Pope Benedict XVI's Easter homily included this message of hope and reconciliation: If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of...
Stuart Taylor, the eminent legal affairs columnist for National Journal, writes this week on the vexed issue of the detainee cases. This sentence in particular caught my eye: So clogged with detainee cases are the federal courts in D.C. that they may not have time to conduct any ordinary civil trials this spring or summer. Stuart is a very diligent journalist, so...
A big case from the U.S. District Court here in New York came down this week, and I was spending my time reading blog posts on Harold Koh. Where are my priorities? In an important test of the scope of the Alien Tort Statute's application to multinational corporations, Judge Shira Scheindlin has finally ruled on the defendant corporations' motion to...
Still more disappointment from Bush 44: The Obama administration said Friday that it would appeal a district court ruling that granted some military prisoners in Afghanistan the right to file lawsuits seeking their release. The decision signaled that the administration was not backing down in its effort to maintain the power to imprison terrorism suspects for extended periods without judicial oversight. In...
The folks at UN Dispatch say they have uncovered a conspiracy among conservatives to oppose Koh's nomination in what they describe is the "Dirty Fight Against Koh". The evidence is this draft letter to Senators Kerry and Lugar opposing Koh's confirmation. Thanks to Kevin's intervention, and Ed Whelan's gracious admission that he's gone a bit far in his rhetoric against his...
More disappointment from Bush 44: Lawyers and judges working on Guantanamo Bay legal cases are showing signs of exasperation at President Barack Obama's administration, which they accuse of slowing federal judicial procedures for detainees. Two federal judges tasked with examining cases by five Guantanamo prisoners contesting their detention -- a right to habeas corpus granted by the Supreme Court in June 2008...
Many thanks to Derek Jinks for his kind words on the article and deeply incisive comments. I will do my best to reply sequentially to the provocative issues he’s raised. 1. I agree that conceptual overlap of ad bellum and in bello does not necessarily pose a problem for IHL. Indeed, as Jinks says, some discrepancy based on the nature of the...
Thanks to the editors of Yale Journal of International Law and the hosts of Opinio Juris for the opportunity to comment on Rob Sloane’s terrific article, The Cost of Conflation: Preserving the Dualism of Jus ad Bellum and the Jus in Bello in the Contemporary Law of War. The piece is, in my view, essential reading for law of war...
In the first place, I want to express my thanks to the hosts of Opinio Juris and to the editors of the Yale Journal of International Law for the opportunity to discuss this piece in a public forum—and, above all, to Derek Jinks for kindly taking the time to read and comment on it. What animated this article is my...
Ed Whelan ends his latest intervention into the debate about Koh by asking, "[c]an’t anyone out there engage in honest and competent debate?" A fair question -- so I thought it might be useful to take a quick look at what Whelan seems to think qualifies: I’ll take a brief break to respond to the vapid criticisms of my posts by...
I have tried to stay quiet in the ongoing “Koh Wars” in the blogosphere, where Ed Whelan seems to be taking on the entire legal academic blogosphere himself and getting in a bad mood about it. I am also conflicted. I am a former student of Professor Koh and I have always admired his energy, passion, and his willingness to...
I would first like to thank David for his thoughtful reply to my initial post. I will address his three main points briefly and in order. First, David raises a very fair set of questions regarding the choice and emphasis of my case studies. I deliberately chose three networks that were widely seen as successful in the literature, so that they...
