General

U.N. Special Rapporteurs Weigh in On Arizona Immigration Law; I’m Still Unimpressed

I'm sorry, but I still find the argument that the Arizona Immigration Law violates the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination deeply unpersuasive.  The fact that five U.N. special rapporteurs on human rights have weighed in here with the same analysis as Human Rights Watch doesn't convince me of much, other than that I am even less impressed...

Elena Kagan on International Law (Very Short Post)

It doesn't look like she's written anything even remotely related to international law (it is surprising how little she's written on anything, for an academic). On the now-standard question of what role IL should have in constitutional interpretation, we have this out-on-a-limb answer from her confirmation as Solicitor General: I do not believe that international law (assuming it has not been incorporated...

EJIL Talk! Dissects Ken Anderson’s “The Rise of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences”

I wanted to point our readers to a terrific discussion at EJIL Talk! on our own Ken Anderson's recent article "The Rise of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences".  Ken's article "offers a high-altitude, high-speed look at the effects of international criminal law on other parts of public international law and organizations."  EJIL Talk! has solicited two very interesting...

Buy that Woman a Motor-Home!

Not surprisingly, Ed Whelan breaks from the post and takes the lead in the most-ridiculous-criticism-of-Elena-Kagan derby, claiming that not learning to drive until her late 20s...

Upcoming Conference: “International Law and the Israeli-Arab Dispute”

Is there anything new or useful to say about "International Law and the Israeli-Arab Dispute"?  Well, a number of scholars (including Ken, Roger, and myself) will try to come up with something next Monday, May 17, during a conference at Northwestern University School of Law.  This is one of the few subjects intersecting international law where there is way too...

Here Comes Associate Justice Elena Kagan; Sorry, Judge Wood, There is Always the ICJ

It's a done deal:  President Obama will nominate U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow.  Kagan will be the first nominee for the Court since the 1970s who has no judicial experience, although I doubt this will be a problem for her (it may even be an asset).  As Kevin has already noted, Kagan will probably...

Russians Let Go of Pirates; Blame Flaws in International Law

Last week, Russia announced with some fanfare that it had captured several Somali pirates who had attacked a Russian-flagged vessel.  It had also announced that (like the U.S.), these pirates would be brought back to Russia for trial.  And then yesterday, Russia announced...

Ian Hurd Responds to Michael Glennon on ICC and Crime of Aggression

Ian Hurd, the distinguished scholar of international organizations (e.g., After Anarchy) at Northwestern University, has posted to SSRN a short response to an article much-discussed here at OJ, Michael Glennon, "The Blank Prose Crime of Aggression."  Professor Hurd's response is titled, "How Not to Argue Against the Crime of Aggression." It is not long, elegantly argued and usefully systematic, and...

Questions Concerning the White House Talking Points on Dean Kagan’s Hiring

As most people probably know, Duke's Guy-Uriel Charles wrote a devastating blog post criticizing the lack of diversity in Harvard Law School hiring while Elena Kagan was Dean.  (Short version: 28 of 29 were white, one was asian; 23 of the 29 were men.)  The White House has now pushed back against the post by releasing what strikes me as...

Lieberman “Terrorist Expatriation Act”- Constitutional But Meaningless

Joe Lieberman has just rolled out a bill (text here) which would strip individuals associated with foreign terrorist groups of their US citizenship. He's been playing this as if it were a minor statutory fix.  It's true, as he's been stressing, that current law terminates citizenship for "entering, or serving in, the armed forces of a foreign state if (a) ...

DeGirolami on Banning the Burqa

My colleague Marc DeGirolami has a guest post over at PrawfsBlawg reacting to an op-ed in today's New York Times by Jean-François Copé, the the majority leader of the French National Assembly, in which Copé defends banning the burqa and the niqab. While Marc sees that the argument that the burqa runs counter to Western culture "is not without considerable force"...

Gary Solis Discusses New Book at ASIL

Congratulations to Gary Solis from all of us here at OJ on his new book on the law of armed conflict, which he will discuss tomorrow in DC at ASIL headquarters.  Register online to be sure you have a seat; co-sponsored with the ICRC and ASIL's Lieber Society, and the ICRC's Jamie Williamson and the ASIL Lieber Society's Dick Jackson will be discussants.  I unfortunately can't make it on account of last week of classes, but it should be a great program.  Below the fold is the official invitation.  (Also, you should consider joining ASIL, and then the Lieber Society interest group within ASIL, which is the law of armed conflict special section.)