Recent Posts

We want to begin our closing post by thanking everyone who has participated in the symposium on our article this week. We also wish to thank our lead editor at the Yale Law Journal, Philip Levitz, who help arrange this symposium (as well as a forthcoming symposium at Yale Law Journal Online) and who has been truly outstanding in...

Suzanne Nossel, who was until recently a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations and is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow for Global Governance at the Council of Foreign Relations, has been named the new Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. (I should note that Suzanne is an old friend.)  Here's part of what the Amnesty press release said: Most...

Here is a nice example of how international organizations and international lawyers can conspire to make international law seem ridiculous. Bus and subway workers had a right to strike in 2005 and their leader was wrongly jailed, a United Nations agency has found. The International Labor Organization said the state’s Taylor Law, which makes it illegal for public workers in New York...

Professor Sean Murphy of GW Law has been elected to the ILC. The press release from GW begins: Today, Professor Sean Murphy was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to the International Law Commission (ILC). The Commission consists of 34 distinguished legal scholars, practitioners, and government officials from around the world who are elected to serve for five-year terms. Created...

[Note from ed.: This is the final commentary on Kevin Heller's book,The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law. Earlier commentaries can be found under the "related posts" link below and at the companion discussion of the book at EJIL: Talk!] Jurists, legal scholars and historians – groups that often find much to disagree about – appear unified...

According to AFP, the ICTY has issued an "arrest warrant" for Florence Hartmann for failing to pay the fine she received for her 2009 contempt conviction: The UN Yugoslav war crimes court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday against a former spokeswoman for the tribunal's chief prosecutor for refusing to pay a 7,000-euro ($10,000) fine. Florence Hartmann, a French national, was...

We want to thank the participants in the symposium once again for their fantastic comments on our article. We have really enjoyed watching the discussion unfold. Here we offer a few words in response. In his post, Peter Spiro suggests that we are operating from a “sovereigntist premise.” If what Peter means by this is that we...

Outcasting is an important contribution to international legal theory and an engaging read.  But I wonder if the theory isn't limited by its assumption that sovereignty continues to be foundational to international law.  The article closes with this: It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of state sovereignty in international law. The international legal system is both created by and creates...

Profs. Hathaway and Shapiro’s article, “Outcasting: Enforcement in Domestic and International Law,” is a very provocative and original piece of scholarship. Outcasting as a central mode international law enforcement has not received such a sustained and systematic study as they have. I am delighted to add a few thoughts to this discussion with thanks to Prof. Hollis for the opportunity. As...

I read Scott's and Oona's article Outcasting with great pleasure.  It is a wonderful contribution to the burgeoning literature on legal pluralism and non-state governance.  In particular, the article contests two propositions that have undermined recognition of various forms of non-state law: first, that law must be enforced by the legal regime itself; and second, that law must be enforced through...

We want to thank Gary and Samantha for offering such interesting insights.  We will not be able to do them justice, but let us at least offer a few brief words in response. In his latest post, Gary calls on us to say more about when outcasting will be effective at changing state behavior, calling for both process tracing and empirical...