In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

26 Jun

Frequent Opinio Juris commentor Patrick O'Donnell has an informative post at Ratio Juris about shari'ah and jurisprudence in Islam. It begins: Having recently introduced the subjects of constitutionalism and democracy vis-à-vis Islam, I thought it would help to say a few basic things about Sharī‘ah and fiqh, in particular as they have bearing upon our concerns about human rights and democracy, concerns of...

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25 Jun

Eric Posner is putting up two posts on the Koh debates, over at Volokh Conspiracy (first one is here, second is linked to it).  I'll be lite-blogging the next little bit, as I have board meetings for a nonprofit private equity fund for the next few days in Europe.  I want to start discussing more finance and development finance topics...

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24 Jun

Foreign Policy.com reports: "Cloture passed on a 65-31 vote," a Congressional source relays at 11:30am. "There was applause in the Senate gallery after the vote was announced. Republicans are threatening to exercise their right to use all 30 hours of floor debate before permitting a final vote, so Koh may not be formally confirmed until tomorrow." See also IntLawGrrls.  Yesterday, by the...

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24 Jun

I have remained largely silent on Harold Koh's confirmation battle, which is probably about the end this week with a vote in the Senate.  I assume that Koh will be confirmed (because I don't think the Senate Democrats would hold a vote if they didn't have the votes).  And part of me is glad because, as many of this blog's...

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23 Jun

Former Bush Sudan envoy and USAID chief Andrew Natsios has a clearheaded, wise, and knowledgeable op-ed today on the prospects for peace in Sudan.  He makes a couple of points that lawyers who only think of Sudan as a proving ground for the ICC should keep in mind: 1) Sudan is a tragedy, but it is probably not an ongoing genocide: First,...

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23 Jun

[ Laura Dickinson is the Foundation Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University.] After three months of unwarranted delay, the cloture vote on State Department Legal Adviser nominee Dean Harold Hongju Koh is finally scheduled for tomorrow. (See Chris Borgen's post, here.) Predictably, critics on the right are gearing up with robocalls and email campaigns aimed at...

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22 Jun

Legend has it that the Danes undermined German efforts to persecute Jews in Denmark by acting in solidarity with them by wearing the yellow star. (And yes I know the story is apocryphal). We can't exactly do the same thing today for Iranians, but one small act of solidarity we can do is make it easier for Iranians to...

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