Thanks to Opinio Juris for hosting this discussion and to the editors of the Virginia Journal of International Law for their discerning taste in publishing such an excellent article. Duncan Hollis (who has published widely both on the international aspects of treaties and on their domestic significance, and so is expertly situated to address this question) and Joshua Newcomer (already publishing...
In the comments section of an earlier post, GW lawprof Edward Swaine raises a really good point in defense of Koh's CEDAW testimony. Since I highlighted Whelan's very tough post, it is worth highlighting Swaine's very good point in defense (I am paraphrasing, but this is the gist): In the context of a committee hearing where other folks, including Senator Boxer,...
My boss, Dean Ken Starr, has just published this letter expressing warm and hearty support for Harold Koh's nomination to be the State Department Legal Advisor. Here is an excerpt: Harold's background is, of course, the very essence of the American dream. That great story needs no repetition. What I can speak to more personally is Harold Koh...
“That the Obama DOJ has repeatedly embraced the very legal theories responsible for much of the intense progressive rage towards the Bush/Cheney regime is now beyond dispute.” So writes Glenn Greenwald on his Salon blog this week entitled “An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses.” I take it Glenn’s blog is much read by the “legal left”...
Ed Whelan's latest post on Koh's nomination to be Legal Advisor lands a sharp and potentially serious blow. Reviewing Koh's writings and his testimony to the Senate in favor of Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Whelan argues that Koh's testimony deliberately omitted discussion of important interpretations of CEDAW by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: The...
There has been tons of commentary on the pirate thing now, so there is little more to add. Except that there is a brewing debate about where to try the remaining captured Somali pirate. In theory, the pirate could be tried before a military commission, if Obama wished, but I somehow doubt that his going to happen (although if he...
My professor in the Literature Program at Duke University, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, has passed away. Eve was one of the pioneering figures in queer theory. From Duke University Press's announcement: Duke University Press mourns the loss of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. We have been proud to publish six of Sedgwick’s books. The first, Tendencies (1992) is...
Pope Benedict XVI's Easter homily included this message of hope and reconciliation: If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of...
Stuart Taylor, the eminent legal affairs columnist for National Journal, writes this week on the vexed issue of the detainee cases. This sentence in particular caught my eye: So clogged with detainee cases are the federal courts in D.C. that they may not have time to conduct any ordinary civil trials this spring or summer. Stuart is a very diligent journalist, so...
A big case from the U.S. District Court here in New York came down this week, and I was spending my time reading blog posts on Harold Koh. Where are my priorities? In an important test of the scope of the Alien Tort Statute's application to multinational corporations, Judge Shira Scheindlin has finally ruled on the defendant corporations' motion to...
I have tried to stay quiet in the ongoing “Koh Wars” in the blogosphere, where Ed Whelan seems to be taking on the entire legal academic blogosphere himself and getting in a bad mood about it. I am also conflicted. I am a former student of Professor Koh and I have always admired his energy, passion, and his willingness to...
[ Laura Dickinson is Foundation Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University.] Recent attempts to criticize Harold Hongju Koh’s appointment to be the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State have gone from silly to absurd. Koh, currently the Dean and the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor at Yale Law School, is one...
