Wow! Like Marty Lederman, I really thought this story was from The Onion. But, it now appears that the Acting Head of OLC, Dan Levin, volunteered to undergo waterboarding in an effort to inform his legal opinion as to what qualifies as “torture.” On the one hand, I think this is another useful reminder that many who’ve...
Pakistan watcher Paula Newberg’s early assessment is at Huffpo. Her scorecard: Musharraf 5; rule of law, 0. (Can we expect global reaction to this martial law to be a bit different from the old martial laws in light of YouTube and real-time blogging? Or does the nuclear option cancel out the outrage?) Scott Horton’s take at his...
I recently finished teaching Hartford Fire again. And it got me pondering Justice Scalia’s curious attitudes towards international and foreign law. Scalia’s hostility to the use of foreign legal norms in interpreting the U.S. Constitution is well-established. As far back as Thompson v. Oklahoma in 1988 we see Scalia critique "The plurality's reliance upon Amnesty International's account of...
Many people don’t realize how close the modern law of human rights came to becoming a law of human rights and human duties. The first article of the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, prepared by former McGill law professor John Humphrey, first director of the UN Human Rights Division, stated: “Everyone owes a duty to...
The Pew Research Center has just published a wonderful survey on rising contentment in the developing world. According to the survey those surveyed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are more satisfied with the state of the nation than those surveyed in Europe and the United States. "Throughout much of the world, rising incomes are improving national conditions...
Two weeks ago I had the good fortune to moderate a panel at the International Law Weekend that included Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit. I thought his comments deserved wider dissemination. The focus of the panel was a review of the influence and relevance of the legal academy. It included great speakers such as Martin Flaherty of...
I will be giving a public lecture next Tuesday, November 13th, at the London School of Economics. The lecture, which is sponsored by LSE's International Humanitarian Law Project and the Law Society Charity, will ask whether the Iraqi High Tribunal should serve as a model for what scholars have called "internationalized domestic tribunals": domestic courts that directly apply international...
It's bad enough that the Mafia's criminal activity accounts for 7% of Italy's gross domestic product. Even worse is that at least one major Mafia clan has discovered a new product to traffic — nuclear material:Authorities in Italy are investigating a mafia clan accused of trafficking nuclear waste and trying to make plutonium. The 'Ndrangheta mafia, which gained notoriety in...
It's probably not necessary for most readers of the blog, but my advice would be to save your $17.82. John Bolton's Surrender Is Not an Option is predictably devoid of perspective and makes for dull reading. Bolton has a massive chip on his shoulder (all the way back to his youth as a scholarship kid in high school...
In “The Concept of Law,” HLA Hart famously gave a back-handed defense of international law as law, but pretty primitive law in comparison to municipal law. He suggested, however, that international law may be in a “stage of transition” towards acceptance of various elements that would “bring it nearer in structure to a municipal system.” That was nearly...
Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome Professor John Knox as a guest blogger for the next two weeks. Professor Knox teaches at Wake Forest Law School and writes in the area of international environmental law and international human rights. His SSRN page is here, which includes his recent AJIL article critiquing attempts to enforce human rights obligations against...
But there are few fireworks in this Guardian-sponsored exchange. Bellinger comes off as a bit defensive and is trying to introduce a new argument: Let's move on. Here is the main thrust of the exchange: Philippe Sands: Are there any circumstances in which you could imagine the use of water boarding to be consistent with international law? John Bellinger: Again, we've...
