In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

03 Oct

The Japanese Prime Minister made clear in remarks yesterday that he has no intention of proposing international arbitration to settle or mediate the ongoing Senkaku/Diaoyu Island dispute with China.  Indeed, China's government-controlled English language paper, noted the inconsistency of Japan's position given its willingness to send its similar dispute with South Korea to the ICJ. (A point I noted here). Noda...

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02 Oct

[Meir Feder heads up the appeals and issues practice at the New York office of Jones Day.] For anyone looking to yesterday’s oral argument to predict how the Court will resolve Kiobel—a dubious exercise in any event, as last Term’s health care case should remind us— yesterday’s argument was a mess. The Justices seemed skeptical of the positions of both parties (and,...

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02 Oct

As I suggested earlier, the President has ample legal authority to strike back at those responsible for the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. The NYT reports that the Pentagon is preparing to exercise this legal authority: The American military’s top-secret Joint Special Operations Command is preparing detailed information that could be used...

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02 Oct

I have very much enjoyed our guest commentary on the Kiobel extraterritoriality issue and can't resist adding my two cents.  In short, I am pretty dissatisfied with the arguments made by the petitioners, respondents and the United States government. I am not dissatisfied because the arguments are "wrong", but because none seem to offer a persuasive theory of the purpose of...

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02 Oct

Oral arguments were heard yesterday for the second time before the US Supreme Court in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum; the transcript can be found here. You can already read the preliminary thoughts from a few of our regulars Roger, Deborah and Peter, and as Julian mentioned, starting today, we will have a roundtable discussion from a variety of guest...

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01 Oct

I am still digesting the transcript of the Kiobel reargument today, although I can say that nothing in the argument today has changed my view that this brief (which both Ken and I signed) represents the best approach to resolving the case.  I will say, however,  that nothing in the argument suggested that any member of the Court is considering...

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01 Oct

The transcript in the Kiobel case has been posted here. Shell counsel/former Stanford dean Kathleen Sullivan seems to have been on her heels for much of her argument time. Big sticking point on her claim that the ATS was not intended to cover piracy or a "reverse Marbois." (No, that is not a wrestling move; it's the counterfactual in which the...

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01 Oct

For those watching for signs of how oral arguments went in the U.S. Supreme Court in Kiobel this morning, early consensus seems to be that while a majority of the justices were plainly concerned by a reading of the universal jurisdiction statute that would give the courts the power to hear cases with no substantial connection to the United States,...

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