Arguments will begin today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn over a motion to dismiss an Alien Tort Statute lawsuit by Vietnamese nationals seeking damages from manufacturers of Agent Orange, an herbicide used by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. This remarkable suit is brought as a class action on behalf of every...
Thanks everyone for commenting here. Although I have to run to class, I can't resist a quick response.I think international law matters, even for the use of force, but what is interesting is why it matters. It obviously matters more in the UK, where the PM felt he couldn't act without legal authorization and where UK soldiers could be subject...
Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting, essentially right, but somewhat overbroad editorial ($) on the upcoming Medellin case before the Supreme Court. Medellin, most of you no doubt recall, will consider the domestic legal effect of an International Court of Justice judgment finding the U.S. in violation of its treaty obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In...
The World Health Organization is surely one international organization folks from all political stripes can support, no? Well, maybe...
Mexico's highest court ruled yesterday that a 30 year statute of limitations nullified the indictment of one of its former presidents on charges of genocide. This appears to be another case (like the recent Bolivia indictment) raising the question of whether genocide can apply to a government's attack on a group of protesters (this time 45 deaths occurred and its...
Although the legality of the Iraq War under international law has been a subject of some interest among academic international lawyers, there is not much evidence that this question troubled American decisionmakers (does anyone remember John Kerry complaining about the legality of the Iraq War?). But the U.K. is another matter. The “illegality” of the Iraq War has been...
Israel's State's Attorney Office has issued a report rejecting the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion that Israel's construction of a wall dividing Israelis and Palestinians violated international law. The opinion held that:The ruling last year by the International Court of Justice on the separation fence between Israel and the Palestinians was based on erroneous and outdated information...
An email asks about the Bolivia genocide indictment:"Why would you think that the repression of 60 people over natural gas would constitute genocide? You're the lawyer -- tell me."I take it that the email is skeptical that genocide could occur where only 60 people were killed and where the purpose of the repression was to promote natural gas development. These...
One of the things I've grown to love about blogging are the random little stories you come across on the internet that you would have never found before. This amusing account of Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi's town meeting back at home in Casper, Wyoming that should remind high-minded international lawyers that international institutions aren't all that popular back (literally) on...
Ugandan peace mediators are continuing to complain about the ICC's interference in their efforts to broker a peace treaty. As Reuters reports:Uganda has offered amnesty to Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, but the prospect of indictments by the international court has stopped some top commanders surrendering, along with hundreds of children they have kidnapped during the conflict, mediators said...
The Supreme Court is poised to consider the domestic legal effect of a decision of the International Court of Justice in Medellin v. Dretke (set for argument in March). The Columbia Law Federalist Society and the Columbia Journal on Transnational Law held a talk yesterday between Professors Curtis Bradley (of UVA and now Duke) and Lori Fisler Damrosch (of Columbia)...
Card-carrying "neocon" Douglas Feith, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (a position in some ways analogous to Stephen Krasner's position), delivered an important address to the Council on Foreign Relations last week. In it, he offers a re-definition of sovereignty subordinated to liberal values that Krasner may or may not agree with. He stated:As the enormities of genocide and other...
