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19 Apr

In interests of being "fair and balanced," I thought I'd post Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen's rebuttal to Jane Mayer's "devastating" New Yorker review of his book on Bush-era interrogation policies. At this point, neither side is really arguing the law much, but both seem focused on policy. Thiessen's rebuttal looks pretty strong (as was Mayer's review).  (see below for excerpts) Here's Mayer: His...

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18 Apr

If you are going to be in DC on Friday, April 23, there will be a terrific law of armed conflict program all day at Catholic University, Columbus Law School, including Harold Koh as lunchtime keynote speaker and a host of luminaries on the panels.  Advance registration required.  See program details below the fold. Controversy and Developments in the Law of Armed Conflict: Customary vs Treaty Law; Law of the Sea Manual; Manual on International Law Applicable to Air and Missile Warfare Friday, April 23, 2010 The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law Washington, DC 20064 This program will examine three important efforts relating to International Humanitarian Law: the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, the more recent Commentary and Manual on International Law Applicable to Air and Missile Warfare (prepared by the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research), and the ICRC's multi-volume study on Customary International Humanitarian Law. To what extent do the manuals reflect state practice, and what role do such manuals play in the formulation and application of customary international humanitarian law?  Panels of international law experts and practitioners will discuss these important issues in a format designed to encourage lively debate, and to draw conclusions based both on scholarly treatises and the actual practice of states.
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18 Apr

Our friends at the Leiden Journal of International Law -- an exceptional journal -- have asked us to post the following call for papers: Special Issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (2011) Foucault and International Law Abstracts due by 12 May 2010; Complete articles by 17 September 2010 The Leiden Journal of International Law is now soliciting articles for a special issue exploring the relevance...

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18 Apr

Alas, I don't agree with very much of KJH's critique of Eric Posner's Wall Street Journal opinion piece last week - Eric commenting on the suspension of Spain's crusading universal jurisdictionalist judge, Baltasar Garzon.  However, rather than get back into that, I wanted to flag instead Financial Times columnist Christopher Caldwell's comment on the subject.
Baltasar Garzón, the radical and ambitious investigative magistrate, made his name in Spain by revealing the tactics of Spanish counter-terrorism officials in the 1990s. In 1998, he ordered the arrest of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in a London hospital and in 2009 he proposed trying White House lawyers for the advice they gave George W. Bush on the legality of detaining prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. His agenda is consistently controversial. To some it looks like battling corruption on an ever bigger stage. To others it looks like corruption itself.
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17 Apr

It's been 18 days since I asked NGO Monitor to provide the same detailed accounting of their funding that they demand of the human-rights groups they so regularly malign and demonize.  Readers will be shocked -- shocked! -- to know that the organization has ignored my request, in keeping with its profoundly hypocritical approach to funding. In the meantime, of course,...

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17 Apr

I am pretty supportive of Obama Administration's general approach to Sudan, largely because it reflects a realistic sense of the limits of the U.S. government's ability to influence matters there as well as the (relative) unimportance of Sudan to the U.S. and to the wider region. And so I think the hardline ICC-favored approach to Sudan (demand the arrest of...

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16 Apr

[David Orozco is an Assistant Professor of Business Law at Michigan Technical University] Professors Bird and Chaudhry provide an insightful and timely analysis of European Law related to the repackaging and relabeling of grey goods, specifically pharmaceutical products. The analysis navigates readers through the morass of legal confusion and uncertainty in this area of international law. A couple of questions were...

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16 Apr

Former DOS Legal Adviser (and a path-breaking guest blogger here at OJ when in that role a couple of years ago) John Bellinger has a short opinion column out at the CFR site, April 14, 2010 (corrected link, I hope!), discussing continuity and change in US detention policy on counterterrorism.  John takes up a range of issues, from trials to...

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15 Apr

Harold Koh's ASIL speech drew lots of attention for his defense of the legality of U.S. use of aerial drones.  But Koh also spent much of the speech explaining and defending the U.S. decision to reorient its relationship toward the International Criminal Court.   He noted U.S. attendance (as an observer) at the ICC Assembly of States Parties in November, and U.S....

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15 Apr

Today, U.S. News & World Report (USN&WR) officially released its 2011 rankings of American law schools.  This, in turn, led the legal blogosphere into its annual love-hate dance with the "overall" rankings--pouring over every move up or down the ladder, while simultaneously denouncing the ranking's methodology and utility.  Lest our readers feel left out, I thought I'd flag the "new" International Law rankings that...

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