The Supreme Court's Medellin decision today brings to an end a fascinating decade-long series of interactions between the U.S. Supreme Court, the International Court of Justice, and various state governments. Beginning in 1998, the Supreme Court has now weighed in four times on the ICJ's various interpretations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the UN Charter, and the...
Thanks to Marty for his pointer on the decision and his instant analysis (which despite being instant, is also still quite interesting). Throughout the day today and into tomorrow, Opinio Juris will post thoughts and comments on the Medellin decision from leading commentators and scholars, in addition to (of course, our substantial "in-blog" expertise. Stay tuned!...
Six to three. The decision is here. My very quick and preliminary reaction, after having read only a bit of the opinion, is that the presidential power question is not the most important aspect of the opinion. That would be, instead, the Court's interpretation of Article 94 of the U.N. Charter as merely imposing a future obligation...
As Roger said in his introduction, and as I mentioned, much of my scholarship focuses on this field of comparative constitutional law. By comparative constitutional law, of course, I mean the domestic constitutional law of other countries (this might perhaps also include the constitutional law produced by more transnational institutions like the European Court of Human Rights, although this...
One last note regarding the discussion of Treaties' End...
Thank you to Roger for his very kind welcome and introduction, and thank you for the invitation to blog on Opinio Juris! This is my first time blogging, or for that matter doing really anything on the Internet, so I apologize in advance for any technical or other glitches. I plan to spend my week on this blog discussing a range...
Has anyone else noticed the inconsistent -- and yes, somewhat hypocritical -- positions the Bush administration has taken toward damage awards US courts have imposed against Iraq and the Palestinian Authority? The administration is concerned that the $174 million award given to the family of a US citizen killed in Israel in 2002 will harm the Palestinian Authority's "political...
We are delighted to announce that Professor David Fontana will be joining us this week as a guest blogger. David teaches at George Washington University and is an expert on comparative constitutional law. He wrote one of the early leading articles on the subject before it became such a hot topic. His scholarly interests also focus on...
Let me begin my final post with a heartfelt thank you to Chris Borgen, Opinio Juris, and all the participants in the forum for a remarkable conversation about my article, Treaties’ End. The conversation has touched on a wide range of issues that deserve much deeper treatment than I can give them here. I will just briefly mention several...
The Republic of Madagascar has ratified the Rome Statute, effective 1 June 2008. ...
The blog is part of a wonderfully interactive website dedicated to generating ideas for the next president. Here is the website's self-description:Climate change, terrorism, poverty, the spread of disease — these are just some of the global challenges that we all face. On Day One is a platform for gathering and sharing your ideas about what the next president...
I too have enjoyed reading the range of responses to Oona’s important article. Here I’ll just reflect on the article’s treatment of the campaign by Senator Bricker in the 1950s to adopt a constitutional amendment to restrict the treaty power. Several scholars, including Oona, have analyzed how U.S. human rights treaty practice occurs in the shadow of the botched...
