Ben Wittes, long an advocate for clearer domestic legislation authorizing U.S. detention operations, writes to ask whether my recent post favoring the Senate’s over the House’s version of pending legislation signals a shift in my position opposing new such legislation. The short answer is no. Here’s why. I’d praised the Senate’s draft of force authorization language as follows: “Where...
Humberto Leal is scheduled for execution in Texas on July 7th. A Mexican national, Leal was not notified of his right to consular assistance under the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations. In light of the International Court of Justice's decision in the Avena case (Mexico v. U.S.), Congress is currently working on legislation to bring the U.S. into compliance with its international...
The past week has seen various developments in Congress’ efforts to consider legislation regulating the detention of ‘unprivileged enemy belligerents’ at Guantanamo and beyond. Most notable, the Senate finally released the language of its version of the defense authorization bill, and it includes a number of provisions that parallel those passed by the House of Representatives back in May....
So now we have the Administration's full-dress treatment of its take on "hostilities" under the War Powers Resolution, with Harold Koh's testimony yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I think it sets out a good case, well worth a close read. I actually think it's good enough that it might have carried the day. Congress after all has acquiesced to...
Just a quick note for folks following the Congressional wrangling over U.S. military activity in Libya and the War Powers Resolution: later this morning, Opinio Juris' own Peter Spiro will be testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. U.S. State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh is also set to testify and, presumably, defend the Administration's position. Louis Fisher of the...
I am delighted to announce the publication of my book "The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law." The book can be ordered from Oxford University Press here; Amazon should have it (at a whopping $8.78 discount) in the next few days. Here for the last time is the cover: Once again, I want to thank...
Earlier today, the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) held in U.S. v. Hamdan that material support for terrorism is a war crime and thus within the jurisdiction of the military commissions. The decision represents the apotheosis of the US's utterly self-referential approach to international law, because the CMCR managed to reach that conclusion without citing a single non-American...
More than a decade ago, the U.S. Defense Department's Office of General Counsel (DoD OGC) released a detailed analysis of the way international law would operate to guide U.S. military activity in cyberspace. It was an impressive effort and is still worth reading today despite all the intervening, and dramatic, changes in the technology and the geopolitical landscape. At the...
My future Notre Dame colleague Mary Ellen O'Connell joins the fray criticizing Harold Koh's crabbed definition of hostilities. Here's a taste: Harold Koh, legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, attempted to convince Congress on June 15 that the "limited nature" of U.S. military operations in Libya are not "hostilities" as envisioned in the War Powers Resolution, and, therefore,...
The controversy over the Administration's interpretation of the War Powers Resolution has some people conflating that issue with the broader one of when the President can use force without congressional authorization. This isn't surprising, since the Administration has used a similar tack in both contexts. With respect to the War Powers Resolution, the Administration claims the Libya operation does not constitute...
If you had been thinking about submitting a paper or a panel proposal for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law but had missed the deadline, despair not! The deadline has been extended to this Friday, June 24th. The webpage for submissions is here. And, in case you hadn't seen it already, this is the theme statement...
Apologies for the light blogging the past couple of weeks -- although the upside is that I am now officially Dr. Heller, having successfully defended my dissertation at Leiden University in the Netherlands a few days ago. It was an amazing (and amazingly formal) experience, and I'll blog about it once I get the official photos from the university. I've been...
