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21 May

Details here.  Assuming that we're talking foot soldiers, this seems a pretty thin argument for keeping the rest under wraps, even through a cost-benefit/national interests optic.  The equation: How much does keeping Gitmo up and running hurt US interests v. how much damage can released detainees cause if they return to the battlefield.  I'm betting that for all but the very few high-level detainees,...

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21 May

A while back, a commentator (aptly named Irritated) complained about my use of acronyms in a post on treaty priorities of the Obama Administration.  I understand the frustration of the uninitiated.  That said, the reality is a facility with acronyms appears to have become part of the job description for international lawyers.  I have no idea when or how this phenomenon...

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21 May

Deniz Aydiner wins the honors for one of the dumbest murderers ever. He was indicted for aggravated murder in 2003 and while the investigation was pending he returned to Turkey. The state of Oregon subsequently indicted him and sought to impose the death penalty. But Aydiner missed his wife so much that he just had to return...

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20 May

Seed Magazine has an interesting roundtable discussion about whether or not conflicts over fresh water are a significant threat to international stability (and whether water shortages are even a cause of war).  The introduction to the discussion notes the case being made that water shortages have been and will increasigly be a source of violent conflict: In 2007 an 18-month study of...

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20 May

Interesting interview at CFR.org on public diplomacy and the use of social networking with Elliot Schrage, formerly of Google, now of Facebook (and author of a perceptive 2004 study on workplace codes of conduct).  No surpise, the State Department has a Facebook page.  Schrage has this to say about how governments should put these tools to work: The challenge is, how do...

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19 May

People magazine reports: Before heading to the glitz and glamour of the Cannes Film Festival in France, Angelina Jolie spent Tuesday in a courtside booth at The Hague in the Netherlands watching the prosecution of warlord Thomas Lubanga, calling it "a landmark trial for children." At one point, Jolie found herself under the watchful eye of Lubanga, the founder and former leader...

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19 May

Jack Goldsmith has a new essay out in The New Republic, "The Cheney Fallacy," comparing the basic elements of the Obama and Bush national security and counterterrorism policies.  It walks through eleven core features of the national security-counterterrorism apparatus, from Guantanamo to targeted killing to interrogation, etc., and compares the two administrations.  Certainly I think this is the right basic...

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19 May

Anonymous senior official in the Obama administration, 2009: [T]he hearsay rule is not one of those things that is rooted in American values. The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1791: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right...

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18 May

There's no legal obstacle to appointing a dual citizen to the Supreme Court.  In fact, in contrast to qualifications for Congress and the Presidency, the Constitution sets no citizenship requirements of any kind for justices of the Supreme Court. Now it's unlikely in the extreme that Obama will appoint a foreigner to the Court, although it would be an interesting little parlor game...

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18 May

There’s already been a good bit of thoughtful (see Dave Glazier) and not so thoughtful commentary about the Obama Administration’s decision to revive the commissions. I admit, news of the continuation of the commissions (in some revised form) hardly filled me with joy. But I’ve also been sorry to see rhetoric that seems to paint it at the end...

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18 May

Lately I have been doing extensive historical research on the development of international law and I came across this remarkable quote from the 1921 edition of Lassa Oppenheim's International Law: “A constant increase of population must in the end force upon a State the necessity of acquiring more territory, and if it cannot be acquired by peaceable means, acquisition by conquest...

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