There's an important roundtable in the May/June issue of Boston Review on the subject. (Who else finds Boston Review to be more interesting than the New York Review of Books these days?) It includes a lead-off piece making the case by University of Toronto political theorist Joseph Carens, with responses from Alex Aleinikoff, Linda Bosniak, Gerry Neuman, Peter Schuck, and...
I am not actually going to try and answer that question, but leave it to you. However, I did not want to let the occasion go by without marking it. The day it happened in 1989, I was actually at a human rights retreat organized by Henry Steiner and Philip Alston, a remarkable private meeting of human rights organizations, from...
Last month, the Obama Administration informed the Senate of its treaty priorities via a letter from the State Department (you can access it here). The letter lists 17 treaties for which the Administration seeks Senate advice and consent "at this time," including (as predicted here and here) CTBT, CEDAW, and UNCLOS. It also lists 12 treaties "on which...
I'm on the fly, but quickly wanted to post this update to my earlier posts on targeted killings and Predator strikes. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial execution, Philip Alston, has called for an investigation into US Predator drone attacks. Here is a quick news story on it. I think the press account somewhat overstates matters - I would characterize...
Former guest blogger, Elizabeth Cassidy, passes along the following fellowship announcement from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). This is a one-year funded fellowship, perfect for those who research religious freedom under international law and who might, in the future, be looking to join the academy: USCIRF Announces 2009 Crapa Fellowship Program WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on...
Via Larry Solum and the indispensable Legal Theory Blog, I draw your attention to this sure-to-be controversial and provocative new article by Michael Stokes Paulsen, The Constitutional Power to Interpret International Law (Yale Law Journal 2009). Here is the SSRN abstract: What is the force of international law as a matter of U.S. law: 'Who determines that force' This Essay maintains...
This post was written by Gabriel Swain, a Research Associate at the University of Kent's School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research. I think the project's reports will be of great interest to our readers. Since its birth in the 1950s, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has functioned, through implementation of the rights guaranteed by the European Convention...
Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s student note in the 1979 Yale Law Journal is a piece of work. It makes an extravagant case for Puerto Rican statehood based on terms of accession that are more favorable to Puerto Rico than any other state in the Union. Her proposal is a sort of affirmative action plan for what she describes as...
Readers will note that today Opinio Juris has incorporated a new comment feature that allows our readers to help regulate the quality of comments. The comment rating feature allows readers to vote “Yea” or “Nay” to any comment that is posted. After a certain number of negative votes are cast to a comment (we are still testing the...
I wanted to let OJ readers know that I will also be blogging over at Volokh Conspiracy, where Senior Conspirator Eugene Volokh has been kind enough to extend me an invitation. My reason for putting this up here is not so much to announce that, but instead to say that I am not going anywhere from OJ. I...
Karen DeYoung has a very interesting account of the on-going Predator drone campaign in Pakistan, on the front page of the Monday, June 1, 2009 Washington Post, "Al Qaeda Seen as Shaken in Pakistan." The story is sourced to US intelligence and military officials, as well as some Pakistani officials, and recounts how the Pakistani army's campaign to retake the Swat...
This is bizarre on so many different levels: Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, was captured by the CIA and thrown in jail at Guantanamo Bay in 2003. The 41-year-old, who was released in 2005, will now feature as himself in the game for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In the game, players control a detainee at the camp, which has...
