Those who have followed the cases relating to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) here in the United States and at the ICJ know that the United States has a compliance problem. The United States does not provide the 'judicial review and reconsideration' remedy that the ICJ has indicated is required in the event a violation of an...
[Marty Lederman is an Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law. He was was Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel from 2009 to 2010 and an Attorney Advisor in OLC from 1994-2002. This post is cross-posted at Balkinization.] [Slightly updated as noted to reflect valuable reader reactions.] Shortly after the recent military operation against Osama bin...
In his post below, Harold Koh continually refers to the existence of an "armed conflict" between the U.S. and al Qaeda. Koh does not specify what kind of armed conflict the U.S. believes exists, but he references Common Article 3 in the detention section of the ASIL speech that he quotes, indicating that the U.S. believes it is in a...
[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State.] I write in response to those who have raised questions regarding the lawfulness of the recent United States operation against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. United States officials have recounted the facts of that well-publicized incident, most recently in the interview of President Obama on CBS News 60 Minutes...
As discussions over the legality of the May 1 killing of Osama Bin Laden by U.S. forces heated up and international law and law of war experts provided a range of potential arguments for and against the lawfulness of U.S. action, we thought it would help public discussion to present the official U.S. position on the legal dimensions of the...
The arrest on sexual assault charges of IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan (or "DSK" as he's known to the French tabloids) is big news this morning. Most of the main stream media attention (quite naturally) has focused on the salacious allegations themselves and/or DSK's potential presidential ambitions back in France. Here at Opinio Juris, however, I'm sure I was not the...
I hope readers have been following the backlash against CUNY's Board of Trustees for its cowardly decision not to award Tony Kushner an honorary degree from John Jay college because one trustee -- with no notice, and giving Kushner no opportunity to respond -- lied about his political beliefs and accused him of being "anti-Israel." Here is a bit of...
A number of students and colleagues have asked me if I believe that Usama bin Laden's killing was legal. I'm swamped with teaching and writing responsibilities, so my ability to blog is limited. But I thought I'd at least put my thoughts on record, skeletal though they may be. And I want to reply to what I think are two...
The best lines in President Obama’s speech last night were at the beginning: It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory -- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to...
At Lawfare today, Ben Wittes criticizes King & Spalding for refusing to help the House of Representatives defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court. His argument turns on an analogy between representing the House and representing Gitmo detainees: Sometimes, the politically unpopular client is the House of Representatives, not a Guantanamo detainee. Sometimes, the contested legal questions...
My school is once again advertising for new faculty at all levels, from Lecturer to Professor. Note the short deadline: applications must be in by April 27. Here is the job description: Melbourne Law School, Australia's first all-graduate law faculty, invites applications for continuing appointments from creative legal scholars committed to educational innovation. We continue to seek new colleagues at...
The following is a guest post by Anna Dolidze, a JSD candidate at Cornell Law School. In 2007-08, Dolidze was an Albert Podell Global Scholar at Risk at New York University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. She has worked for a number of international organizations, including for Save...
