In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

16 Apr

[Robert C. Bird is an Assistant Professor and Ackerman Scholar at the University of Connecticut School of Business; Peggy E. Chaudhry is an Associate Professor at Villanova University School of Business] Professor Robert Bird, Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut and Peggy Chaudhry, Associate Professor, Villanova University will discuss their Article, "Pharmaceuticals and the European Union: Managing Gray Markets in an Uncertain...

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16 Apr

Former DOS Legal Adviser (and a path-breaking guest blogger here at OJ when in that role a couple of years ago) John Bellinger has a short opinion column out at the CFR site, April 14, 2010 (corrected link, I hope!), discussing continuity and change in US detention policy on counterterrorism.  John takes up a range of issues, from trials to...

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15 Apr

Harold Koh's ASIL speech drew lots of attention for his defense of the legality of U.S. use of aerial drones.  But Koh also spent much of the speech explaining and defending the U.S. decision to reorient its relationship toward the International Criminal Court.   He noted U.S. attendance (as an observer) at the ICC Assembly of States Parties in November, and U.S....

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15 Apr

Today, U.S. News & World Report (USN&WR) officially released its 2011 rankings of American law schools.  This, in turn, led the legal blogosphere into its annual love-hate dance with the "overall" rankings--pouring over every move up or down the ladder, while simultaneously denouncing the ranking's methodology and utility.  Lest our readers feel left out, I thought I'd flag the "new" International Law rankings that...

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15 Apr

During the recent "nuclear summit" in Washington, Dutch prime minister Peter Balkenende proposed the creation of a new international tribunal to enforce and punish violations of nuclear non-proliferation agreements.  Putting aside the fact that this is a blatant effort to put another international court in his hometown (the Hague), I agree with Prof. Göran Sluiter that this is a dumb...

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15 Apr

Many thanks to Ingrid Wuerth for her thoughtful response to my Article. I agree with Ingrid that the importance of maintaining a uniform international standard in the interpretation of incorporative statutes may be especially salient in the context of treaties, like the Hague Rules, that address coordination problems.  I disagree, however, that the borrowed ...

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15 Apr

[Ingrid Wuerth is a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School] This Article by John Coyle focuses on U.S. statutes that incorporate treaties into domestic law. As John defines them, incorporative statutes may include implementing legislation for non-self executing treaties, statutes that facilitate the implementation of self-executing treaties, or congressional executive agreements; the key question is whether they give effect...

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15 Apr

[John F. Coyle is a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School] I want to thank Opinio Juris and the Virginia Journal of International Law for the opportunity to discuss my Article, “Incorporative Statutes and the Borrowed Treaty Rule.” I’d also like to express my gratitude to Professor Ingrid Wuerth of Vanderbilt Law School for providing a response to...

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15 Apr

Eric Posner has an editorial today in the Wall Street Journal today that uses the recent indictment of Judge Garzon in Spain as an opportunity to dust off the traditional far-right attack on the concept of universal jurisdiction and the existence of the ICC.  It's a remarkably misleading editorial, one that deserves a thorough response. Mr. Garzon wanted to prosecute Pinochet...

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14 Apr

Adam Serwer, a journalist and blogger at the American Prospect, makes this observation in a very interesting post (linked in Robert Wright’s NYT Opinionator column) at the American Prospect Tapped blog (via The Progressive Realist).  (My apologies for interrupting the symposium also; I'll take a backseat now!):
State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh’s speech to the American Society of International Law has mostly been read as a justification of the administration’s use of drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda targets. With the news that the Obama administration has targetedAmerican-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki for death, I went back to Koh’s explanation for why the drone strikes are legal. It seems to me that his arguments could possibly double as a justification of the government’s authority to kill al-Awlaki without due process.
Serwer then walks back through the text of Legal Adviser Koh’s speech, applying the language about drones to the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki.  He concludes that it could be seen as a justification for that as well.  I think that’s right, and a good observation.  
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14 Apr

Apologies for this interruption of a great VJIL discussion on Chris Bruner's fascinating article, but I can't resist yet another post on the continuing international dispute over whaling.  The NYT reports the U.S. is trying hard to broker a deal between the anti-whaling nations (read Australia) and whaling nations like Japan. The compromise deal, which has generated intense controversy within the...

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