In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Topics

10 Jun

[Ronald Slye is the Director of International and Comparative Law Programs and Professor at Seattle University School of Law] Lisa Laplante provides those of us interested in international criminal law, and more specifically the legitimacy of utilizing amnesties during a period of societal transition, with a valuable service by pointing us to, and carefully parsing, the Barrios Altos decision of Inter-American...

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09 Jun

I am briefly interrupting the erudite VJIL symposium to note that a task force announced by the administration to discuss and come up with ideas on how to address detention, Guantanamo, etc., is meeting today in DC.  I am unable to make it today, but supplied a number of comments via Ben Wittes, and I send it all good wishes...

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09 Jun

I share Paul’s hope that my article will prompt further consideration of the use of IEEPA sanctions to address the problem of proliferation.  The article aims to demonstrate that the way E.O. 13,382 has been used so far is unlikely to prompt any successful legal challenge, but that does not mean the issue should not give us all pause.  Since...

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09 Jun

[Paul B. Dean is Attorney-Adviser, Office of the Legal Adviser, at the U.S. Department of State] Thanks to Opinio Juris and VJIL for hosting this discussion and
thanks of course to Professor Guymon for raising this interesting topic.  I'm happy to provide what I hope will be a constructive response.  I
must emphasize that any views expressed herein are my own and not
necessarily...

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09 Jun

The Public Editor of The New York Times has a nice piece today criticizing the newspaper's "seriously flawed and greatly overplayed" front-page article “1 in 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds.”  Others have thoroughly debunked similar Pentagon reports -- see here, for example.  I just want to call attention to the following paragraph from the Public Editor's article, which is...

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08 Jun

I begin by thanking Ryszard Piotrowicz and Jean Allain for agreeing to take on the somewhat delicate task of commenting on my critique of James Hathaway’s article.  I am sure they will not be offended by my expressing sincere regret that Professor Hathaway himself declined to participate in this symposium. Neither respondent challenges (or seriously interrogates) my central conclusions: (i) Hathaway...

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08 Jun

[Ryszard Piotrowicz is a Professor of Law at Aberystwyth University] I would like to make three points in relation to the articles by Prof. Hathaway and Dr Gallagher. First, It seems to me that Dr Gallagher effectively refutes the basic argument of Prof. Hathaway, that the developments in trafficking in human beings (THB) have served to distract attention from what is asserted...

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08 Jun

[Dr. Jean Allain is a Reader in Public International Law at the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast and author of The Slavery Conventions: The Travaux Préparatoires of the 1926 League of Nations Convention and the 1956 United Nations Convention (2008) and “The Definition of Slavery in International Law” 52 Howard Law Journal 239 (2009)] There is nothing like a ‘response’...

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08 Jun

I'm not a comparative constitutional-law scholar, but I find it interesting that, pursuant to Section 44(iii) of the Constitution of Australia, no one can serve in Parliament who "[i]s an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent."  The solvency requirement harkens back to the bad old days of U.S. history, when most States prohibited individuals who did not own property from voting.  But...

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07 Jun

I loathe anonymous blogging and anonymous commenting.  I think that, in the absence of a compelling reason to remain anonymous, people who take provocative positions and vehemently criticize others should have the courage to do so openly, under their own name.  That's why I respect someone like David Bernstein, no matter how much I disagree with him. That said, I understand...

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06 Jun

In various posts on OJ about Predator drones, targeted killing, and such topics, I've made reference to a book chapter I've been drafting for Benjamin Wittes's forthcoming edited volume of policy essays, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform (Brookings Institution Press 2009).  I'm pleased to say that my chapter, Targeted Killing in US Counterterrorism Strategy and Law,...

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05 Jun

There's an important roundtable in the May/June issue of Boston Review on the subject.  (Who else finds Boston Review to be more interesting than the New York Review of Books these days?)  It includes a lead-off piece making the case by University of Toronto political theorist Joseph Carens, with responses from Alex Aleinikoff, Linda Bosniak, Gerry Neuman, Peter Schuck, and...

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