If you read Larry Solum's thoughtful post on the importance of blogging, you understand why young legal academics are embracing the medium. Among other things, Solum suggests that blogs provide a new method for legal research. "Ask anyone under 25 how they do research. Frankly, I'd be surprised if there were more than a tiny fraction of frank answers that...
Geoffrey Corn is signing off as a guest blogger today and we at Opinio Juris are very grateful for his posts. He has excelled at providing deep insight on numerous matters pertaining to the laws of war. As a new second-career law professor we welcome you to the club and look forward to reading your articles. Thanks Geoffrey!...
The announcement that Oprah Winfrey has selected Elie Wiesel's Night as its book of the month has catapulted it to Amazon's number one bestseller. I am thrilled that Oprah Winfrey has chosen this book, which was one of the most significant literary experiences of my young adulthood.According to this article in the New York Times, "Winfrey said she plans to...
Today the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. I studied Martin Luther King extensively prior to law school and have always admired him greatly. One of the most important legal questions King raised in his struggle for civil rights was the appropriate means to secure just ends. In particular, King was more than willing to defy laws if he deemed...
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for an international conference on the Holocaust. A Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "Iran's Foreign Ministry has decided to hold a conference on the Holocaust to assess its scale by scientific means and discuss its consequences." The event will be sponsored by Iran and the Organization of the Islamic Conference "in consultation with other...
On the final day of the Alito hearings, Julian Ku's colleague Professor Nora Demleitner at Hofstra School of Law testified on Judge Alito's immigration record. Demleitner was a clerk for Judge Alito and part of her testimony focused on one aspect of his immigration jurisprudence that has been ignored in my previous posts: gender as a basis for asylum law.Here...
Yesterday was not a stellar day for the law blog community. Here is what some of the most popular law blogs on the Internet were discussing: Volokh Conspiracy had a post that compared Ted Kennedy to Joseph McCarthy, Concurring Opinions had a post that had no less than 20 references to Jennifer Aniston nude, Professor Bainbridge had a post about...
Thus far, Judge Alito's testimony has not touched on immigration in any significant manner. But here is one exchange between Senator Coburn that addresses the issue of immigrants who appear before Judge Alito: COBURN: ...
Following up on Peggy's post from yesterday and her earlier post today, Judge Alito was more explicit today in his rejection of the use of foreign and international law to interpret the Bill of Rights. Key quote: "I think the framers would be stunned by the idea that the Bill of Rights is to be interpreted by taking a poll...
Peggy has already posted on one of the most important international law aspects of the Alito hearings today. But there was also some very useful discussion of executive authority under the Jackson trilogy of Youngstown. Here is an exchange between Senator Leahy and Alito that addresses torture and presidential authority: "LEAHY: Now, three years ago, the...
There is great commentary today at Prawfsblawg, Concurring Opinions, and Tax Prof Blog on the topic of law blogging. In light of that discussion, I thought it might be interesting to know what are the most popular law blogs based on traffic reports available here.I am excluding blogs by law professors that are not true law blogs (e.g., Instapundit (#4),...
Earlier I posted on Microsoft's major ethical lapse of aiding and abetting the infringement of basic civil liberties in China. Most recently, as reported in the New York Times, without warning Microsoft shut down a blog for reporting breaking news without commentary regarding the firing of an editor at Beijing News.Microsoft's response is that "As a multi-national business, Microsoft operates...
