Peter may be amused that there is now a "Sovereignty Caucus" in the U.S. Congress. Not surprisingly, their first target is the Koh nomination. Maybe sovereigntism is quite dead....
Here is an interesting but ultimately futile act: Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo on Thursday decided to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice against the Israeli occupation government for its drive to Judaize Jerusalem. A diplomatic source at the Arab League said that the ministers had three issues on their agenda; dangers engulfing Jerusalem, discussion of the...
Yes it has! At least according to Andrew McCarthy, who argues in this National Review article that the Obama administration's brief in a case seeking to uphold its decision to deport Demjanjuk adopted the same narrow interpretation of the U.S. torture statute's requirement of specific intent as the much-vilified Bybee/Yoo memos. ...
So I'm not exactly surprised that Obama is planning to revive the use of military commissions to try terror suspects, (according to the NYT). The Obama administration is moving toward reviving the military commission system for prosecuting Guantánamo detainees, which was a target of critics during the Bush administration, including Mr. Obama himself. No doubt there will be some amendment to the Bush commissions,...
Is that even possible these days? It seems not, but the Federalist Society is sure doing a nice job in lining up Andrew McCarthy, Scott Horton, Douglas Kmiec, David Luban, Bart DePalma and Steve Vladeck to debate the recent release of the CIA interrogation memos and their content. No one has yet denounced the other in ad hominem attacks and there...
Maybe. In any event, Harold Koh's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be webcast live starting around 2:15 (thanks to Mark Shulman for the tip). I predict a very boring hearing where nothing of substance will be asked, and nothing of substance will be offered as an answer either. This should work to Koh's benefit, of course. Boring...
Harold Koh, who is moderating the last Reisman panel on human rights, asks the panel about the legal status of human rights committees like the CEDAW committee, obliquely referring to a controversy over the legal status of such committees' interpretive authority. Hmm...
I, along with an impressive group of legal scholars from around the world, have gathered in New Haven to celebrate the career and scholarship of Yale Law Professor W. Michael Reisman. So, a wonderful opportunity to blog! But I forgot to bring my laptop, so all I have is my lousy iPhone. Still, I will try to share a few...
The WSJ Editorial Page takes UN Ambassador Susan Rice to task for claiming that the recent UN Security Council "presidential statement" is legally binding on North Korea. Here is Rice's full statement on this point, I believe. Reporter: Ambassador, there seems to be some debate as to whether there’s any legally binding items in this presidential statement. We talked to one...
Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith have a new op-ed taking aim at the latest decision in the ongoing Alien Tort Statute case involving U.S. corporations who did business during South Africa apartheid era. In fact, they take issue with the whole wave of ATS litigation attempting to hold corporations liable under aiding and abetting liability, using the South Africa case...
In the comments section of an earlier post, GW lawprof Edward Swaine raises a really good point in defense of Koh's CEDAW testimony. Since I highlighted Whelan's very tough post, it is worth highlighting Swaine's very good point in defense (I am paraphrasing, but this is the gist): In the context of a committee hearing where other folks, including Senator Boxer,...
Ed Whelan's latest post on Koh's nomination to be Legal Advisor lands a sharp and potentially serious blow. Reviewing Koh's writings and his testimony to the Senate in favor of Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Whelan argues that Koh's testimony deliberately omitted discussion of important interpretations of CEDAW by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: The...
