Opinio Juris is pleased to be hosting over the next three days a discussion of Professor Kal Raustiala's new book, "Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law" (OUP 2009). Professor Raustiala is a professor of law at UCLA and also director of the UCLA Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations. He...
As I mentioned last week, we're pleased to host Richard Gardiner (University College London) for the next three days for a discussion of his book, Treaty Interpretation. In addition to comments by our regular contributors, we've invited several distinguished treaty experts to respond to his work, including Isabelle van Damme (Clare College, Cambridge), Malgosia Fitzmaurice (University of London, Queen Mary), and Jan Klabbers...
On Monday through Wednesday next week, Mary Ellen O'Connell, the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, will join us to discuss her new book, The Power and Purpose of International Law. We are also very pleased that Beth Simmons, the Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Clarence Dillon Professor...
The New York Times ran a front page story from its lead Guantanamo reporter yesterday. (William Glaberson and Margot Williams, research assistance Andrei Scheinkman, "Next President Will Face Test on Detainees: Some at Guantanamo Called Serious Risks," NYT, Monday, November 3, 2008 (behind reg. user wall), A1; plus a referenced data base of detainees used to analyze the detainee...
This week we are pleased to host the first discussion in the Oxford University Press/ Opinio Juris Book Club. Tom Farer, the Dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, will join us to discuss his new book, Confronting Global Terrorism and American Neo-Conservatism: The Framework of a Liberal Grand Strategy. In addition, Kristen Boon...
On behalf of all of us at Opinio Juris, I want to thank Benjamin Wittes for joining us this week for a symposium his book Law and the Long War. We also want to thank Bobby Chesney, Geoff Corn, Marty Lederman, Glenn Sulmasy, and Steve Vladeck for their guest-blogging with us. Their contributions were invaluable. We also want to thank everyone else from the Opinio Juris...
Well, we never got as far as interrogation or surveillance, but that's okay. This has been a truly exceptional exchange, a model of everything the debate over law and the war on terror too often is not: civil, serious, rigorous, and respectful of the profound difficulty of the issues at hand. Many thanks to all who participated in it and to...
I want to close by thanking Ben for writing this terrific book, and our hosts here at OJ for sponsoring this discussion. Before sigining off, however, I want to offer a few predictions and related observations about the road ahead. It appears quite possible that in the near future we will substantially reduce our reliance on military detention for terrorism suspects at...
I must confess that I've been a bit cowed into silence by the heavyweight detention discussion between Deborah, Marty, and Ben. At the risk of wading in, though, I think Ben's point in his most recent post -- that detention should be based upon "dangerousness in the context of a showing of some significant relationship with groups against which Congress...
A few final thoughts on detention and Al-Marwallah before we move on to interrogation--a subject on which I'm certain my arguments will provoke no disagreement. ;-) First, a concession: Marty is quite right that there is an ambiguity in the book concerning what the Al-Marwallah example stands for. I had not noticed this until his last post, and it warrants clarification....
Well, Ben, much as I look forward to dining with you to discuss these issues further, I won't take that bet, because I tend to agree with you that al-Marwalah could be detained under the laws of war themselves, if the evidence could fairly be read, as you suggest, to indicate that he was engaged in combat against coalition forces...
A quick note on the two latest case examples on the table in our ongoing detention debate. First, Mr. Al-Marwallah’s case is a prime example of why we shouldn’t make broad new detention policy based on the problems of Gitmo alone. Mr. Al-Marwallah may not be prosecutable for taking terrorist training pre-2001 since the criminal material support statute in...
