If you read one article about the recently released February 2007 ICRC report on U.S. use of torture, read this one by Mark Danner in the current issue of the NY Review of Books. Danner correctly points out that, at least since 2004, the broad contours of the practice of torture by the U.S. government have been publicly known. But...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a "word cloud" Image from Wordle....
Read all about today’s blockbuster decision in which a U.S. federal district court held, in light of Boumediene, that detainees held at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have a constitutional right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. courts. A longer description and link to the 53-page opinion are here. Key caveat:...
Back in February, I noted that the ASIL Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court had adopted a set of recommendations for how the Obama Administration could take steps to engage with the ICC in new, more positive ways than the preceding Bush Administration. As part of the ASIL Conference last week, the Task Force released a...
On Monday, the Eleventh Circuit rendered an interesting opinion in the case of King v. Cessna Aircraft on the subject of forum non conveniens and the rights foreign plaintiffs under bilateral treaties. The case arose out of wrongful death actions by American and European plaintiffs against Cessna Aircraft arising from a plane crash in Italy. The district court...
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="420" caption="Bonn Negotiations Get Underway"][/caption] The climate change “negotiations” resumed this week in Bonn. I put “negotiations” in quotes (or as they say here in England, “inverted commas”) because there has been little negotiating over the past 18 months since the Bali Action Plan was adopted. (The UNFCCC web site characterizes the sessions this week as “talks”.) Indeed,...
As usual, I’m likely last online to note the now-official news of Harold Koh’s nomination to be Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State. For what it’s worth, we’d seen it coming. If the Senate has any sense, the nomination will sail through. I can’t imagine a candidate more qualified. Congratulations Dean Koh! And now back...
I have received a number of emails from regulars complaining that their comments are being moderated. They are, but not on the basis of their content. Our comment system automatically flags any comment that contains a hyperlink, because spam comments always contain them. We then have to manually approve the non-spam comments, which we try to do as soon as...
Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome back Professor Dan Bodansky as a guest blogger with us over the next two weeks. Dan is currently a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, and his home institution is the University of Georgia Law School where he is the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Woodruff Professor of...
I just can't resist: There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: "The Lord of the Rings" and "Atlas Shrugged." One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. Courtesy of...
The Administration’s filing last week of a brief outlining its big-picture view of which Guantanamo detainees may be lawfully detained has sparked a vigorous – and I think productive – debate among international legal experts, human rights lawyers, and listserv participants on and off the blogosphere. So let me take the occasion to throw out a few recent articles/resources relevant...
Duke Law School's Program in Public Law recently started a new blog, Executive Watch. According to the Duke Press release, it will feature "news stories and commentary about executive-branch actions, including executive orders, presidential memos, and signing statements." The blog may be of interest to our readers as, in addition to issues of domestic authority, it will address perennial topics in U.S. foreign...
