In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

12 Aug

Via FuturePundit, who observes that this is really much more broadly about lie detection, note this press release from Northwestern University: For the first time, the Northwestern researchers used the P300 testing in a mock terrorism scenario in which the subjects are planning, rather than perpetrating, a crime. The P300 brain waves were measured by electrodes attached to the scalp of...

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11 Aug

[caption id="attachment_13091" align="alignright" width="144" caption="State Seal of South Korea"][/caption] Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the Korea-Japan Annexation treaty, a Korean scholar has new evidence that the treaty was never properly ratified by the Korean king. Hence, according to the scholar, the 1910 annexation treaty was never legal and Japan's annexation of Korea was illegal (or at least not authorized...

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03 Aug

Adam Serwer has a post up flagging a new suit by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) against the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over funds expended over the question of whether the Obama administration can designate and then target Al-Awlaki as a terrorist hiding out presumably in Yemen.  (Adam tried to contact me to...

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02 Aug

Sorry for the light posting of late - the Anderson family is currently in the Sierra Nevada, the eastern side out of Bishop, California, on God's own highway, the Empty Quarter of Highway 395, which runs north-south from southern California all the way up the eastern Sierra and beyond.  It is both the most beautiful and most varied countryside you...

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29 Jul

I've got some bigger picture thoughts (cautionary, from an alien rights perspective) over at the NY Times Room for Debate.  As for Judge Bolton's reasoning in her order invalidating key provisions of the law, it is striking how much work Hines v. Davidowitz (1941) does as the centerpiece precedent. In some ways it's a good fit.  Hines also involved a...

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24 Jul

The US Naval War College international law conference, held in June in Newport, Rhode Island, is now online in video format.  It was a terrific discussion, with great panels and discussants, and I counted it as a privilege to be there.  One reason the video for this conference is so interesting, however, is that the audience - and this year...

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24 Jul

Dave Hoffman has a post today at Concurring Opinions reporting the results of an empirical study of how often law reviews have cited various blogs.  According to the study, blogs have been cited 5460 times since 2006, with the following blogs representing the top-10 in terms of citations: FindLaw's Writ -- 618 citations Volokh Conspiracy -- 402 SCOTUSBlog -- 305 Balkinization -- 259 Patently-O --...

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22 Jul

According to the Associated Press: The United Nations' highest court says Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia did not break international law. The nonbinding opinion sets the stage for a renewed push by Kosovo for further international recognition of its independence. Reading the opinion Thursday, International Court of Justice President Hisashi Owada said international law contains no "prohibition on declarations of independence." ...

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21 Jul

CIA director Leon Panetta has named a new National Clandestine Service chief, reports Peter Finn in the Washington Post today.  The new chief, John Bennett, has been serving as station chief in Pakistan, overseeing in particular the expansion of the drone campaign carried out by the CIA there.  One can safely take that as further evidence that the Obama administration...

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19 Jul

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld this week the conviction of "Chuckie Taylor" for violating the U.S. Anti-Torture Act, which implements U.S. obligations under the Convention Against Torture. Taylor is the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, currently on trial himself in the Sierra Leone Special Court. The opinion is a good and important one...

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