Just in case the Bush Administration’s recent diplomatic initiatives were in danger of changing the President’s image, the LA Times reports on a new study finding that President Bush has signed fewer treaties at this point in his term than his predecessor Bill Clinton and even than his father.Now President Bush may indeed be unilateralist, and even anti-internationalist (and that...
Although I noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected this ATS suit arising out of alleged killings in El Salvador just last week, today the same court (with different judges) upheld a $4 million judgment against ex-Chilean military officers who executed a Chilean doctor (Winston Cabello) in the 1970s (thanks to my colleague Eric Freedman...
Critics of the U.S. government’s post-September 11 “war on terror” have a variety of complaints. One of the most salient is the “unilateral” and perhaps even “illegal” use of military force by the U.S. in its attempt to either attack terrorist groups or prevent such groups from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.There is some force to this critique, but ultimately...
President Bush’s withdrawal from the Vienna Convention’s Optional Protocol granting the ICJ jurisdiction has startled many supporters of greater internationalism, but in the long run, I do not think this withdrawal is likely to be more than a blip as a political matter. Bigger battles are afoot.As I noted here, Congress will likely vote this year on whether or not...
I suggested last week that the Vietnamese Agent Orange lawsuit against U.S. chemical companies had a good chance of success because the presiding judge was the legendary Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn. Boy was I wrong.Judge Weinstein dismissed the lawsuit today only 3 days after hearing arguments in the case finding that the plaintiffs had no basis for their claims under...
I noted rumors/reports of this below, and now the New York Times confirms that the U.S. has withdrawn from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The Optional Protocol is the provision granting the International Court of Justice compulsory jurisdiction over disputes under the consular relations treaty and the basis for Mexico's (and Germany's) applications to the...
Medellin's attorneys have filed a motion to stay further proceedings in the Supreme Court on the domestic effect of the ICJ's judgment in Avena "while Petitioner pursues his remedies in Texas court, as contemplated by the President’s determination of February 28, 2005, implementing the judgment in [Avena] and the position taken by the United States in this Court." (Thanks to...
There are rumors and/or reports that the U.S. will withdraw today from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations. If true, this would probably bring to an end the litigation before the International Court of Justice on foreign nationals' rights who are facing death sentences in the United States. But it would raise lots of...
As the major media finally begins to notice the Bush Administration's decision last week to order state courts to comply with the ICJ's ruling in Avena, Texas may be gearing up for a last stand in the ongoing Medellin saga.I stand by my prediction last week that the Bush Administration's intervention on the side of the ICJ will almost certainly...
I agree that Bolton is a strange appointment, and not just because he doesn't appear to like the U.N. very much. It is also strange because if Bolton hates the U.N. so much and thinks it is useless, it isn't likely he will accomplish very much in his new job. In other words, this appointment almost suggests Bolton is being...
El Salvador watchdog (or is it "watchblog"?) Tim Muth notes that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed a $54 million judgment against 2 Salvadoran generals for human rights violations during the 1980s. Those generals now live in the U.S. and were sued by their victims under that ubiquitous Alien Tort Statute.Courts have generally held that Alien...
Territorial squabbling continues in Southeast Asia as the Indonesian government announced it would NOT bring its simmering dispute with Malaysia over offshore undersea development rights to the International Court of Justice (where it previously lost a territorial case in 2002). It also announced that warships sent to enforce Indonesian claims of sovereignty would remain and that Malaysian airplanes were violating...
