The Harvard Law Review Supreme Court Review is just out and there is a good summary of Massachusetts v. EPA available here. They argue that the case signals further movement away from Chevron deference and the presidential control model. Massachusetts v. EPA is certainly significant because the Court entered the public debate on global warming and because the...
Brian Leiter has just published his ranking of the Most Cited Law Professors by Specialty, 2000-2007. There are many interesting reflections one could draw from this list, but one that I find particularly important is what I will call the Monopoly Board of Citation Rankings. If you're in the "wrong" neighborhood, a citation value of 250 is phenomenal....
The wedding of Ghollam Nikbin was cause for joyous celebration. Nikbin was nervous about the religious police in Iran and therefore suggested that they marry in Cyprus. But his future wife's family insisted that the ceremony take place in Iran. Consistent with Islamic rules, there were two separate sites for the men and women at the wedding....
Great story about the King of Spain Juan Carlos telling Hugo Chavez, "Why don't you shut up?" I wouldn't normally sympathize with such diplomatic indiscretions, but given Chavez's history and personality I'll make an exception. Details about the story are here and a good description of the context of the exchange is available here. Variations are now circulating throughout...
Beginning today the Federalist Society is holding its 25th annual meeting. Details about the program are available here. The theme this year is American Exceptionalism. Almost 40 percent of the panels highlight some aspect of international relations, and there appears to be some ideological balance on each panel. If any of our readers happen to be...
The Ninth Circuit last month rendered a controversial decision interpreting the Convention Against Torture. In Ahmed v. Keisler, the court ruled on whether Ahmed should be deported to Bangladesh based on whether it was more likely than not that he would be tortured if removed to Bangladesh. (The panel consisted of Judge Pregerson, a Carter appointee, Judge Rawlinson,...
Which nation has the top brand name? It seems strange to think of the branding of nations, but upon reflection we do it all the time. When we think of a country like Australia, Iran, Switzerland or Sudan we associate certain positive or negative qualities to each nation. A recent study reveals that the nations with...
I recently reviewed the proposed student edits of a forthcoming article in the Notre Dame Law Review. They are doing an outstanding job, but I have one small quibble. In the process of editing, the student editors asked me for a copy of three documents that I had on file and that were cited in the article as...
This past weekend was the second annual Empirical Legal Studies Conference at NYU. I had a colleague attend and he said it was an outstanding conference. Plenty of empirical research on courts, corporations, criminal law, bankruptcy, intellectual property, torts, securities, etc. But if you looked on the program for something on international law, you would come up...
Yesterday I attended a wonderful conference on religious asylum. I was particularly impressed by the work of one of the speakers, Paul Marshall. He offered a tremendously impressive survey of religious oppression throughout the world. The bottom line is religious freedom is strongest in countries with majority Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist populations and the weakest in countries with majority...
Steve Bainbridge has an interesting post suggesting that Professor Mary Ann Glendon's nomination to the Holy See raises a conflict of interest: Now let’s be clear about something. I am a great admirer of Prof. Glendon. I had to good fortune to meet her back in 2000 and she was delightful. She’s also a brilliant scholar and a very significant public...
The Pew Research Center has just published a wonderful survey on rising contentment in the developing world. According to the survey those surveyed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are more satisfied with the state of the nation than those surveyed in Europe and the United States. "Throughout much of the world, rising incomes are improving national conditions...
