The much-ballyhooed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 against North Korea continues to amount to pretty much nothing. This article , for instance, suggests that Japan is not sure that it has the legal authority under the U.N. Resolution to stop and inspect North Korean vessels suspected of carrying illicit weapons or materials. It is a bit murky, I have...
The U.N. General Assembly next week will likely vote to approve a resolution proposing an Arms Trade Treaty designed to regulate and limit the international trade in small arms. David Kopel of the Volokh Conspiracy has some very tough words for Control Arms, the leading NGO lobbying for the Arms Trade Treaty. But whether or not Control Arms is a...
The Office of Science and Technology Policy released last week the new "National Space Policy of the United States." According to the Washington Post, the new space policy, which supersedes a 1996 Clinton-era space policy, envisions a greater role for the military in outer space. Here are some of the new policy's fundamental principles, a number of which...
Although I can't seem to find a version online, the U.N. Security Council appears to have agreed unanimously on a new resolution imposing sanctions and an inspections regime on North Korea. According to the NYT, the tough new resolution "authorizes all countries to inspect cargo going in and out of North Korea to detect illicit weapons." As far as I...
Lost amidst the blizzard of legislation and memorandum (and congressional teenage sex scandals) is this presidential declaration of policy against "destructive fisheries practices." Bush has placed the administration behind an Australian-led effort at the U.N. General Assembly to ban "bottom fishing" via trawlers, thought to cause serious environmental damage (see the Wapo article here). The General Assembly is...
Don't worry, this post is not about President Bush's authority to exercise "unreviewable statutory authority" in the war on terrorism. Rather, it is about how President Bush does get to exercise "unreviewable statutory authority" in the administration of U.S. trade laws. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Motion Systems v. Bush, a case challenging President Bush's...
Professor Jide Nzelibe of Northwestern Law School and I have recently posted an article examining the effects of international criminal tribunals on the individuals most likely to be subject to prosecution. We argue that existing scholarship on international criminal tribunals has generally failed to offer a plausible theory of how such tribunals will deter humanitarian atrocities or any...
Opponents of the soon-to-be-passed Military Commissions Act establishing procedures for interrogating and trying alleged terrorists have charged that the bill would suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus. I think it would be serious thing to suspend the Writ and I am persuaded that my earlier analysis of Congress' power to suspend the Writ was incomplete and possibly wrong. But...
I want to thank David again for agreeing to join us here at Opinio Juris for the next couple of days to discuss his forthcoming article (written with Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith), "Sosa, Customary International Law, and the Relevance of Erie" (the "Article"). The Article demonstrates to me that Sosa has not ended the debate about CIL that Curt...
Nearly a decade ago, Professors Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith attacked the widely held “modern” position that customary international law is federal common law applicable by courts without the need for political branch authorization. This “revisionist” critique spurred extensive debate centered on four issues: (1) the historical status of CIL in the pre-Erie world of general common law,...
Opinio Juris is delighted to have Professor David Moore as the presenter in our first "online workshop" over the next few days. David, along co-authors Curtis Bradley and Jack Goldsmith, has written an important article in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Law Review assessing the status of customary international law in U.S. courts. This article will be...
The Bush-McCain Senate compromise was released late yesterday afternoon and already the blogosphere is busily analyzing it. Marty Lederman (of course) and blogosphere newcomer Bobby Chesney have already read, chewed, and largely digested the compromise agreement with respect to the Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3. A copy of that portion of the agreement can be found here thanks to...
