Here is a key excerpt from pages 36-39 of the March 2003 "Torture" Memorandum: Section 2340 defines the act of torture as an: act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody...
Is government in opposition a welcome addition to our separation of powers choices? There are a series of issues to be considered. First of all, it responds to the problem that all systems of government have—-presidential, semi-presidential and parliamentary—-the problem of the very successful politician and eventual unconstrained democratic leader. If a political figure or political party is very popular,...
The American Branch of the International Law Association will again hold its annual International Law Weekend in New York, featuring numerous panels, a distinguished keynote speaker, receptions, and the Branch’s annual meeting. International Law Weekend 2008 will take place on October 16-18, 2008, at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The Weekend’s overall...
At the request of the chairs of the ASIL International Economic Law Interest Group (Amy Porges and Tomer Broude), I'm posting the following about the Group's upcoming activities: Readers of the blog who will be in Washington on April 10 are invited to the annual business meeting of the International Economic Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law,...
Pardon me for missing this little news item, but the ICJ has another new case: Ecuador has applied to the ICJ over Colombia's alleged spraying of toxic herbicides over Ecuadorian territory. Here is what Ecuador is seeking the ICJ to declare: (a) Colombia has violated its obligations under international law by causing or allowing the deposit on the territory of...
I've always had a soft spot for Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), both for his evident intelligence and for his willingness to criticize the Bush administration's bungling of all things Iraqi. After last night's interview with John Stewart on The Daily Show, though, I think I'm officially smitten: I was particularly impressed by Hagel's willingness to openly disagree -- in no...
In my last post, I talked about the current and common technologies of the separation of powers, which focus on apportioning authority among winners of elections, or granting powers to losers of elections (as losers). In this post, I will discuss the emerging trend in the foundational public law commitments of many democracies to grant the power to losers...
Amidst all the focus on last week's decision in Medellin, most readers missed another important decision rendered by the Supreme Court that will have a significant impact on international law. The case of Hall Street v. Mattel concerns the ability of contractual parties to fashion judicial review of domestic and international arbitration awards. As a general rule, the...
I'm looking at you, McGuinness:A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers." Since the start of the Iraq war, there's been a raucous debate in military circles over how to handle blogs — and the servicemembers who want to keep them. One faction sees blogs as security risks, and a collective waste of...
Much of the attention on Medellin has (rightly to my mind) focused on the Court’s definition of a non-self-executing treaty and its method for finding the 3 treaties at issue—the VCCR Optional Protocol, the ICJ Statute and Article 94 of the U.N. Charter—to be non-self-executing. Whatever the more general implications of the Court’s method with respect to a presumption...
Imagine it is Wednesday morning, November 5, 2008, the morning after the American presidential election. After months of attacks on the Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama, for being weak on terrorism, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain has not only won the presidential election, but against all odds the Republican Party has taken control of the House of Representatives and...
There have been several interesting blog posts about Washington & Lee's controversial new program of 3L experiential learning. (See Concurring Opinion posts here and here and Brian Leiter's post here). None of these posts have touched on how such a move will impact elective courses like international law. I strongly suspect that with a traditional 1L curriculum...
