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21 Dec

From a new pamphlet, Why Does Sovereignty Matter to America? Merry Christmas from the folks at the Heritage Foundation: [T]oday, our sovereignty faces new threats. International organizations and courts seek to reshape the international system. Nations are to give up their sovereignty and be governed by a “global consensus.” Independent, sovereign nations will be replaced by “transnational” organizations that reject national...

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20 Dec

It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position. I do not like the idea that Julian may be forced into a trial in the media. And I feel especially concerned that he will be presented with the evidence in his own language for the first...

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19 Dec

Consider three different takes within the last two weeks on the rise of China and impliedly American decline, with different preoccupations.  The first is historian Paul Kennedy’s take in TNR.  It’s a puzzling admixture of “don’t worry, it’s just a rebalancing that was bound to happen if you take the long view,” and “do worry, because the moves the US is...

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18 Dec

Samuel Witten is counsel at the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP. He worked at the State Department for 22 years, including six years as Deputy Legal Adviser (2001-2007) and three years as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (2007-2010). The world’s attention has been riveted on the potential foreign policy implications of the recent...

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18 Dec

Ben describes as "puzzling" my claim that his recent post on WikiLeaks reflects American exceptionalism.  I find his puzzlement equally puzzling.  Recall the quote on which I focused: This, in turn, leads ineluctibly to Tom’s reciprocity point: If Congress can make such a demand on Assange, the U.S. would be in a bad position to object if the Congress of People’s Deputies...

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17 Dec

Steve testified yesterday about WikiLeaks in front of the House Judiciary Committee.  Here is a snippet of his testimony, which discussed five major flaws in the Espionage Act: Second, the Espionage Act does not focus solely on the initial party who wrongfully discloses national defense information, but applies, in its terms, to anyone who knowingly disseminates, distributes, or even retains national...

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16 Dec

Secretary Clinton yesterday released the much-awaited first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review.  It's an important document, and if implemented (a big if, given the shift in Congress and threats to cut State's funding) it would have important consequences on the ground.  The central theme of "civilian power" has a nice ring to it in the context of situating diplomacy, a...

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16 Dec

Video here.  (Downfall producers seem to have unblocked these parodies, which had been taken down some time ago for copyright reasons.  Lawprofs might be entertained by this one, clearly composed by someone in our ranks -- the mindset of someone who's taught for a while is perfectly satirized in a way that no outsider could, ever.)...

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16 Dec

Having received a number of emails complaining about how I counted the size of various faculties, I have decided to remove both posts.  As I made clear in the original post, my count was not designed to be scientific and excluded -- rightly or wrongly -- a number of categories of scholars that some might believe should have been included. ...

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16 Dec

I always wish I had more opportunities to blog about international environmental law (IEL), especially in light of recent developments (and thanks to Dan Bodansky for keeping our readers' abreast of all the happenings in Cancun).  For those of you who have a similar affinity for IEL, check out the new(ish) blog from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL).  It's...

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16 Dec

The Ninth Circuit this week ruled that there was no federal policy with respect to the Armenian Genocide, thereby allowing insurance claims brought by Armenian nationals under a California statute to go forward. In Movsesian v. Victoria Versicherung AG, the Ninth Circuit distinguished Garamendi, concluding that there was no federal policy against recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Indeed, "[c]onsidering...

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