Great post by Scott Horton on the meaning of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (Latin for "A New Order of the Ages"). It’s there on every dollar bill. Turn it over and read the legend under the pyramid–”novus ordo seclorum”–”a New Order of the Ages.” Hollywood makes it the center of a treasure hunt. Religious nuts who populate the world of cable TV...
One international right about which I am extremely enthusiastic is the right of migration. As Ilya Somin and I have written about in the paper I have previously referenced, one concern about international law, if it were actually enforced, is that it would make it harder for individuals to vote with their feet against bad laws, because international law creates...
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau delivered a nice, succinct speech this week to business leaders addressing the globalization backlash. Here's a quick summary: As a result of unprecedented gains in productivity in recent generations, millions of people today enjoy lives unrecognizable a century ago, in terms of the quality and quantity of food, health care, housing and other goods...
One issue for international law is the degree of American exceptionalism. Is the United States an exceptional nation in way that suggests international law should not apply to it in the same way as to other nations? Or perhaps its exceptionalism suggests that it should remain strictly dualist and not apply international law without the endorsement of the political...
My purpose here is to provide a brief taxonomy of recent international law skepticism. 1. The Rational Actor Critique: In their book, The Limits of International Law, Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner express skepticism that customary international law often influences the conduct of states. States are rational, self-interested actors and it is difficult for custom to reflect stable equilibria that reflect...
We want to thank Kristen Boon for a great two weeks of blogging with us. We look forward to her joining us for another guest stint in the near future. ...
I wanted to briefly comment on John's most recent post, and his very interesting essay, since it suggests an emerging consensus among legal conservatives about the Bush Administration's war on terror legal strategies (see also Ken Anderson's writings here). As both John and Jack Goldsmith seem to be arguing, the Administration's problems were mostly a failure of political strategy...
Today, the anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks, I read with great interest the recent message of Osama Bin Laden. (Full transcript here). There has been plenty of news coverage about the timing, appearance, and tone of the speech. But there has been insufficient analysis of one key component of the speech: its central message. So on September...
I was very interested to read the New York Times essay on Jack Goldsmith, recently referenced on this blog by Roger Alford. Oddly enough, a week ago, I posted a draft essay, Losing the Law Wars: The Bush Administration’s Strategic Errors, that made some criticisms of the Bush administration’s policies from the outside similar to his from the inside. The...
I received this interesting email from an LL.M. student in Europe that is worth sharing with our readers: I'd like to thank you for your ...
I want to thank Julian Ku and his colleagues at Opinio Juris for the invitation to blog. This is my initial effort in cyberspace. I begin with some interesting information that I recently learned on a trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry at an exhibition of a captured German submarine: the United States once decided, consciously and at...
Thank you for the opportunity to guest blog on Opinio Juris these past two weeks. One final message for those who are following the issue of interrogation: Seton Hall School of Law is partnering with Second Life on September 17 to provide an afternoon Constitution Day program on “Interrogation and Intelligence Gathering.” Speakers will address FBI methods of...
