In association with the International Commission of Jurists

North America

03 May

William Ranney Levi's paper on interrogation techniques, Interrogation's Law, is forthcoming in Yale Law Journal, but is up at SSRN.  Here is the abstract: Conventional wisdom states that recent U.S. authorization of coercive interrogation techniques, and the legal decisions that sanctioned them, constitute a dramatic break with the past. This is false. U.S. interrogation policy well prior to 9/11 has allowed...

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02 May

I imagine many readers have by now seen this story in the New York Times (and Julian beats me to it!) reporting that the Obama administration appears ready to return to military commissions for trying at least some Guantamo detainees: Officials who work on the Guantánamo issue say administration lawyers have become concerned that they would face significant obstacles to trying...

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29 Apr

The Eleventh Circuit earlier this month ruled that Manuel Noriega could be extradited to France following the completion of his sentence in Florida. In Noriega v. Pastrana, Noriega argued that under the Third Geneva Convention he was entitled to automatic and immediate repatriation to Panama as soon as his criminal sentence was complete. However, Section 5 of the...

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15 Apr

As with the earlier comments by Ed Swaine, I greatly appreciate Michael Ramsey’s astute observations regarding how political commitments fit into the constitutional discourse. I've endeavored to provide my initial responses to each of his suggestions below, although surely Duncan and I will build from his comments as we develop our theories going forward. We are pleased that Professor Ramsey agrees...

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08 Apr

It is a rare thing indeed to find a published mediation decision involving a matter of such profound importance as the settlement of 9/11 litigation. Last month, Judge Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York published an order accepting the mediated settlement of 95 claims against the airlines for approximately $500 million. The order and accompanying mediator...

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07 Apr

My long slow slide into complete disenchantment with the Obama administration continues.  Comes now, via my two favorite national-security law bloggers, Glenn Greewald and Scott Horton, a truly terrifying tale in which a nameless and faceless Department of Defense committee attempts to put Clive Stafford Smith, one of the world's great human-rights lawyers, in jail for...

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06 Apr

Over at Volokh, Eric Posner has a very interesting post today on the Koh nomination.  Here is a snippet: Foreign-law opponents, take heart! Koh is not a cosmopolitan who seeks to sacrifice American sovereignty to foreign gods. He is a liberal who wants to move American law to the left. International law serves as a handy vehicle, to be used or...

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04 Apr

The more things change, the more things stay the same -- at least with this administration: He had become the most vocal opponent of the trial of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, taking on a position more akin to politician than lawyer and launching a two-year public and media campaign that landed him on the front pages of newspapers and inside...

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03 Apr

Tod Lindberg, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and editor of Policy Review (and, full disclosure, good friend of mine) has a new article out in Commentary, "The Only Way to Prevent Genocide."  The article argues that while "creative diplomacy" can make a difference, in "the end, it may all come down to the willingness of the United States to...

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