Senator Feinstein has withdrawn her bill that would amend the Alien Tort Statute. Her terse letter to Senator Specter states that while the legislation was designed to address concerns about the clarity of the existing statute in light of Sosa "I believe that the legislation in its present form calls for refinement in light of concerns raised by human rights...
Julian, regarding your last post, I take a different view of the Canadian softwood lumber cases. My perspective on whether the United States shall give effect to international tribunal decisions depends first and foremost on whether there is a federal mandate relevant to the question. Obviously our obligation to implement a decision of an ICSID arbitral panel is very different...
The proposed Feinstein Amendment to the Alien Tort Statute includes an interesting provision regarding presidential waivers of litigation. That provision would stipulate that “No court in the United States shall proceed in considering the merits of a claim under subsection (a) if the President, or a designee of the President, adequately certifies to the court in writing that such exercise...
“I love Yale…. [but] why bother giving to it? My resources are very far from limitless, so why not give where it makes a difference?” That is the question posed in a wonderful New York Times article on Sunday by Republican multi-millionaire entertainer Ben Stein to, among others, Democratic human rights advocate/scholar and Yale Law School Dean...
I just finished attending the International Law Association Conference in New York and one of the highlights was the insightful commentary on the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. I was particularly impressed by a new professor, Geoffrey Corn of South Texas Law School. Corn was a former Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of...
There has been much speculation in various academic circles as to why Senator Dianne Feinstein--a liberal Democrat representing a state that has been at the vanguard in applying Alien Tort Statute--would propose amendments to the law. Here is her own statement as to why she perceives a change to be necessary:“Many recent legal cases have demonstrated the need for clarification...
This story will no doubt heighten trans-Atlantic tensions. A Spanish judge has issued arrest warrants for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fire on a Baghdad hotel killed Jose Couso, a Spanish journalist. According to the report, the United States has undertaken three separate investigations to determine whether the GIs engaged in any unlawful conduct. In each case they were exonerated....
Michael Scharf argues that the trial of Saddam Hussein is the "mother of all trials." He makes this argument based on (1) the scale of atrocities; (2) the status of the accused; (3) the level of interest of the international community; (4) the legal precedent the trial will set; and (5) the effect of the trial.Personally, I have a hard...
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has praised the issuance of the ICC arrest warrants for top Ugandan LRA rebels. He noted that "the ICC only intends to prosecute those LRA senior leaders who are alleged to bear the greatest responsibility for the most serious crimes. He therefore urges all eligible LRA combatants to take advantage of existing disarmament and reintegration programmes."...
Ian Fishback's open letter to Senator John McCain cried out for clear rules on detainee interrogation. He wrote: "For 17 months, I tried to determine what specific standards governed the treatment of detainees by consulting my chain of command ...
October 16, 2002: "Iraqi officials say President Saddam Hussein has won 100% backing in a referendum on whether he should rule for another seven years. There were 11,445,638 eligible voters-and every one of them voted for the president, according to Izzat Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council." (Link) October 16, 2005: "I voted then, for Saddam,...
Hugo Grotius, the Founding Father of international law, wrote in On the Laws of War and Peace (1625) that "So far from any thing in the principles of nature being repugnant to war, every part of them indeed rather favours it. For the preservation of our lives and persons, which is the end of war … is most suitable to...
