As most people probably know, Duke's Guy-Uriel Charles wrote a devastating blog post criticizing the lack of diversity in Harvard Law School hiring while Elena Kagan was Dean. (Short version: 28 of 29 were white, one was asian; 23 of the 29 were men.) The White House has now pushed back against the post by releasing what strikes me as...
Michael Kearney at the University of York has written a long and interesting response to Julian's post, which I have posted below to make sure people see it. I'm far from expert about the law of statehood, so I'm reluctant to comment on the international-law debate. I continue to believe, though, that accepting the Palestinian declaration would be disastrous for...
Joe Lieberman has just rolled out a bill (text here) which would strip individuals associated with foreign terrorist groups of their US citizenship. He's been playing this as if it were a minor statutory fix. It's true, as he's been stressing, that current law terminates citizenship for "entering, or serving in, the armed forces of a foreign state if (a) ...
Last year, the Palestinian National Authority filed a declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. This declaration is controversial, to say the least, because it could potentially give the ICC jurisdiction over Israeli military forces operating in Gaza or the West Bank. Today, the ICC released a summary of the submissions it has received on whether the Palestinian's...
My colleague Marc DeGirolami has a guest post over at PrawfsBlawg reacting to an op-ed in today's New York Times by Jean-François Copé, the the majority leader of the French National Assembly, in which Copé defends banning the burqa and the niqab. While Marc sees that the argument that the burqa runs counter to Western culture "is not without considerable force"...
What's the only modern international or internationalized criminal tribunal that either has or had universal jurisdiction? Answer: The Special Panels in East Timor....
I hadn't been aware of this group, Human Rights at Home, which is seeking to "create a national political culture that supports and advocates for human rights." In fact, they have some interesting ideas of how to reform U.S. legal infrastructure to implement U.S. international human rights obligations. revitalizing an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights to coordinate the efforts of the...
Kudos to Northwestern's Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth for a wonderful conference on ATS litigation last week. The papers by David Scheffer & Caroline Kaeb, John McGinnis & Ilya Somin, Jide Nzelibe, Michael Barsa & David Dana, Anthea Roberts, and Eugene Kontorovich were all outstanding. There are many topics worthy of retelling, but I wanted...
Julian entitled a post last week "The ICC Begins to Fade in Importance in Sudan." Julian might want to have a talk with Bashir about that: On the international summit circuit, no one can clear a room more quickly than Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Leaders have maneuvered to stay out of photographs with him, dashed ...
Professor David Bosco has started a new blog focusing on international organizations, "Eye on IOs." I like his subtitle -- "A blog on the progress and pitfalls of international organizations." It reminds me of a chapter I wrote addressing "progress and paradox" in international security cooperation. (It is nice to have company as a moderate on questions of international institution...
My Volokh Co-Conspirator John Elwood notes the reference to foreign courts, if not precisely law, in Justice Breyer's comment on closing the SCOTUS main front door to visitors....
