I have to admit I really don't know for sure, but this WSJ op-ed makes me think this issue is likely to be an important one as the crisis over Iran's compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty comes to a head. According to the author, the U.S./E.U. concession that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear technology is both wrong as...
The essential irrelevance of the United Nations to global economic policy was nicely illustrated this week by President Obama's trip from New York to Pittsburgh, site of the G-20 summit. Potentially important, even momentous decisions, on economic and financial policy were discussed and maybe even decided there, while the U.N. General Assembly meetings showcased its usual mix of wacky heads...
The Washington Post has a blistering editorial on the Obama Administration's quiet decision last week not to seek legislative authorization for the preventive detention for terrorist suspects. It is the, the Post declares, a "politically expedient and intellectually dishonest route." Like President George W. Bush, President Obama now asserts that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force gives him...
Ed Whelan notes (in his typically colorful way) that State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh has been implementing one of President Obama's signing statements with respect to meeting with designated state sponsors of terrorism at U.N. meetings. A federal law passed by Congress and signed by Obama prohibits such meetings, but Obama issued a signing statement saying the provision on...
I've only been vaguely aware of the ongoing battle between Chevron and Ecuador. Ecuador courts are currently entertaining an enormous lawsuit against Chevron, but Chevron has really taken the offensive by releasing videos suggesting that the Ecuadorian judge has been accepting bribes. And in its latest salvo, Chevron has filed an investor-state claim under the United States- Ecuador Bilateral Investment...
I know you have all missed my blogging about international trade law. So now that I'm back (at least for a while), let me highlight a neat legal issue raised by China in its appeal of a recent WTO decision against its restrictions on foreign media. According to this WSJ report, China has raised the "public morals" defense contained in...
University of Pennsylvania law professor Paul Robinson had a stinging, but somewhat confusing critique of the international law governing the use of force in yesterday's WSJ. Last week the United Nations issued a report painting the Israelis as major violators of international law in the three-week Gaza war that began in December 2008. While many find the conclusion a bit unsettling or...
I break my self-imposed blog exile to shamelessly promote an event we are hosting at Hofstra this Friday: the first ever all day teaching workshop devoted solely to teaching international law. The event is sponsored by the American Society of International Law and the American Branch of the International Law Association with the support of Hofstra. (OK, I don't actually know...
My current take on Sotomayor testimony is that there is an odd discontinuity between her public speeches and articles on the one hand, and her testimony yesterday, and, to some greater degree, her record as a judge on the other. One interesting example is that old chestnut: Should a U.S. judge use international or foreign law to interpret the...
ABC reports that President Obama is considering the temporary use of executive agreements to create a news arms control treaty with Russia this winter. MOSCOW -- With the clock running out on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday said that the difficulty...
Was I unfair in calling Barack Obama "hypocritical" in issuing his (otherwise sensible and constitutional) signing statements last week? Hypocrisy is a strong charge. On the other hand, Obama explicitly denounced the "theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he is going along" by using signing statements and then flatly promised not to use any such statements...
The ICC's case in support of the genocide charge is taking a beating, as this Washington Post article details. The problem might be Moreno-Ocampo's erratic leadership, or it could be the ICC as a whole has too many brilliant ambitious lawyers with not nearly enough to do. So they are quietly undermining Moreno-Ocampo by resigning or by writing articles critical...
