In his January 2002 comments to then-White House Chief of Staff Gonzales on the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to detainees captured in Afghanistan, Colin Powell warned of the foreign policy consequences of abandoning long-accepted Geneva Convention practices, including: It will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice in supporting the Geneva conventions and undermine the protections of the...
Boring tax case, interesting international law issue. That's how I would summarize Jamieson v. CIR. The issue in Jamieson is what happens if a treaty says one thing, a subsequent statute conflicts with that treaty, and then there is a subsequent treaty change to the conflicting treaty provision, but that amendment does not remove the conflict. Under...
Next week we'll be hosting a discussion of our own Peter Spiro's Beyond Citizenship: American Identity After Globalization (Oxford University Press). As readers of this blog know, Peter has many wonderful insights into the way that citizenship and national identity interact in a globalizing environment. (His latest post on Pamela Anderson is just the latest lighthearted example of his much...
As Roger noted recently, John Ruggie, the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative for business and human rights, has released his third report on human rights and business. In this article, Ruggie offers a sensible and persuasive argument against codifying his principles of business conduct into a human rights treaty. I have three main reservations about recommending to...
Now that was fast. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was opened for signatures in March 2007. And it entered into force on May 3, 2008, barely a year later. Celebrations will be held on May 12, 2008 from 1:15 to 3:15 p.m. at the General Assembly Hall. Conspicuously absent from the...
Oxford University Press has just published my friend Nils Melzer's book Targeted Killing in International Law. Here is the description from the Oxford website:A comprehensive analysis into the lawfulness of state-sponsored targeted killings under international human rights and humanitarian law, this book examines treaties, custom and general principles of law to determine the normative paradigms which govern the intentional...
Some clues to the types of judges a President McCain might appoint can be found in his speech today. Readers of this blog might be interested in McCain's criticism of Roper v. Simmons and its musings on international law. Sometimes the expressed will of the voters is disregarded by federal judges, as in a 2005 case concerning an aggravated murder...
I'm sorry, I just can't let this one go:Picture, if you will, a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the club house and a soothing massage...
It's true. She was born a Canadian (and presumably remains one, joining the legions of dual citizens). Said Anderson of the development: "Being a citizen excites me not just because I can vote, but because I can crack the whip on Capitol Hill to defend animals." But surely that's a whip that could have been receptively cracked...
Stories like this cause barely a ripple of controversy:Girls may be given free access to the emergency contraceptive pill at their local Auckland pharmacies in a bid to reduce teen pregnancies and abortions. The medicine can already be sold by many pharmacists without a doctor's prescription, including to girls without parental consent. An Auckland District Health Board committee will tomorrow consider a...
How desperate is the ICTR to fulfill its completion strategy by dumping cases on Rwanda? Enough to disavow the NGO on which it has relied on for nearly 14 years:The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) when presenting last week his motion in favour of transfer of genocide accused Yusuf Munyakazi to Rwanda, clearly distanced himself...
Jose Ernesto Medellin is scheduled for execution by the state of Texas on August 5, 2008. If one assumes that Executive Branch officials have an interest in trying to find new ways to comply with the Avena decision (an open question I know), that does not leave them much time. From my perspective, the Executive Branch has two,...
