In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

25 Apr

Transcript of today's argument before the Supreme Court here.  Not a lot of fireworks.  The key takeaway: the Court (including some on the left) didn't seem to have much problem with section 2 of the Arizona law, which requires law enforcement to undertake immigrant status determinations in the course of stops or arrests where there is reasonable suspicion that a person...

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25 Apr

US authorities have arrested the first suspect in the BP oil spill case for allegedly destroying evidence linked to the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Pakistan has successfully tested a nuclear-capable intermediate range ballistic missile, approximately a week after India did the same. The International Criminal Court is closely monitoring the situation in Mali, following the surge in violence since January. While...

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25 Apr

I couldn't resist posting this rather scary video of a girl swallowed by a sidewalk sinkhole in Xi'an China. Sure, this doesn't mean China won't be a key and influential power in world affairs.  But it does remind us that China is not exactly the inevitable global juggernaut it is sometimes portrayed as.  This is actually not the first time...

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24 Apr

My earlier post on executive power generated some good, thoughtful comments. I wanted to highlight Charlie Savage’s in particular (he’s the author of the New York Times article I’d mentioned, please see his comment in the section below), and take a moment to offer a few thoughts in response. Charlie’s concerns are basically twofold. The first is that I’m...

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24 Apr

Charlie Savage’s odd article in yesterday’s New York Times prompted another exchange in the ongoing conversation about whether the Obama Administration’s assertions of executive power can be meaningfully distinguished from those of George W. Bush. Savage’s article is headlined in such a way, and otherwise seems to suggest that Obama’s recent reliance on executive orders to accomplish various policy changes...

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24 Apr

South Sudan has recognized a market bombing allegedly carried out by Sudan as an "act of war."  Meanwhile, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir has ruled out peace talks that have been urged by the UN with its neigbor to the south, with plans to only recognize the language of "guns and bullets" instead. The ECHR Blog has a roundup of the outcomes from last weekend's Brighton Conference on...

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23 Apr

Our own Peter Spiro has penned an op-ed in the NY Times about the upcoming arguments at the Supreme Court about Arizona's controversial immigration bill, SB-1070. Peter has posted on OJ about it here. Territorial disputes between China and Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei may escalate based on Chinese development firms jockeying for position in the disputed islands. Despite tensions, China has lauded...

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23 Apr

Last week, the good folks at the American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society hosted a book roundtable on Taming Globalization.  In addition to John Yoo and myself, we were joined in a very lively discussion by Prof. Martin Flaherty of Fordham and Prof. Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason (with Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post as moderator).  While John...

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22 Apr

One of the most popular arguments made against the Second Circuit's interpretation of the Alien Tort Statute in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell is essentially a policy argument: How could it be possible for Congress to have intended to allow corporations to immune from claims of serious international law violations while at the same time allowing individuals to be liable?   This...

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22 Apr

This is our third installment of this new feature, last week's announcements can be found here. If you are organizing a conference or other event and would like to see the call for papers or the program announced on Opinio Juris please contact us. Calls for Papers The Helsinki Summer Seminar on International Law is planned for August 21-30, 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. The theme...

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