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04 Jul

As happens every July 5th, tomorrow’s newspapers will carry reports of attractively diverse groups of immigrants naturalizing as U.S. citizens in uplifting ceremonies, flags waving, with predictable but heartfelt welcomes from judges and elected officials. This Independence Day ritual is perhaps the only public relations play of the federal government’s immigration agencies that seems to work. It bears out all...

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04 Jul

I don't know quite what to make of this story from the AP of July 3, 2009: African leaders approve anti-ICC move By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU – 9 hours ago SIRTE, Libya (AP) — African leaders have approved a contentious decision to denounce the International Criminal Court and refuse to extradite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. The final decision by the African Union heads of state...

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03 Jul

The Economist has a short article discussing EU proposals for financial regulation reform, in the July 4, 2009 issue, "Divided by a Common Market."  The article is not persuaded that EU regulatory reforms, divided on at least two fundamental matters, will get very far, very soon: The EU remains riven by two deep divides on the regulation of finance. The first is...

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03 Jul

Thomas Barnett has pointed out a map in Business Week that is coded for the sovereign bond rating of each country (the map is a click-through from this page).  What Barnett calls the "Old Core" (the U.S.,  Canada, western Europe, etc.) tend to have the highest ratings, the "New Core" (Brazil, Russia, India, China and other rising powers) have the...

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02 Jul

Next week looks to be a busy one on Capitol Hill. As the Obama Administration Task Force on Detention nears its initial July 21 reporting deadline, both the House Judiciary and Senate Armed Services Committees will be holding hearings on a closely related topic: legal issues surrounding the use of military commissions to try offenses against the law of war....

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02 Jul

That's the question underlying my new essay, The Rise of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences, in the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 20, No. 2, June 2009).  And I'm very curious as to whether anyone else shares my general feeling that the very success, on important metrics, of international criminal law is tending to swallow, as it...

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02 Jul

I expect sloppy reporting from the traditional media, but not from the normally excellent FP Passport. So I was surprised to read the following in a post by Michael Wilkerson implying that the ICC has accomplished almost nothing: But with so much scorn and a suspect arrested for only one of its outstanding warrants -- former Congo rebel commander Jean-Pierre...

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02 Jul

Robert Petit, the International Co-Prosecutor, is resigning effective September 1: In a statement, Robert Petit said he would be stepping down as of 1 September for personal and family reasons. “It has been the greatest privilege of my career to have the opportunity to bring some justice to the victims of the crimes of the Khmer Rouge,” he said. “I remain convinced...

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01 Jul

I don't know whether one should believe this or not; via Megan McArdle, via Newmajority.com, which links to a news-service I have occasionally read, Avanova, but whose page comes up empty on my browser.  I'm going to ask Eugene Kontorovich what he thinks (delighted to have Eugene guest-blogging with us!).  Is this remotely plausible or urban legend?  So, with all...

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01 Jul

Let me follow up on Julian's post and add that Harold Koh was equally derisive of signing statements during the Bush Administration. Here's the transcript and video of an exchange between OLC nominee Dawn Johnsen and State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Constitution Society. Just a few choice excerpts that...

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01 Jul

Apparently, that bastion of freedom and human rights didn't get the memo that Holmes' infamous comment in Buck v. Bell -- that "three generations of imbeciles are enough" -- isn't exactly viewed as a shining moment in US constitutional jurisprudence: Rwanda is being urged to drop a draft law which would forcibly sterilise people who are mentally disabled. US-based campaign group Human...

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01 Jul

Was I unfair in calling Barack Obama "hypocritical" in issuing his (otherwise sensible and constitutional) signing statements last week?  Hypocrisy is a strong charge.  On the other hand, Obama explicitly denounced the "theory of George Bush that he can make laws as he is going along" by using signing statements and then flatly promised not to use any such statements...

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