My colleague Marc DeGirolami has a guest post over at PrawfsBlawg reacting to an op-ed in today's New York Times by Jean-François Copé, the the majority leader of the French National Assembly, in which Copé defends banning the burqa and the niqab. While Marc sees that the argument that the burqa runs counter to Western culture "is not without considerable force"...
What's the only modern international or internationalized criminal tribunal that either has or had universal jurisdiction? Answer: The Special Panels in East Timor....
I hadn't been aware of this group, Human Rights at Home, which is seeking to "create a national political culture that supports and advocates for human rights." In fact, they have some interesting ideas of how to reform U.S. legal infrastructure to implement U.S. international human rights obligations. revitalizing an Interagency Working Group on Human Rights to coordinate the efforts of the...
Kudos to Northwestern's Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth for a wonderful conference on ATS litigation last week. The papers by David Scheffer & Caroline Kaeb, John McGinnis & Ilya Somin, Jide Nzelibe, Michael Barsa & David Dana, Anthea Roberts, and Eugene Kontorovich were all outstanding. There are many topics worthy of retelling, but I wanted...
Julian entitled a post last week "The ICC Begins to Fade in Importance in Sudan." Julian might want to have a talk with Bashir about that: On the international summit circuit, no one can clear a room more quickly than Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Leaders have maneuvered to stay out of photographs with him, dashed ...
Professor David Bosco has started a new blog focusing on international organizations, "Eye on IOs." I like his subtitle -- "A blog on the progress and pitfalls of international organizations." It reminds me of a chapter I wrote addressing "progress and paradox" in international security cooperation. (It is nice to have company as a moderate on questions of international institution...
My Volokh Co-Conspirator John Elwood notes the reference to foreign courts, if not precisely law, in Justice Breyer's comment on closing the SCOTUS main front door to visitors....
Australia's government has announced that Australia will accede to the COE Cybercrime Convention (and not, as many are reporting that it will merely "sign" the Convention, which, I suppose, reflects the media's continued inability or unwillingness to sort out the basic issues of treaty formation). With Australian accession, the COE Cybercrime Convention will have 27 states parties. It remains the only cyber-specific multilateral treaty out there. And...
At last night's White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama cracked a funny joke about his administration's use of Predator Drones for targeted killings. From the Politico: — "The Jonas Brothers are here! ...
Yes, says Human Rights Watch in this press release. According to HRW, the new (and hotly controversial Arizona law) is in conflict with ICERD. I am troubled by the AZ law and think it is likely preempted by other federal law, but I am baffled as to how the AZ law could be a clear violation (or even any...
David Bernstein calls me out today for "blogging not a word" about The New Republic's recent attack on Human Rights Watch's coverage of Israel. He also claims that "HRW has not responded" and that "it’s almost as if 'headquarters' has sent out word to ignore the TNR piece in the hopes it will go away." I'll oblige Bernstein with a...
