General

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.)

New International Organizations Blog: Eye on IOs

Professor David Bosco has started a new blog focusing on international organizations, "Eye on IOs." I like his subtitle -- "A blog on the progress and pitfalls of international organizations."  It reminds me of a chapter I wrote addressing "progress and paradox" in international security cooperation. (It is nice to have company as a moderate on questions of international institution...

Foreign Law and the SCOTUS Front Door

My Volokh Co-Conspirator John Elwood notes the reference to foreign courts, if not precisely law, in Justice Breyer's comment on closing the SCOTUS main front door to visitors....

Australia to join the COE Cybercrime Convention

Australia's government has announced that Australia will accede to the COE Cybercrime Convention (and not, as many are reporting that it will merely "sign" the Convention, which, I suppose, reflects the media's continued inability or unwillingness to sort out the basic issues of treaty formation).   With Australian accession, the COE Cybercrime Convention will have 27 states parties.  It remains the only cyber-specific multilateral treaty out there.  And...

Obama Makes a Funny (But Somewhat Creepy) Joke About Targeted Killings

At last night's White House Correspondents Dinner, President Obama cracked a funny joke about his administration's use of Predator Drones for targeted killings.  From the Politico: — "The Jonas Brothers are here! ...

Does the Arizona Immigration Law Violate the International Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination?

Yes, says Human Rights Watch in this press release.   According to HRW, the new (and hotly controversial Arizona law) is in conflict  with ICERD.  I am troubled by the AZ law and think it is likely preempted by other federal law, but I am baffled as to how the AZ law could be a clear violation (or even any...

Lite Blogging

I've been lite blogging and will be for a bit longer, due to travel and some deadline pressures.  I will try to get something up about the latest drone hearing in Congress, the ACLU's letter, and that stuff.  Let us not neglect the EU debt crisis, either.  Kudos to Northwestern University law school's Searle Center, for the conference I am...

Sorting Through the New Mil Coms Manual

Still catching up on yesterday’s news that DOD released the much-anticipated 2010 edition of the Manual for Military Commissions (MMC). The Manual is here. Among its many provisions of interest (I’m still skimming) are the rules set forth for prosecutions for the commission crime of material support for terrorism – a crime I and others have argued does not...