For my last post here at Opinio Juris, I propose to tap into what knowledge I have of my home jurisdiction, Germany, on an issue common to US and German law. (No apologies here for the use of comparative material in constitutional interpretation.) That issue is in the context of the domestic effect of international treaties, and more particularly in the...
A flurry of attention to the question of what form an agreement with Iraq would take in the wake of hearings yesterday before the House International Relations Committee: an unusually thorough segment on NPR, WaPo story here. Apparently the Administration is intent on pursuing this as a sole executive agreement, on the precedent of Status of Forces Agreements adopted...
For much of the last year, I've been thinking about whether existing international humanitarian law rules are up to the task of dealing with issues of cyberwar and cyberterror, or, to use the U.S. military terminology--information operations (IO). In addition to an Op-Ed and a short piece for a military audience, I've now posted on SSRN a more detailed...
Because Tobias is far too modest to do it himself, I want to formally announce -- and plug -- the launch of his new group blog, Invisible College. Invisible College rises phoenix-like from the ashes of two predecessors, the group blogs 1948 and The Core. Here is a snippet from the introductory post:By joining forces, we hope to...
From last week's D.C. Circuit decision in Rasul v. Myers, Judge Brown in a concurring opinion argued: The present case involves the method of detaining and interrogating alleged enemy combatants during a war--a matter with grave national security implications. Permitting damages suits by detainees may allow our enemies to “obstruct the foreign policy of our government.” Moreover, dealing with foreign relations...
The American Law Institute has recently approved the first ever Restatement on International Commercial Arbitration. This is one of the most important international projects that the ALI has undertaken in decades. The Reporter for the Restatement will be George Bermann (Columbia) and the Associate Reporters will be Jack Coe (Pepperdine), Catherine Rogers (LSU/Bocconi), and Chris Drahozal (Kansas). ...
You can insure against both. This piece from Sunday's NYT has the interesting details on liability insurance that covers more than 30,000 federal officials against the perils of work-related lawsuits. With a policy costing less than $300 a year (the government often picking up half the tab), mid-level officials can afford the likes of Clinton impeachment attorney Robert...
The media may have forgotten about the Iraqi High Tribunal now that Saddam is dead and buried, but that doesn't mean its problems have gone away. Case in point — the talented Chief Prosecutor at Saddam's trial, Jaffar al-Moussawi, has been demoted and transferred after criticizing the Tribunal's "financial and ethical corruption" and opposing the execution of Sultan Hashem,...
Martin Luther King did not intend to impact international law, but he did so nonetheless. His life-long struggle was to secure racial equality in the United States. His non-violent efforts rarely focused on the worldwide struggle against racial injustice. But on a few occasions he elaborated on the relationship between the civil rights movement and the global...
In case you missed it, in addition to Medellin and Boumediene, there is one other significant international case before the Supreme Court this term. Although the case is a sleeper, it has important ramifications for any attempts by successful claimants to attach assets of government officials who violate human rights when the sovereign also has a legitimate claim...
Well, that was quick. One day after the media reported that a training manual prepared by the Canadian government for its diplomats listed the U.S. as a country where foreigners risk being tortured or abused, Canada quickly backtracked, promising to remove the U.S. — along with Israel — from the list:Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies,...
‘Torture is an unqualified evil.’ So it is. Statements obtained by the use of torture are inadmissible in evidence. Again, that’s very true. Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture says as much. So does § 948r (b) of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, in words taken almost verbatim from the Torture Convention. But what of cruel, inhuman...
