Last week a Florida state court rendered an interesting decision on the scope of application of the Warsaw Convention. The court recognized that state tort law is preempted by the Warsaw Convention, but the critical question in Bowe v. Worldwide Flight Services was at what point in exiting a plane does the application of the treaty end and state...
I think there is more to Bellinger’s speech on the United States and the ICC than Julian suggests. Let me just summarize the best parts of the speech. First, Bellinger emphasizes that the ICC is not a partisan issue: A relatively straight line runs from the positions on the ICC taken by our Congress in 1990, to those of...
In a curious strategic move, the ICC is threatening to issue more arrest warrants against Sudanese government officials in order to get their original arrest warrants enforced. Luis Moreno Ocampo told Reuters in an interview he planned to present evidence against new suspects to ICC judges before the end of the year if Khartoum does not hand over two suspects...
Has the U.S. government shifted its position on the ICC? I can't really tell if the following report of a speech by U.S. State Department Legal Adviser (and sometime-Opinio Juris guest blogger) John Bellinger represents a real shift in policy. "The U.S. must acknowledge that the ICC enjoys a large body of international support, and that many countries will...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has taken the first crack at applying the Supreme Court's recent decision in Medellin with respect to self-executing treaties. In Mora v. People of New York, the Second Circuit rejected a foreign national's effort to win damages for violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Interestingly, the Second...
Here is a sample of some of the wonderful map art of Susan Stockwell: Fleece England...
The American Society of International Law has recently begun partnering with journalism schools in an effort to introduce international law to future reporters and editorial boards. And, publications like ASIL Insightsand IL.Post are circulated broadly among media outlets, and ASIL makes the expertise of its membership available when issues or cases arise in which explanations of the law can be...
Story here and here. On the one hand, it nicely demonstrates of the dangers of local foreign policy. Local pols decide to do some showboating, out of their depth and unlikely to shoulder the consequnces, and next thing you know, you're looking at World War III. On the other hand, this may just be a hangover from the old...
One of the unintended consequences of the movement to hold corporations liable for aiding and abetting human rights abuses is that doing so may prove to be the most effective way of holding sovereigns accountable. That is the surprising conclusion of my latest article just published in the Notre Dame Law Review. Here is an excerpt: One has...
That would be the Financial Times, under the fairly emphatic headline "Democrats Must Choose Obama." As far as I can tell, it's the only foreign newspaper to make an endorsement. (Some might consider it not really all that foreign, given its large daily US circulation — so it's not like Le Monde putting down a marker — but the...
One of my students recently took the naturalization test and was kind enough to share with me the “Quick Civic Lessons” that the government hands out to help prepare for the test. Most questions are terribly easy, but I would suspect a few are hard for the average would-be American: 15. Who Elects the President of the United States? 19....
The very first post I wrote for Opinio Juris -- more than two years ago, when I was guest-blogging -- was about the inequality of arms that exists between the prosecution and defense at the international tribunals. I recall spending hours on the post, mustering facts, honing my arguments, polishing my prose. I was proud of my first...
