On Monday, the defense in the Al Bahlul case filed their reply brief. The case is important because it squarely presents the issue that was left hanging after Hamdan, i.e. whether the military commissions have jurisdiction to try inchoate conspiracy. It also raises the far deeper question of whether the jurisdiction of the military commissions is limited to offenses against...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa The NYTimes carried an opinion piece on the Kenyatta case. Middle East and Northern Africa Israel's PM Netanyahu has called US criticism of the approval of new settlements in East Jerusalem "un-American". Israel will summon Sweden's Ambassador over the announcement that the new Swedish government will recognize the State of...
This week on Opinio Juris, the debate on the AUMF continued with Kevin pointing out the lack of evidence on Khorasan's existence and the denuding of the concept of self-defence, and Jens discussing how ground troops will be necessary in the battle of ISIS, which requires a better legal foundation for the operation than the AUMF. On a comparative and lighter note,...
[Alvin Y.H. Cheung is a Visiting Scholar at the US-Asia Law Institute at NYU School of Law.] After two years of increasingly acrimonious debate over Hong Kong’s electoral reforms for 2017, the city’s pro-democracy movement has finally attracted global concern. A consistent theme of international responses has been that Hong Kong’s democratisation should occur in accordance with the Basic Law, the...
The Al Nashiri case before the Guantanamo military commission is currently stuck in a quagmire over the bombing of the oil tanker MV Limburg on Oct. 6, 2002, which Al Nashiri is alleged to be complicit in. Before trial, the defendant, Al Nashiri, moved to dismiss the charges related to the MV Limburg (which is just one of many charges in...
In the latest round in the never-ending battle between Argentina and its holdout bondholders, a U.S. court has found Argentina to be in "contempt" for trying to circumvent that US court's orders. Argentina has been outraged by such an order, arguing that a state cannot be held in "contempt" because it is an affront to its sovereign dignity (with Argentina's...
John Stewart’s Sept. 29 clip “Cameron - What are you Doing?” is a must see on comparative constitutional law. Stewart contrasts the fulsome and spirited debate in the UK on whether to authorize airstrikes against ISIL, with the absence of congressional action in the US. Well worth watching. And quite funny. Here is the show. ...
House Speaker John Boehner said in an interview on Sunday that ground troops may be necessary in order to stop the threat of ISIS. Although his comments were interwoven with lots of unnecessary talk of ISIS being barbarians, which I don't think is terribly helpful, I do agree with his bottom-line assessment: air power and proxy ground troops won't be enough...
Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa The IMF has extended its zero-interest loans to Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia to provide support in the fight against Ebola. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called upon the world to do more. The ICC has opened a formal examination into the situation in the Central African Republic. Middle...
This week on Opinio Juris, Jens, Jennifer Trahan and Julian discussed the international legal basis for the air strikes against ISIS. Jens also analysed why Khorasan is seen as a more immediate threat to the US than ISIS. For more on the US domestic legal basis, check out Deborah's post with a snippet from her Daily Beast article on the perennial US War Powers...
Today the U.S. launched airstrikes against ISIS and other extremist groups within Syrian territory. In the past, airstrikes were limited to Iraqi territory, which came with the consent of the Iraq government (and were thus legally uncontroversial from the perspective of jus ad bellum). Today's airstrikes require a sophisticated legal argument to explain the intrusion on Syria's territorial sovereignty. Samantha...
The United States continues to launch airstrikes against ISIS. Not only is it unclear if the airstrikes are working to dislodge ISIS from its territory, but recent press reports suggest that ISIS is not even the most important threat facing U.S. interests. The New York Times quotes Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as saying that the militant group Khorasan poses...
