In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Author: Julian Ku

13 Jun

Public Citizen, an anti-free trade group based here in the U.S., sent around an email detailing its objections to a leaked draft text of the ongoing TransPacific Partnership negotiations, which would create a massive Pacific free-trade zone.  Its main complaint is not actually to the free-trade portion of the agreement, but to the proposals for a robust investor-state dispute resolution...

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13 Jun

I haven't been following this issue at all, but I found this discussion on the possible ramifications of a UK gay marriage law fascinating.The Church of England has put out a paper suggesting (among other things) that any UK law that does not guarantee the right to religious solemnization of gay marriage would violate the ECHR's equality guarantee. I don't...

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08 Jun

Prof. Martin Flaherty of Fordham was gracious enough to join me for a (short) podcast hosted by the Federalist Society on my book (co-authored with John Yoo) Taming Globalization. Marty takes John and I to task for our analysis of non-self-executing treaties and our lack of analysis of congressional-executive agreements.  One of his most salient points is that our book argues...

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07 Jun

Maybe the EU will stick to its guns on its controversial airline emissions tax, but I somehow doubt they will not eventually be forced to cave. (Reuters) - Senate lawmakers and the Obama administration on Wednesday stiffened their opposition to a European law that targets emissions from commercial jetliners and applied new pressure on Brussels and the United Nations to resolve...

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01 Jun

Rather than deride opponents as the "black helicopter" crowd, the proponents of US ratification of UNCLOS should take seriously the upcoming hearings as a chance to weigh the complex policy choices presented by UNCLOS.  Prof. Craig Allen of the University of Washington offers this very sensible and persuasive take at (of all places) Fox News: The decision to ratify a treaty...

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01 Jun

The NYT has another big expose today on one of the Obama Administration's secret war, this time detailing the President's authorization of cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear facilities.  From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to...

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31 May

Will there be a serious legal blowback to the NYT's article on US Drone Strike war, detailing President Obama's personal involvement in the "kill list"?  The Iranian propaganda machine is already revving up its engines, but is there going to be a more serious legal and moral reaction akin to the Bush Administration's war on terror interrogation and surveillance policies? To...

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23 May

So says the WSJ's account of today's hearing on US ratification of UNCLOS. I still haven't found the 193 minutes I would need to watch today's UNCLOS hearing, but it seems like there is still some Republican opposition (remember it only takes 34 votes to block the treaty). Wednesday's hearing demonstrated the continued skepticism among Republicans toward the treaty. Sen. Robert...

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13 May

Walter Olson at Cato has a sharp observation here at the Daily Caller, on the revolving door between U.S. international law professoriate and various UN bodies. Mr. Anaya, the U.N. rapporteur, was sent on his mission by none other than the U.N. Human Rights Council, notorious, as Doug Bandow has written, for being “dominated by human rights abusers and their enablers.” (Fidel...

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