As a judge in the New York federal courts over the past 15 years, both at the district and appellate level, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has had a fair number of cases involving the application of international law. She has never ruled on an Alien Tort Statute case, but my very quick scan suggests that, whatever else her...
That's today, in Australia. It's meant as a sort of continuing apology to Aboriginal peoples in Australia specifically for the practice, lasting up until about 1970, of taking Aboriginal children from their families (known as the "stolen Generations"), but also for the general mistreatment. It's not a holiday but appears to be an official commemoration. My question: could Americans...
Hat tip: The Faculty Lounge As if they ever go right? Anyway, this was a publicity stunt by conservative talk show host Mancow Muller, but it seems to have gone wrong in an unexpected way...
Could anything be more contradictory than the lives of our soldiers? They love America, so they spend long years in foreign lands far from her shores. They revere freedom, so they sacrifice their own that we may be free. They defend our right to live as individuals, yet yield their individuality in that cause. Perhaps most paradoxically of all, they...
Hard to know what to respond to first given all the news this past week on the Guantanamo/detention front. My own week began with participating in the fascinating and useful meeting President Obama held with some human rights advocates and academics. Since then, I have been tempted to explore the politics of a debate that now find Jack...
The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation have put together a timely conference on Counterterrorism and the Obama Administration. It starts at 9:00 a.m. next Thursday, May 28 at the Capital Visitor Center in DC. I have a feeling it won't be entirely supportive of the Obama Administration policies, but at least it will benefit from the insights of Opinio Juris blogger...
Judge Thomas Buergenthal has recently published a memoir of his life as a child surviving Auschwitz. The book was originally published in German (where it was a bestseller) and is now out in English. The book, A Lucky Child, is absolutely wonderful and inspiring. He describes in wonderful detail his slow, painful descent into the hell of...
Eugene Kontorovich, well known to OJ readers for his work on piracy and universal jurisdiction (both separately and together), has a very interesting post partly responding to discussion here at OJ on universal jurisdiction and proposed legislation on Spain on universal jurisdiction. It is up over at Prawfsblawg and is a fun, quick read. Also, here is Eric Posner's comment,...
I just wanted to pass along something I had found recently: Newseum has an interactive map that allows you to see that day's front pages from various papers from around the world. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, you can't enlarge the pages (although you can zoom-in on the map), so by-and-large only the headlines are readable. Nonetheless, this does allow you...
Now that she has the Jeff Rosen seal of approval, the safe money is on Diane Wood to fill David Souter's seat on the Supreme Court. Most of us IL types will know that Judge Wood has some strong interests in the area (she has been on the board of editors of the AJIL), but in my case at least it's...
Details here. Assuming that we're talking foot soldiers, this seems a pretty thin argument for keeping the rest under wraps, even through a cost-benefit/national interests optic. The equation: How much does keeping Gitmo up and running hurt US interests v. how much damage can released detainees cause if they return to the battlefield. I'm betting that for all but the very few high-level detainees,...
A while back, a commentator (aptly named Irritated) complained about my use of acronyms in a post on treaty priorities of the Obama Administration. I understand the frustration of the uninitiated. That said, the reality is a facility with acronyms appears to have become part of the job description for international lawyers. I have no idea when or how this phenomenon...
