Now that the supporters of a no-fly zone over Libya have got the legal authority they required -- both international and domestic (I agree with Peter that the president does not need additional congressional authority to vote for and contribute to a UN SC action) -- what comes next? Despite herculean efforts by the punditry to analogize the situation in...
Kal Raustiala asked that we post the following. Sounds like an excellent initiative on ASIL's part. Call for Scholarly Papers The Inaugural ASIL Research Forum November 4-5, 2011 The American Society of International Law calls for submissions of scholarly paper proposals for the inaugural ASIL Research Forum to be held at UCLA Law School on November 4-5, 2011. The Research Forum is a new initiative...
Bruce Ackerman and Oona Hathaway say yes; Jack Goldsmith, no. I'm with Jack on this one. Especially as authorized by the UN Security Council, there's solid precedent for proceeding without an advance congressional okay. As Jack points out, Kosovo is probably the closest analogy in terms of the scope of the operation (a case in which authorizing legislation was voted...
The following is a guest post by Natalie Oman, an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada. As the Libyan rebels' requests for an internationally-enforced no-fly zone have multiplied and regional support has coalesced among the Arab League, the GCC and some members of the African Union, public hand-wringing over the lack of...
As of March 19, 220 academics have signed the letter. (You can read the full list here.) Well done, colleagues! Bruce Ackerman (Yale) and Yochai Benkler (Harvard) are circulating the following letter protesting the inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention and asking for law professor support. I have already signed, as have 103 other scholars. I encourage our academic readers to...
Alas, I won't be at ASIL this year, and apologies to everyone, as I will miss seeing folks. But I did want to flag particularly the meeting that Kevin mentioned in his post, taking place on March 23, co-sponsored by my law school, Washington College of Law and ASIL's Lieber Society, on emerging issues in the law of armed conflict. It...
Now that it appears to have been resolved with the payment of "blood money" to the families of those killed by Davis, there may be some lessons here. First, the compensation element poses an interesting precedent. Though presumably ex gratia and at least nominally made by Davis in his personal capacity, payment makes victims whole while avoiding the risk of politically...
Here it is: My thanks to all of our readers who provided me feedback on earlier covers. Note that the dust jacket now provides a short description of Ben Shahn and the painting; particular thanks to readers who suggested the description! I hope you can read the text on your screen....
I don't get to the East Coast of the U.S. very often these days, so I thought I'd mention that I will be in Boston and DC next week, in case any Opinio Juris readers want to meet up. I will be giving a lecture on the Karadzic trial (with a bit of discussion afterward about the ICC and Libya)...
A class action complaint filed this week by Guatemalans has all the ingredients for a blockbuster case not unlike the syphilis experiments of Tuskegee, Alabama. Regardless of the outcome of the case, it is a public relations nightmare for the United States. As the complaint alleges, "It has been revealed that despite ...
There has been a good deal of discussion both here between Kevin Heller and Cully Stimson and over at Lawfare by Jack Goldsmith, Gabor Rona and John Bellinger on the impact of the Administration's declaration on Additional Protocol I and it's possible effect on hearsay admissions in military commission hearings. While I agree with Jack and Kevin that it should not...
This from Gianluca Parolin in EUI's excellent EU Democracy Observatory on Citizenship on proposed changes to Egypt's constitution regarding presidential eligibility: The current text (albeit suspended) requires the candidate to be an Egyptian citizen born of Egyptian parents. The proposed text further requires the candidate and his (sic!) parents never to have acquired a foreign citizenship (thereby excluding...
