Considering Sonia Sotomayor's testimony last week from an international law perspective, much seems to have been made about her April speech to the Puerto Rican Chapter of the ACLU. In that speech, she did opine that "ideas have no boundaries," and that "international law and foreign law will be very important in the discussion of how to think about...
My thanks to Deb for her post on the Preliminary Report. I won't rehash what she said; I just wanted to offer a few thoughts on the military commissions and the detention policy. First, I think it is interesting that the Obama administration seems to be conceding that "material support for terrorism" is not a violation of the laws of...
It has been a fascinating two weeks blogging here, and I certainly learned a lot. Some outstanding questions I haven't answered, but unfortunately tomorrow I must turn from these duties to more tedious legal tasks -- jury duty. Thank you the OpinioJurists for having me....
Lite-blogging Ken notes the front page WSJ story today, "Swiss Banks Freeze Out US Clients," July 21, 2009. The freeze-out is a response to UBS and its fight with the IRS, which wants information on US taxpayers (not necessarily just citizens). I have two questions, neither of which I will try to answer: First, what is the competitive advantage of a...
As Ken noted, it was my birthday when I started my blogging stint here, and as I wind down my stint here, I''ll observe another birthday. In a few weeks it will be the first anniversary of the Russo-Georgian war, which saw Russia conquere Georgian territory and cement its control on those parts of Georgia it already occupied. I trust...
British Justice Secretary Jack Straw recently proposed amending the United Kingdom's International Criminal Court Act of 2001 (which permits universal jurisdiction prosecution of atrocity crimes) to allow authorities to file cases for atrocities committed as far back as January 1, 1991. This would close a loophole that has been giving safe haven to génocidaires who enter the UK after...
Cross-posted at Balkinization UPDATE: The task force's interim report is here. A related protocol on how cases to be prosecuted will be handled is here. Thanks SCOTUSblog. Among the many stories out today about the Administration’s decision to postpone the final reports of its task forces on detention and interrogation policy, Isikoff’s in Newsweek and Gerstein’s in Politico seem to...
David Bernstein has another snide post about Human Rights Watch today, this time concerning a presentation Sarah Leah Whitson gave about the Middle East at a panel discussion. I won't bother debating Bernstein's characterization of the presentation; you can watch it here. I'm more interested in the ease with which Bernstein disposes of the extremely complicated international-law issues raised by...
I want to thank Opinio Juris for having me over the next couple of weeks as a guest-blogger. I noticed that Eugene Kontorovich's thought-provoking posts last week dealt primarily with the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. My posts to start will not be that focused. If I had to discern one overarching theme for...
Readers may have noticed we didn't have much to say about last week's ICJ judgment in Costa Rica v. Nicaragua, which involved disputed water rights in the San Juan river (the full judgment is here; for those interested in a short version, the ICJ Registry's summary is here). Well, Marko Milanovic of EJIL: Talk! (and a former OJ guest blogger)...
We extend a warm welcome to Professor Greg Gordon of the University of North Dakota Law School, who will be guest blogging with us over the next two weeks. Professor Gordon specializes in international criminal law, and brings a wealth of actual experience as a war crimes prosecutor at the ICTR and the U.S. Department of Justice to his...
