Bobby Chesney, Jack Goldsmith, and Ben Wittes have started a new blog, Lawfare: Hard National Security Choices. Here's how Ben Wittes describes it in the opening post: We mean to devote this blog to that nebulous zone in which actions taken or contemplated to protect the nation interact with the nation’s laws and legal institutions. We will, I am sure, construe...
The movement for a global currency tax gains momentum. PARIS, Sept 1 (Reuters) - A group of 60 nations, including France, Britain and Japan, will propose at the U.N. this month that a tax be introduced on international currency transactions to raise funds for development aid, ministers said on Wednesday. Speaking after a meeting in Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said...
Could anyone point me to a link giving a basic, plain language discussion of the difference between forum and jurisdiction in American law? Something that I could use with a group of non-US lawyers - clear, not too long, basic distinctions? Thanks....
Over at Volokh Conspiracy, I have some purely political comments - ie, criticism from a conservative stance - of President Obama's speech last night. I'm not cross-posting it here because it doesn't really have a link to international law as such, but perhaps some readers might be interested....
Last spring I spoke at a Pepperdine torts conference addressing the globalization of tort law. Lots of famous torts scholars in the room, including my former classmate at NYU, Harvard Professor Jonathan Goldberg. I was the only international law guy in the crowd, which actually worked to my advantage given the topic. I chose for my topic...
Our friends at the University of Goettingen in Germany have recently published another issue of the Goettingen Journal of International Law. The latest issue contains lots of great stuff, including a series of articles focused on the recently concluded ICC Review Conference in Kampala (Talk about fast work!). GoJIL, which is structured similarly to a U.S. law review, is still a new experiment...
Via Jon Adler at Volokh, I note that the D.C. Circuit issued a fascinating series of opinions today on the effect of international law on the President's execution of his warmaking powers. As Steve Vladeck at Balkinization notes, the actual DC Circuit decision was simply a denial of a rehearing en banc of a panel's earlier decision to reject a...
Professor Pasha Hsieh of Singapore Management University School of Law has asked us to alert our readers about the following call for papers for the 2011 International Law Association Asia-Pacific Regional Conference scheduled for May 29-June 1, 2011 Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. The Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law is pleased to hold the International Law Association (ILA) Asia-Pacific Regional Conference...
The Washington Post is reporting that a State Department contractor has been charged with leaking defense information to Fox News: A State Department contractor was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury in the District, becoming the latest target of a series of investigations into unauthorized government leaks to news organizations under the Obama administration. Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, 43,...
I'm a little late (in blogospheric time) to comment on the ACLU/CCR lawsuit today challenging the legality of the Obama Administration's policy on targeted killings of U.S. citizens. (Hat Tip WSJ Law Blog) Here is the complaint. It's is not surprising. As I noted before, the ACLU has been making noises about this lawsuit for several months. And, at least...
Brad Roth has sent along a link to this New York Times editorial, which begins: If a country sinks beneath the sea, is it still a country? That is a question about which the Republic of the Marshall Islands — a Micronesian nation of 29 low-lying coral atolls — is now seeking expert legal advice. It is also a question the...
I don't want to get into a pointless back and forth with Kevin on the significance of Bashir's visit to Kenya. I don't think the details of his visit change my views much. It still seems much more like a slap in the face than a sign of the ICC's power. But I think we can agree to disagree on...
