So far in opening statements from Sotomayor confirmation hearings, we have John Cornyn and Tom Coburn condemning the use of foreign law in constitutional interpretation. You can be sure that they will follow up in colloquys -- in Cornyn's, possibly his first. (Michael Chertoff made it one of his suggested questions on the Times op-ed page this morning;...
Amos Guiora has a new essay at Jurist about judicial review and decision-making in the executive branch. It begins: Judicial review is judicial review. It is all or nothing. Sitting as the High Court of Justice, the Israeli Supreme Court proved that once again this week. The facts of Ashraf Abu Rahma vs. The Judge Advocate General (HCJ7195/08) are simple: the Israel...
Lest anyone think last week’s pair of hearings were Congress’ last word on the question of military commission trials, the House Armed Services Committee has already scheduled it own hearing on reforming the Military Commissions Act. The July 16 witness list features the head lawyer from each of the armed services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines). Also, in keeping...
I thank Kevin for his extensive and thoughtful response to my post. You touched on many issues which I hope to address systematically in subsequent posts, such as the illegality of the settlers presence. I'm going to try to avoid getting into those issues right now, since this post (like yours before it) is already quite long. I apologize in...
[Cross-posted at Balkinization] While Congress has held two lengthy hearings this week ostensibly on the use of military commissions to try detainees for war crimes, the only item that seems to be getting any significant play is this statement by Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson regarding the administration’s view on its authority to hold detainees even if they are ultimately acquitted...
[Rene Uruena is Assistant Profesor and Director of the international law program at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. He is also a Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research, University of Helsinki.] Last year, Colombian armed forces bombed a guerrilla camp a couple of miles into Ecuadorian territory. After some diplomatic tension at the OAS, everyone made...
I would like to thank the Opinio Jurists for having me on board for this short blogging stint. I've previously written here about piracy and universal jurisdiction. There is something about the vestigial romance of piracy that makes people enjoy talking about it. It is a fun topic. This time around I'll be writing more about a topic that people certainly...
As Ken notes below in his birthday greetings, Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome back Professor Eugene Kontorovich, of Northwestern University Law School, as a guest blogger for the next week. Professor Kontorovich has done a lot of writing and thinking about legal and policy responses to piracy as well as a range of other private and public international law...
all of us here at OJ wish you a happy birthday! We're looking forward to reading your posts here, but hope you have a lovely birthday....
In the flower of his conversion, McNamara ended up supporting US participation in the ICC: I believe that the human race desperately needs an agreed-upon system of jurisprudence that tells us what conduct by political and military leaders is right and what is wrong, both in conflict within nations and in conflict across national borders. We need a clear code, internationally accepted,...
ABC reports that President Obama is considering the temporary use of executive agreements to create a news arms control treaty with Russia this winter. MOSCOW -- With the clock running out on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday said that the difficulty...
KJH has already remarked here at OJ on the contempt trial in the ICTY of Florence Hartmann. Ruth Wedgwood (SAIS-JHU and also a fellow member of the Hoover Task Force on National Security and Law) offers an analysis at the American Interest online and, like Kevin, thinks this an unfortunate move by the tribunal....
