I am fascinated by the ongoing Argentina debt litigation saga (and not just because it looks more and more like a train wreck), but because it is forcing U.S. courts to burrow into even fuzzier nooks and crannies of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to figure out what exactly US litigants can do when suing an intransigent foreign sovereign like...
For decades, investor-state arbitration has enjoyed broad support in the U.S. (among those elites who know and care about such things). While there has been some backlash against investor-state in developed countries such as Australia arising out of controversial cases brought against it, the U.S. has remained pretty solidly in favor of it. But there are signs that the opposition...
In the latest round in the never-ending battle between Argentina and its holdout bondholders, a U.S. court has found Argentina to be in "contempt" for trying to circumvent that US court's orders. Argentina has been outraged by such an order, arguing that a state cannot be held in "contempt" because it is an affront to its sovereign dignity (with Argentina's...
I agree with Jens' excellent post on the importance of the "unwilling or unable" standard to the US justification for legal strikes on non-state actors in Syria. I agree this action may reveal state practice supporting (or rejecting) this legal justification. I am curious whether the UK, France, or other states that may be participating in Syria strikes will embrace this theory....
Several news agencies (here and here) have suggested that recent reports of Chinese military aircraft entering into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone is akin to a territorial incursion. For instance, J. Michael Cole warns at the Diplomat, "If they were indeed intentional, the latest intrusions could signal a further denigration of Taiwan’s sovereignty...
The New York Times is running a big report today on the U.S. plan to sign a "sweeping" climate change agreement without having to go to Congress for approval or ratification. Instead of a typical treaty requiring ratification by the Senate, the U.S. has a different more creative strategy. American negotiators are instead homing in on a hybrid agreement — a proposal...
Reasonable people can disagree about the legal merits of U.S. court judgments against Argentina requiring it to pay holdout creditor hedge funds. But I can’t say the same about Argentina’s recently announced claim against the United States at the International Court of Justice. Based on Argentina’s own description of its legal arguments, I stand by my earlier assessment: Argentina’s international...
Now that President Obama and his advisors have offered some more detail on the domestic legal basis for U.S. military's action in Iraq, I think it is even more clear now than when I first posted on this subject that the administration is relying on some sort of Article II Commander-In-Chief power to "prevent an act of genocide" against a Iraqi...
Assuming there really was authorization from the Iraqi government, I don't have any doubt that the U.S. has the right under the international law to launch new airstrikes in Iraq. But the domestic authority for the U.S. airstrikes is much more murky, and, as Ilya Somin argues here, Congress might need to authorize continuing military action. Jack Goldsmith goes through the domestic legal bases...
As I noted last week, Argentina has been making threats to take the US government to the International Court of Justice over the results of US litigation over their 2002 sovereign debt default. And so today, Argentina has made good on its threat by filing an application to the ICJ contending that "that the United States of America has committed violations of...
I had the privilege today to attend a conference in Taipei today discussing the "East China Sea Peace Initiative". The ECSPI is Taiwan's proposal to reduce and maybe even eliminate the confrontation between China and Japan in the East China Sea over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands. The ECSPI is not all that complicated. 1) Shelve Territorial Disputes;and 2) Share Resources Through Joint Development. There is...
A group of international law and criminal law scholars have issued a joint declaration denouncing Israel's Gaza offensive for causing "grave violations...
