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No surprise that that the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement is languishing short of congressional approval in an election year.  But who knew that members of Congress now feel free to team up with foreign legislators jointly to lobby their executive counterparts.  From Foreign Policy's The Cable: On Monday, 21 U.S. lawmakers joined with 35 South Korea lawmakers to write to both...

As a publisher I am used to staying behind the scenes and cajoling my authors into writing for us, so it is with trepidation that I take up this kind invitation from the OJ team – but as the quote from Bull Durham goes “the world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness”. When I was invited to guest...

On behalf of all of us at Opinio Juris, I am delighted to announce that John Louth of Oxford University Press will be blogging with us this week.  John joined OUP in 1997 and is now Editor-in-Chief of Academic Law, covering books, journals, and online services. He graduated from Cambridge with an undergraduate degree in law and philosophy and with...

Jack Goldsmith has responded to my post about the D.C. Circuit's rejection of co-belligerency in Al-Bihani.  It's an interesting response, worth a few additional thoughts. To begin with, it is important to note that Goldsmith does not respond to the substance of the panel's criticism of the idea that state-centered notions of co-belligerency can be applied to non-state actors in NIAC....

[Martin Flaherty is the Leitner Family Professor of International Human Rights and Director of the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School. He is a visiting professor at St. John's Law School Fall 2010.] Louis Henkin influenced – and will continue to influence – countless lives in untold ways. Not least, in fact perhaps most,...

[Sean D. Murphy is the Patricia Roberts Harris Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School] I recall that Louis Henkin’s first-year constitutional law course at Columbia Law School was unique in that he assigned extraordinarily short reading assignments. While at first that seemed a blessing to an overburdened student, it became readily apparent that he expected you to read...

[Mary Ellen O'Connell is Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolutin at Notre Dame Law School] Louis Henkin dedicated his classic work, How Nations Behave, to his father Who All His Days Loved Law, Sought Peace and Pursued It Psalms 34: 12-14 The verse applies equally to Lou. He loved the law and sought peace through...

In Part One of this series, I discussed how to decide whether to write a book and offered some thoughts about book contracts.  In this post, I want to discuss the calling card that every potential book author needs to obtain a contract -- a good proposal.  Bill Schabas can submit a one sentence proposal that says "I want to...

In its motion to dismiss the ACLU/CCR targeted-killing lawsuit, the government claims (p.5) that Al-Aulaqi can be lawfully targeted because Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is "an organized armed group that is either part of al-Qaeda, or is an associated force, or cobelligerent, of al-Qaeda that has directed armed attacks against the United States in the noninternational armed conflict...

I am currently underwater with some things and won't be posting much, despite my interest in the debates over drones, targeted killing, and much else besides.  However, I wanted to suggest that, for those trying to make sense of US actions in AfPak - including the overt strikes by NATO against safe havens in Pakistan, the sharply increased public pressure...

[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, United States Department of State; previously he was  Martin R. Flug ’55 Professor of International Law and Dean, Yale Law School (2004-09), as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (1998–2001). This tribute is adapted from "The Future of Lou Henkin’s Human Rights Movement," Columbia Human Rights Journal...

Terribly sad news today on the death of Louis Henkin. Here's the message from Columbia Law School Dean David Schizer: I'm very sorry to report that our colleague, Lou Henkin, passed away this morning. Lou has been a towering presence here at the Law School since he joined the faculty in 1962. His intellectual and personal contributions were...