As members of Congress begin calling more insistently for some unspecified form of U.S. military intervention against the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, I admit to suffering the same doubt as Julian. What exactly is the legal theory here – under domestic and international law – that would authorize the United States to use force in Syria? There was,...
In the wake of a factory building collapse in Bangladesh, in which at least 273 lives have been claimed, many are calling for reform by Western high-street brands that rely on cheap labor as the accident reignited questions about the often lethal conditions in the country's garment industry. The Atlantic offers a piece about how garment workers are pushing for...
New evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons against insurgents have spurred new calls here in the U.S. for military action in Syria. Here is the LA Times (hardly an interventionist paper): An American or multilateral response should of course be proportional to the offense. That means considering whether chemical weapons were used against civilians or militants, and whether a "whole...
French President Hollande is receiving a warm welcome during his visit to Beijing, which according to the Financial Times is a snub to the UK government which has not been high on China's welcome list after David Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama last year. US Treasury officials appeared before the House Appropriations subcommittee to push for a different allocation in US contributions...
Clashes have escalated on the Syria-Lebanon border, causing worries that Lebanon will be pulled further into the Syrian conflict. The French Parliament passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and extended the right to adopt children to same-sex couples as well, making France the 14th country in the world to do so. India is alleging that a Chinese platoon has entered its Ladakh...
[Beth Stephens is a Professor at Rutgers Law] As a late-arrival to this Insta-Symposium, I find that many of my thoughts about the Kiobel opinion have already been expressed. Corporate defendants won an important victory in Kiobel, at least for foreign corporations with no more than a “mere corporate presence” in the United States. I had not predicted that the justices...
In addition to the Ku/Yoo essay in Forbes, I'll just point out two more positive takes on Kiobel from FOBs (friends of the Blog). In Lawfare, John Bellinger expresses satisfaction with the Roberts opinion, and takes some credit for raising the presumption against extraterritoriality issue in government briefs during the Bush Administration and in the first round of Kiobel briefing. He...
Today at 4:00 p.m. EST, a hearing will take place in the US Senate entitled: Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killings; you can watch it on the webcast live. Lawfare has highlighted five ways to reform the targeted killing program ahead of today's hearing. A car bomb has exploded outside the French embassy in Tripoli. In an already tense diplomatic...
The Syrian opposition is reporting the slaughter of at least 80 people by government troops in a town south of Damascus. Human Rights Watch has accused authorities in Myanmar of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Heavy fighting between the Nigerian military and the Boko Haram insurgents has cost almost 200 lives over the weekend. An Afghan girls' school may have been victim...
Our discussion of Kiobel has been fascinating, but it has been focused on the question of what exactly is left of the ATS in the future and what differences exist between the majority opinion and the various concurrences. In our contribution today to Forbes.com, John Yoo and I focus on Kiobel's significance in light of the history of ATS litigation. Building...
This week on Opinio Juris, it was hard to miss our insta-symposium on the Supreme Court's decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. Ken beat Julian to the punch to break the news and link to the opinions. The core part of Chief Justice Roberts' opinion for the Court, on the insufficiency of "mere corporate presence" to displace the presumption against extraterritoriality, can be found...
If you haven't been able to keep up with all of our posts on Wednesday's Kiobel decision, An has a great round-up post here. Don't forget that unsolicited submissions are still welcome for consideration. In other Kiobel news, ASIL has posted Curtis Bradley's Insight here (.pdf). A judge in the Guatemalan case against former president Efrain Rios Montt has suspended his genocide trial on procedural grounds. Following briefings on the bleak humanitarian...
