I just finished chatting with Lou Dobbs on his CNN radio show about the latest among those who still deny Obama's eligibility to be president. A major in the reserves has balked at being shipped out to Iraq on the theory that Obama is not the commander-in-chief and the war is therefore illegal under international law. Deniers (aka "birthers") also...
My current take on Sotomayor testimony is that there is an odd discontinuity between her public speeches and articles on the one hand, and her testimony yesterday, and, to some greater degree, her record as a judge on the other. One interesting example is that old chestnut: Should a U.S. judge use international or foreign law to interpret the...
My colleague at Pepperdine Law School, Robert Anderson, has just posted on SSRN a draft article, Distinguishing Judges: An Empirical Ranking of Judicial Quality in the U.S. Court of Appeals. According to the abstract: This article presents an empirical quality ranking of 383 federal appellate judges who served on the United States Court of Appeals between 1960 and 2008....
With nothing much else to work with, Collin Levy presses the international law angle on Sotomayor with this op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal. In a speech to the American Civil Liberties Union of Puerto Rico in April, Judge Sotomayor explained that "ideas have no boundaries," and that "international law and foreign law will be very important in the discussion...
I see that I'm quoted by Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane in their New York Times article today, "CIA Had Plan to Assassinate Qaeda Leaders" (July 13, 2009). I'm trying hard to maintain radio silence and not blog, in order to let my shoulder heal up, but let me say something briefly about this. First, I'm delighted, of course, that...
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...
