because his paper trail in these matters...

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29 Oct

This past week, the President of the ICJ Shi Jiuyong addressed the U.N. General Assembly as part of of the ICJ's submission of its annual report (which can be found here, the President's speech can be found here). It was, of course, very boring. But it also reveals that the ICJ doesn't realize the seriousness of the problem I have...

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27 Oct

The final Volcker Independent Inquiry Committee Report has been released (see here). News summaries have generally emphasized the final report's conclusion that over 2000 companies participating for Oil-for-Food were involved in illegal or at least illicit kickback schemes with the Saddam Hussein Iraqi government. But the report also rightly faults the U.N. itself for failing to prevent or stop such...

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